GGPoker Scandal: When Your Opponent Can See Your Hole Cards 😂

philipabb

philipabb

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Is it true that someone allegedly used compromised poker software to spy on players' hole cards in the recent GGPoker scandal?

Imagine carefully planning a bluff, only to discover your opponent doesn't need to read your tells because they can see your cards! 😂

Forget poker face. Forget strategy. Your opponent has apparently unlocked the ultimate cheat code!

online poker is hard enough without someone looking at your cards before you've even decided what to do.
 
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Yes it is true. And it also happened on Coin Poker and ACR Poker. It was the same high stakes cash players, who got cheated on all three sites.
 
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fundiver199 said:
Yes it is true. And it also happened on Coin Poker and ACR Poker. It was the same high stakes cash players, who got cheated on all three sites.
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That’s really concerning, especially if the same players were affected across three different sites. It must have been a shocking discovery for everyone involved.
 
GGPoker can detect suspicious play through betting patterns and playing behavior, and players suspected of using prohibited GTO assistance can face penalties. But detecting someone who can actually see opponents’ hole cards seems like a much bigger challenge.
 
philipabb said:
That’s really concerning, especially if the same players were affected across three different sites. It must have been a shocking discovery for everyone involved.
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For sure. Its not surpricing, it happened on three different sites, since the spy software was installed in third party software, which players use across different sites. The only reason, it was not even more sites, probably has to do with, where the cheater(s) were allowed to play. If for instance the cheater(s) were from Russia, they could not play on PokerStars and therefore also not cheat anyone there.
philipabb said:
GGPoker can detect suspicious play through betting patterns and playing behavior, and players suspected of using prohibited GTO assistance can face penalties. But detecting someone who can actually see opponents’ hole cards seems like a much bigger challenge.
Click to expand...
GG Poker have actually taken steps to prevent something similar from happening again. You are not the first to share this news, so it might also be a good idea to look a bit in the forum before starting a new thread.
 
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Lesson to be learned here is don't download random software onto your computer which at the level these players were playing at they should have laptops or computers ONLY USED FOR POKER and NOTHING ELSE and they should have been way way smarter in the software they downloaded. But hey the majority of high stakes players aren't truly anymore smarter then the avg joe about many things. Common sense and having a brain prevents a lot of stupid and bad things from happening to you.

Cheers!!!
 
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hardongear said:
Lesson to be learned here is don't download random software onto your computer which at the level these players were playing at they should have laptops or computers ONLY USED FOR POKER and NOTHING ELSE and they should have been way way smarter in the software they downloaded.
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It was not "random software" but software specifically used for playing poker. Or more specifically to manage tables when multitabling. So having this software on a different laptop would make it useless. The fault mainly lie with the company making this software and apparently having lousy security. One can say, they were naive to trust the company. But its the first time in 25 years of online poker, that this has happened. So its a bit like 9/11 2001, where until then nobody had thought about the risk, that suicide terrorists might hijack a plane and use it as a weapon against targets on the ground.
 
fundiver199 said:
It was not "random software" but software specifically used for playing poker. Or more specifically to manage tables when multitabling. So having this software on a different laptop would make it useless. The fault mainly lie with the company making this software and apparently having lousy security.
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Yep that's exactly what it was and trusting some random developer of poker software wasn't very bright was it? Just like loaning money to worthless gambling degenerates is never very smart but yet players get scammed all the time doing it and never get paid. Supposedly very smart high stakes players do many very stupid things without checking things out or even giving things a second thought.

Cheers!!!
 
Also quite honestly the poker sites need to get their dam shit together too maybe other then Coin Poker who caught him first and I believe over a year ago when his win rate was at impossible numbers after 5000 hands at them stakes. NO ONE at them stakes wins 20bb/100 over a 5k sample size of hands. IT's funny how it's always mostly the players catching these cheaters rarely ever the site. A lot of sites have garbage security.......or more likely most sites don't give a f**k long as the rake money keeps rolling in.

After 5k hands with this 20bb/100 win rate his account should have been frozen and investigated as what he was doing is impossible at that level over 5k hands. Hell I've had pros says it's an impossible win rate after even 2k hands at that level.

Cheers!!!
 
hardongear said:
Yep that's exactly what it was and trusting some random developer of poker software wasn't very bright was it? Just like loaning money to worthless gambling degenerates is never very smart but yet players get scammed all the time doing it and never get paid. Supposedly very smart high stakes players do many very stupid things without checking things out or even giving things a second thought.
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Yes this is true. And just as 9/11 led to the secured cockpit door and stricter inspection of hand luggage carried onboard airplanes, this incidence will likely make people think more about, which poker software they really need. And hopefully software companies will also look at their security to prevent this from happening again.
hardongear said:
Also quite honestly the poker sites need to get their dam shit together too maybe other then Coin Poker who caught him first and I believe over a year ago
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This is true. But to be fair GG Poker have actually taken such steps recently as reported in another thread.
 
fundiver199 said:
Yes this is true. And just as 9/11 led to the secured cockpit door and stricter inspection of hand luggage carried onboard airplanes, this incidence will likely make people think more about, which poker software they really need. And hopefully software companies will also look at their security to prevent this from happening again.

This is true. But to be fair GG Poker have actually taken such steps recently as reported in another thread.
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Always after the horses are out of the barn and the players catch them first. Which shouldn't NOT ACCEPTABLE.....a poker site should be better and smarter then it's players. If you can't trust a site to have common sense and do the right thing before then specially in case like this where those win rates are impossible at that level after a even 2k-5k hands then one simply can NEVER trust them to do the right thing or get it right. Many examples of this with GG poker and others.

Seems only 2 poker sites have security worth a dam and they are Pokerstars and Coin Poker. The rest seemingly are just differing types of garbage as far as security goes.

Cheers!!!
 
@philipabb Yes it's true - and it's not just GGPoker.

It's the whole client-side hole card leak scandal that blew up this week. A compromised version of the poker assistant / tracker software was sending hole cards in real time. It hit CoinPoker first, then they found the same exploit on GG.

GGPoker already confirmed and banned the accounts involved and started refunding players. It's pretty much the same as the old UltimateBet / Absolute Poker superuser scandals but with modern malware.

Makes you paranoid to even run a HUD now.
 
koalapanda said:
@philipabb Yes it's true - and it's not just GGPoker.

Makes you paranoid to even run a HUD now.
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It really shouldn't unless it's a newer HUD on the market. Holdem Manager, Poker Tracker and a few others have been around for 20+ years now and there's never had a single issue with any of them in all that time. Quite honestly the HUD's that been around forever are seemingly safer, have better security and are better to trust then many poker sites them shelves.

With all that said at stakes many play at there's zero reason to worry at all as no one with the brains and know how to pull this stuff off is playing for $2, $5, $10 or likely even $25.

Fwiw I've used both Holdem Manager and Poker Tracker 4 and have for 20+ years now. But then when it comes to cash I don't play above 50nl. MTT's now I play and played anywhere from $5 up to $215 buy-ins. I also have a completely separate user account on my desktop only for poker that NOTHING else and NO ELSE ever gets or has access too.

Cheers!!!
 
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Godcat said:
Who needs GTO charts when you have remote desktop access? 😭
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or a tablet 😆😆

But It's good that they are banning Solver to run when you have GGPoker open,
Having solvers , live assistance during a tournament is completely ridiculous and is plain cheating
 
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fundiver199 said:
For sure. Its not surpricing, it happened on three different sites, since the spy software was installed in third party software, which players use across different sites. The only reason, it was not even more sites, probably has to do with, where the cheater(s) were allowed to play. If for instance the cheater(s) were from Russia, they could not play on PokerStars and therefore also not cheat anyone there.

GG Poker have actually taken steps to prevent something similar from happening again. You are not the first to share this news, so it might also be a good idea to look a bit in the forum before starting a new thread.
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Could you share the link to that thread? I haven't seen another thread specifically about the GGPoker hole-card scandal.
 
philipabb said:
Could you share the link to that thread? I haven't seen another thread specifically about the GGPoker hole-card scandal.
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This:

Brigistul

Thread 'The Super User Scandal'

Why not get an idea of what might be on your PC!
www.pokerstrategy.com

Super User scandal impacting third party poker tools - PokerStrategy.com

A cybersecurity professional has revealed a major superuser scandal targeting high-stakes online poker players.
www.pokerstrategy.com www.pokerstrategy.com
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And this:

Poker Orifice

Thread 'GGPoker Security Update!'

GGPoker has introduced 5 new security measures as of Oct.14th with probably the biggest being a ban on 'ALL' third-party poker software and automation tools.
So, if you're hoping to use PT4 while playing tourneys on ACR & Stars and also hoping to be playing some tourneys from GGPoker, you're going to have to decide because it's one or the other.

Here's a list of some of the prohibited tools:

  • Jurojin
  • PokerTracker 4
  • Hand2Note
  • Holdem Manager 3
  • StarsCaption
  • DriveHUD 2
  • Intuitive Tables
  • Lobbyze
  • Equilab
  • AutoHotkey
  • Other third-party poker software and...
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G0930 said:
But It's good that they are banning Solver to run when you have GGPoker open,
Click to expand...
This has always been banned by all sites since the invention of solvers a decade ago.
 
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If the allegations are true, that’s a serious breach of trust and a reminder that online poker depends on players believing the game is fair. But I’d wait for verified evidence before treating the claims as fact. The operator should investigate transparently, explain what happened, and show how player data and game integrity are protected. Until then, jokes aside, seeing your opponent’s hole cards would make every decision meaningless.
 
bremp555 said:
If the allegations are true, that’s a serious breach of trust and a reminder that online poker depends on players believing the game is fair. But I’d wait for verified evidence before treating the claims as fact. The operator should investigate transparently, explain what happened, and show how player data and game integrity are protected. Until then, jokes aside, seeing your opponent’s hole cards would make every decision meaningless.
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Dont think there is any dought, this happened. As I understand it, the compromised software has been identified, and the cheating player(s) banned from all 3 sites, where the cheating took place. This is not something entirely new. A danish pro Peter Jepsen was sentensed to 3 years in jail back in 2020, and he also had around $3 million confiscated. He had planted spyware on his opponents computers over a longer period of time from 2008-2014 breaking into hotel rooms and such. So the only new element here is, that the spyware came with infected commercially available software.
 
G0930 said:
or a tablet 😆😆

But It's good that they are banning Solver to run when you have GGPoker open,
Having solvers , live assistance during a tournament is completely ridiculous and is plain cheating
Click to expand...
Agreed. Playing against people using solvers in real-time is just ruin the fun.
 
fundiver199 said:
This:

Brigistul

Thread 'The Super User Scandal'

Why not get an idea of what might be on your PC!
www.pokerstrategy.com

Super User scandal impacting third party poker tools - PokerStrategy.com

A cybersecurity professional has revealed a major superuser scandal targeting high-stakes online poker players.
www.pokerstrategy.com www.pokerstrategy.com
  • Like

And this:

Poker Orifice

Thread 'GGPoker Security Update!'

GGPoker has introduced 5 new security measures as of Oct.14th with probably the biggest being a ban on 'ALL' third-party poker software and automation tools.
So, if you're hoping to use PT4 while playing tourneys on ACR & Stars and also hoping to be playing some tourneys from GGPoker, you're going to have to decide because it's one or the other.

Here's a list of some of the prohibited tools:

  • Jurojin
  • PokerTracker 4
  • Hand2Note
  • Holdem Manager 3
  • StarsCaption
  • DriveHUD 2
  • Intuitive Tables
  • Lobbyze
  • Equilab
  • AutoHotkey
  • Other third-party poker software and...
  • Like


This has always been banned by all sites since the invention of solvers a decade ago.
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing the links. I see the overlap, but neither thread specifically focuses on the hole-card aspect of the scandal or identifies which third-party tools were reportedly compromised to view players' cards. My post was focused on that specific detail.
 
philipabb said:
Thanks for sharing the links. I see the overlap, but neither thread specifically focuses on the hole-card aspect of the scandal or identifies which third-party tools were reportedly compromised to view players' cards. My post was focused on that specific detail.
Click to expand...
The first one do. But of course it require you to click the link and read and understand the article, which the post refer to.

"The tool allows whoever controls it to watch a player's screen live"

If you can watch a players screen live, then you will obviously know their hole cards. Thats the whole point. The answer to your other question is also there in the article or at least part of it:

"Since then, table management tool Intuitive Tables has confirmed they were one of the compromised tools."

www.pokerstrategy.com

Super User scandal impacting third party poker tools - PokerStrategy.com

A cybersecurity professional has revealed a major superuser scandal targeting high-stakes online poker players.
www.pokerstrategy.com www.pokerstrategy.com
 
If that's true, then there will probably be more incidents like this, unfortunately. Wherever there's big money involved, hackers will always find a vulnerability in the code or exploit malware that players might install themselves. It's similar to how people hack digital wallets.
 
hardongear said:
Lesson to be learned here is don't download random software onto your computer which at the level these players were playing at they should have laptops or computers ONLY USED FOR POKER and NOTHING ELSE and they should have been way way smarter in the software they downloaded. But hey the majority of high stakes players aren't truly anymore smarter then the avg joe about many things. Common sense and having a brain prevents a lot of stupid and bad things from happening to you.

Cheers!!!
Click to expand...
I haven't read through this thread 'yet' and probably should've... but
The software that was affected was one that is VERY COMMONLY used by MANY online poker players. Pretty much any of the players who are playing lots of tables are using one of the popular table management software programs. Jurojin just happens to probably be thee most popular one. I almost downloaded it over a year ago but didn't because I wasn't able to see how it would would be able to work in the manner I was looking for (I wanted to tile my tables, 6 or 12 to a screen AND stack them too (but only 2 tables in each stack. I didn't think this was possible there otherwise I would've downloaded it)
I've never met a pro today who is beating online poker, who isn't also an intelligent person.
 
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