What started as a collection of threads making arguments against the legitimacy of play at the small online poker room Pitbull Poker has grown into a firestorm of allegations over illegal activities. On most of the major online poker forums, there are threads spanning dozens of pages accusing Pitbull Poker of a plethora of security issues. Some of the posts are wild speculation, but there also appear to be serious accusations made about the site’s security, superuser accounts, and more.
Pitbull Poker is part of the Flash Poker Network, which is based in Costa Rica with servers hosted in Panama City, according to PokerScout.com. The site is ranked 21st in the world in terms of real money ring game traffic and usually has a 24-hour peak of around 65 players at cash tables. There is no software to download, as the poker room has been built using Adobe Flash web technology.
One of the major allegations goes back to December of 2008 for “stack shaving,” where money in a player’s stack would simply disappear between hands. According to several posts, players reported that the range of money that would vanish was between $0.02 and $25. A posted reply from Network Manager Dave Brenes of Pitbull Gaming appears to admit that this error took place and that players would be reimbursed.
The harshest of the posted allegations came from players claiming they have faced superusers. A superuser is an account that has the ability to see everyone’s cards at the table. The allegations outline instances of opponents making call-downs with perfect accuracy and check-folding whenever the hero in the hand flops well. Dozens of examples have been posted.
Brenes has agreed to an interview with Poker News Daily that will run later this week. He responded in detail on the TwoPlusTwo forums to the main controversial threads. The players’ dissatisfaction comes from their desire to receive hand histories in a useable text format. This would allow the players to convert them into a format that can be imported into Hold’em Manager or PokerTracker 3 so the community at large can analyze the hands. This was the same method used to expose the superuser account controversies at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker a few years ago.
Unfortunately for the poker community, Pitbull Poker stated that it would not release any hand histories beyond the format currently provided. The hand history system is based on a tab from within the Flash-based poker room software. Once a user clicks on a link to a hand, it loads in a graphical format. Many users have stated that this reporting system for looking over hand histories is slow and even unstable, as many searches time out and are reset.
More allegations came in the form of holes in the software that apparently expose cards during a hand. Although the poster in the forums making the majority of allegations edited his e-mail, he stated that one of his associates was able to see someone else’s cards during a hand.
Many on TwoPlusTwo called for the group that felt cheated to organize and make more rational arguments rather than provide vague examples of their misfortunes. The debate rages on whether those making the allegations have any tangible proof or if the site should produce hand histories in a readable format for the community to analyze.
In the last few days, the staff at Pitbull Poker has continued to field complaints and tried to work towards a mutually beneficial conclusion. During the course of the investigation conducted by the general public in recent days, allegations that hole card data was unencrypted were made.
Brenes has stated that readable hand histories are coming. These hand histories are expected to shed light on potential irregularities and finally settle the rumors. Poker News Daily is following this story closely and will be bringing an exclusive interview with Brenes later this week to discuss the allegations.
Pitbull has ALWAYS been an unstable poker platform, constantly timing out. I wrote it off early this year 2009. Now it is on my “Stuff Happens” List.
I remember in Feb 2009 they were running daily $1000 Guaranteed (or Added) for $25, and someone pointed out that the same dude was always in the final table on those tourneys. Perhaps he was the superuser? (This is something I heard at the chat table, so I don’t know who it is or remember who said it)
Can you ask him why his site claimed to be licensed in the UK when Dimensus Ltd have never held a UK gaming license. Can you ask him why his site claimes encryption when hole card data is sent unencrypted. Can you ask him why we should trust anything else they have to say given that these two fundamental claims are innaccurate.
the reason the same people are at the final table is it is a vewry small site
normaly no more then 2 tables for the tournies
with rebuys anybody can make the final table
but there is some serious problems with this site
i play regularly there and some of the play is very suspicious
hey, its true that the platform is pretty shaky, but i think they are legit. i won the $1000 gauranteed rebuy (actually did a deal and chopped heads up) and also won a couple of the $200 gaurantees last year. there were strange plays, but there were truly donkish players too, who would call down with anything, and usually pay you off. the same people played in the mtts day after day, and it was v easy to final table, given that there would usually be only 20-30 players max, most of whom were beginners. i didnt see anything particularly suspicious, but i really wasnt looking for any cheats, worst i remember was the lagtime occasionaly meaning your hands would be folded. I have read the thread on 2p2, some is well researched argument, and a lot of it is just the usual nonsense you get in that forum. the big problem that won’t go away is that pitbull wont supply hand histories (even in its own preferred format) to the complainants, so there is no evidence. and so they are presumed to be guilty by many.
The worst thing about the site is that every so often, you cannot see your own hole cards (i wonder if the super users CAN in those situations). Pitbull has known about this problem for years, and still has not fixed it.
Stay away from this scam of a site.
I am actually one of quite a few users have pitbull owes money to. I actually made 590.00 there and I cashed out, but it has been 6 months later and nearly a dozen emails and still nothing. The last email I got from them said that I would need to make another deposit since I had no money in my account. ??? I mean seriously WTF!!!
I warned about this site when they were brand spanking new. All one has to do is look at what the owners had their fingers in previous to poker and you would understand. I’m honestly surprised they lasted this long. When they first started up, they gave you free 10 bucks to play around with, which drew (of course) many players. However, after winning x dollars in there, I wasn’t allowed to withdraw, for not having earned enough points at the ring games. Fair enough then, I then deposited, won some more, THEN tried pulling out my original deposit. They STILL wouldn’t allow it, because I hadn’t enough points at the ring games. Well maybe I don’t WANT to play ring games, ever consider that? I wrote support and told them, “listen, take back your free 10 bucks you gave me and let me have the monies that I DEPOSITED. Nope, they wouldn’t do it. Only site I’ve ever played on that won’t let you have money back that you deposited. They are scum of the highest order. Look into their history pre-poker you will see it’s nothing out of the ordinary.
Hello, I too am concerned, because Pitbull Casino owes me 3 cashouts, so I hope when Dave Brenes comes in for the interview someone will ask him if they plan to pay Pitbull casino and poker players, I’d hate to lose my winnings.
A third party card management solution is the only way to combat such fraud instances. Products like DealGuardian are the only way to stop players from getting cheated by super user accounts. The card rooms are not going to use these products willingly, so as players we need to start forcing the issue.
nother player at the table remarked about the same thing happening to him. Still , i had a hard time believing they would do that on purpose. As for the same people winning the $1000 Guaranteed, I won money there but saw the same guy finish in the money every night. He won most of the time. Trying hard to remmember his name but can’t. And now this…casino suspended..no acess to the poker room. Not accecpting e-mails. And they have my money. Not much..but it is mine and I want it.
RIP PitbullPoker. Gone 4 good!
good riddance to a DODGY site
i deposited 25$ in a pitbull account just to see how the site was i ended winning 600$ that week ididn’t like the site so i tried to withdraw my money then the next day i get an email saying my account was closed with no reason so i emailed who i was supposed to and they said i had more then one account which i didn’t they wanted me to send a copy of my dl so i did then they told me that they couldn’t read the info i looked at the pic it was fine this went on for weeks i finally gave up they wouldn’t give me a number to call i tried contacting their parent company and still got nothing im glad they are shut down i hope the superusers and everyone that worked at that companies dies a painful death they should be hung in the street of vegas
I played Pitbull poker since I was 13. And kicked everyones &*@! I played alot of free rolls and always made it to the final table. There was always a guy that you said is a superuser. I especially new it when I got to the final 2 and he some how got everything right even when he had crap hands and I had great hands and the betting was like he new what was going to come out and thats how he bet to try to trap me. I have probable made it to 50 final tables and never won. Now I know i’m not crazy and there was always a superuser. I am glad they shutdown Pitbull poker because most likely when I turn 18 I would put money in and lose because of security errors and such and superusers.
I fell so bad for Kenlaw. I would be so pissed i’d hunt them down and kill them.