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Tournament Name: PokerNews Cup Alpine

Poker Room: UltimateBet.com

Time and Date: 6th March 2009, 18:35 GMT

Prize Pool: $8500

Password: Not needed

Requirements: In order to be able to play in this restricted freeroll you will need to click this link and create an account at UltimateBet Poker. Once you have created your account you need to play 250 raked hands before the 3rd of March 23:59 EST. When you have reached the 250 rakied hands you will be able to register for the freeroll manually in the tournament lobby at UltimateBet.

Kindly note that this freeroll is only open to players who create their account through this link. If you already have an account at UltimateBet you will not be able to participate in this freeroll.

The winner of the freeroll will receive a tournament package to the PokerNews Cup Alpine that is held in Austria. The remaining $200 will be spread out between the other top finishers in this tournament.

Tuesday the Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG released a statement acknowledging a software malfunction in their UltimateBet division of the Tokwiro Enterprises. During their released statement they explained the malfunction and the fix that has been swiftly put into place to correct the problem from future occurrences.

The malfunction occurred during a hand being played of $200/400 heads-up limit texas hold’em when the well-known player Phil Hellmuth was awarded the pot in error. Instead of the winner of the hand DOUBLEBALLER, to the amazement of fans watching the hand and the players. DOUBLEBALLER won the hand against Phil Hellmuth after Hellmuth tried bluffing with 10-2 and DOUBLEBALLER won by throwing trip queens.

An examination of the hand histories at UltimateBet, proved DOUBLEBALLER had won the hand which was paid to Hellmuth. The malfunction occurred when DOUBLEBALLER was disconnected from the server according to the UltiamteBet server. This disconnect caused his holdings to be cleared from the software at the exact second the pot was being decided and awarded. The software then assumed Hellmuth was the winner.

UltimateBet then paid the correct winner of the hand and after examining how the malfunction occurred began programming an extra level of software to secure the problem. When the fix was being put into place and tested a second flaw was discovered, which had paid out an extra 36 players incorrect payouts on the site. After seeing the results of these players’ hands the correct payouts were paid to the winning players and this flaw was fixed.

Tokwiro stated these malfunctions can no longer be reproduced with the UltimateBet software. This has been tested extensively and is no longer an issue where the incorrect player will be credited, including players being disconnected and any other scenario that might cause a malfunction ending in the wrong player winning the pot.

The investigation into this malfunction is continuing according to Tokwiro, they plan to conduct an extensive investigation to ensure there have been no other incidences in the hand histories where the payout has not been correct. They have also stated the investigation will continue until they are satisfied there have been no other occurrences such as the one in the hand mix up of Hellmuth and DOUBLEBALLER.

On a side note we have to mention that Absolute Poker is on the same network as UltimatBet so this glitch should now be fixed on their software as well.

For a long time there have been rumours about an episode on 60 Minutes about the cheating scandal at Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. This episode was first planned to be aired on the 26th of October but the news team at CBS decide to postpone it for a later date.

Now it has been decided that the episode will air on Sunday 30th of November 2008 and it will contain interviews with some really big names in the poker world like World Champion Greg Raymer and WPT legend and commentator Mike Sexton.

The episode will also show all the information available on about the cheating scandal that took place in 2008 at Absolute Poker and UltimateBet where people inside the company were using so called “superuser” accounts in order to see the other players hole cards and in this way take down some huge winnings.