This is a previous article written by Doug and is certainly of interest to the poker community:
Computer Hacked / Pokerstars Refund/ Joshua Tyler
The information that I am posting today is a presentation of facts followed by my concluding opinion. I will try not to make assumptions and inferences furthering my own agenda in the presentation of facts. The post contains three separate parts. Part one is about my experience on pokerstars. Part two is about my experiences with Joshua Tyler. Part three is my own conclusions and inferences on the matter. Part one and part two occur roughly over the same time period, the second part begins before the first part and ends after it.
Pokerstars Account Hacked, Refunded 35k
Last month, I arrived in Tokyo Japan. I was on what you could call a business trip, my goal was to play online poker and enjoy some of the local flavor. The following day I was excited to play poker, and immediately hit the streets trying to conjure up any action I could find. I had a match against Ike at 50/100, and was in the midst of a game against gomir at 200/400, when I got a fish from the UK at 5/10. While 5/10 is low for me, Ike was quitting and I only had one game going (albeit 200/400) so I decided to sit in.
This fish at 5/10 went on to turn his $650 into about 3.8k. He was opening 69%, and had a defend of something along the tune of 80%. He was min 3 betting, betting small a lot, overbet leading the flop 45%, and yet absolutely crushing my face in won hands %. I was winning only 45% of hands, despite him opening 69% of buttons.
At this point my opponent said zzz this is boring in the chat. I questioned as to why a player with zero play history at high stakes, whose primary game is $5 sngs would suddenly find his bankroll being on the line to be too boring. Afterall, i cannot remember the last time I had a recreational player tell me that this is too boring. With my attention still being on my higher stakes game, I asked him if he wanted to play 25/50, to which he obliged.
As my 200/400 game broke, I started to focus on the play of the opponent at hand. He started things off with a quick victory.
PokerStars Hand #96201951512: Hold'em No Limit ($25/$50 USD)
Table 'Landi VII' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: WCG|Rider ($5025 in chips)
Seat 2: Forbidden536 ($5439.50 in chips)
WCG|Rider: posts small blind $25
Forbidden536: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WCG|Rider [Tc 4c]
WCG|Rider: raises $100 to $150
Forbidden536: calls $100
*** FLOP *** [9h 5s Kc]
Forbidden536: bets $250
WCG|Rider: raises $550 to $800
Forbidden536: calls $550
*** TURN *** [9h 5s Kc] [Qc]
Forbidden536: checks
WCG|Rider: bets $1050
Forbidden536: calls $1050
*** RIVER *** [9h 5s Kc Qc] [Kd]
Forbidden536: checks
WCG|Rider: checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Forbidden536: shows [Jc 2h] (a pair of Kings)
WCG|Rider: mucks hand
Forbidden536 collected $3999.50 from pot
I began to get absolutely wrecked. He was leading 45%, min 3b and calling huge 4 bets with 83o, and then also c/r and c/f 28%. In 3 bet pots he raised every spot I didn't have it, and was c/f at an alarming frequency when i had the goods. I was beginning to get worried.
I'd like to take this moment to say I am not a $10 sng grinder or a small stakes tournament player. I am also not a bumhunter in the least, and I play up to some of the highest stakes online. I have never felt like I have been cheated at any point, never complained about how lucky my opponents must be to beat me. I am a hard worker and I believe that skill and intellect overcomes opposition. But at this point for the first time in my career, I began to feel like this was an unbeatable opponent. He then challenged me to 50/100.
We played a hand at 50/100 off the bat, where he again over bet led into me on AA7 and i had QJ. the turn was a king, and despite this being likely a situation where most players would slow down, my opponent again bet the pot or slightly more. The river was a ten, and for the first time in the match my opponent went into the tank, and then came out with a half pot bet that he folded to my shove. Maybe he bet to try to keep the dream alive, who knows. But what I do know is that over 300 hands of hunl my opponent made 1 incorrect call and it was at 5/10, with all hands at higher stakes being played for a raise or a call.
At this point I was just too worried about the integrity of my hole cards, and I sat out. Forbidden then left the tables, and didn’t sit any other reg.
I immediately emailed support, and they told me they were looking into it. I was now worried that with my computer compromised, I would have to be very careful who I played. The fish had won over 35k from me, starting from his $650 buyin. Over the course of that week, I had on two separate occasions had fish from the uk, with virtually no play history, sit me at 25/50. I sat out vs both. To one of their credits, he did sit a couple other players, however then left quickly afterwards. I knew I had to reformat my computer to carry on playing poker. Upon my computer reformat, and no longer having skype or facebook on this computer. These uk fish have stopped sitting me entirely. I wish i remember the second account, all i know is Forbidden536 and flexaccou.
Since that point, zero of these fish sat me. There was another fish that got me for 11k on ftp as well, by making several very liberal hero calls, which happened on the same day as the forbidden incident. I emailed full tilt as well and hoped they would follow up with me. They told me that in that case, no foul play was found.
Later on, I had just finished up an all night session at 100/200. After quitting, I immediately got a call from pokerstars. They told me that they wanted to inform me that they were looking into the matter. They told me that I shouldn't get my hopes up, as no foul play is found in the vast majority of cases. He did however tell me that they were talking as a team and working on the issue.
The following week, I got an update
“Hello Doug,
We are writing to you to keep you updated regarding our investigation into your recent play with account 'Forbidden536'.
As you may have noticed, we have frozen this account pending the resolution of our investigation. We are not in a position to officially confirm anything as yet, however, we can inform you that it does appear extremely likely that this player was able to see your hole cards during your recent playing session.
We note that you have reformatted your computer and no longer have skype or facebook on that machine. We believe these to be sensible precautions to take, but please do not hesitate to let us know if you encounter any future instances of suspicious behaviour.
We will contact you again regarding this matter when we have reached a final conclusion. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Kind Regards,
Jim
Senior Manager, PokerStars Game Integrity Team”
Soon after, I finally received some good news.
“Hello Doug,
This email is to inform you of a credit made to your account today in connection with your play against 'Forbidden536'.
We have determined that 'Forbidden536' violated the Terms of Service for using their PokerStars account during their play with you. We have reviewed the play with both player's hole cards exposed. We are sure beyond any reasonable doubt that 'Forbidden536' was able to see your hole cards whilst they were playing against you.
As we stated to you previously, we closed 'Forbidden536' whilst our investigation was ongoing. We can confirm that it will not be reopened at any time in the future. The funds in 'Forbidden536' at the time of closure was $34,397.10. We have transferred this amount to you this afternoon. We regret that this is not full compensation for the amount you lost ($34,827.40), however, we trust that this matter has now been concluded to your satisfaction.
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to let us know.
Kind Regards,
Jim
Senior Manager, PokerStars Game Integrity Team”
Pokerstars also wanted me to note the following should I post quoting their emails
“You are welcome to publish our email to you online if you wish. However, if you do so, could we please ask that you make it clear that your hole cards were *not* compromised as a result of a hole in PokerStars' security. We would like to avoid people misinterpreting the situation if possible!”
This concludes my interactions with stars and I have received a full refund for money that had been cheated from me. The issue that my hole cards were seen had been deemed a computer side error.
My interactions with Joshua Tyler
On January 27th, my friend Daniel Cates brought his UK friend Joshua Tyler over to my house to introduce him to me. He had told me previously that he was one of his good friends, and that he wanted me to meet him. He said he thought Joshua was a nice guy, and they had gone out together on several occasions. He had apparently played poker in the past, and now had moved onto something that was tech related. He seemed to be a nice guy overall, and we became somewhat friends.
Several weekends later, Josh asked if he could spend the weekend at my house on his trip to Vegas. I have always been welcoming for friends to stay with me, and said sure. I asked him why he was coming for the trip, he said that he had a meeting with someone one night and was planning on seeing friends for the rest of it. During his weekend at my house, I know that at least one night he did not spend the night, and I think he might not have spent either night. Regardless, he was there intermittently. I specifically remember one afternoon, I was about to head out to get lunch and I invited him to join me to get some food. He asked me to pick him something up and he would stay behind at the house. He would come and go, and often had times alone in my house. When we took him to the airport, I asked him about his meeting. He told me that it fell through and never happened.
The rest of my roommates also play online poker for a living. A few days after Joshua left, one of them lost something to the tune of 13 buyins to a 1 tabling fish, playing the same style. He told me that it was as if the guy could see his cards. Another one of my roommates lost 22 buyins over the same stretch to the same opponent, while beating everyone else on the site. Finally on March 9th, a third one of my roommates was beaten for 8k at 3/6 with them playing the exact same way. Lots of leading when they don't have it, etc. This fish played a very unique and recognizable style, and we started calling him “the fish”. We had dinner at a local restaurant following that final session, and we were unsure as a group what was to be done about the situation. Leaving dinner I didn't feel very worried, oftentimes players go on large downswings and being that I hadn't played poker in awhile, I hadn't seen anything suspicious yet myself.
During these losses, we were also undergoing some internet stability issues at my house. At times certain computers would go offline, while other roommates were online. I remember very specifically a point where all of my roommates and myself were disconnected, except one of my roommates who was getting crushed by this same style player that was beating everyone else. We had decided that we can't have unstable internet, and in the middle of march we changed out our router for a new one. To my knowledge we did not have any additional problems with this player at my house following this router change.
Joshua was in contact with me fairly continuously since his first visit. I told him that I was heading to Japan on the 25th, and asked if he could spent another weekend at my place. He said that he wanted to hang out before I left. I said that was fine. We agreed for him to stay at my place on the weekend of March 22-24th, and one of my roommates would pick him up from the airport.
Over the course of the weekend several bizarre situations occurred. The first was we spent very little time hanging out at all. We hung out perhaps one evening, but in general I did not see much of Josh. Although one day, I did see a lot of Josh, when I stepped out of my office into my bedroom, where he had helped himself to showering in my master shower. My house has multiple showers and I was in the area, I was confused why he would shower in the room in front of me. A couple hours later, we were all going to go out. He said that he would catch up later using one of my roommates cars. That night, we didn't meet up.
After I left, one of my roommates saw Josh go into my office. The office is only accessible if you walk through the master bedroom into a balconied hallway that leads to it; the office is the only room in this area. My laptop is stored in my office, and is my exclusive computer used for poker while traveling. I don't understand why Josh would be in my office to begin with, nor what happened while he was there.
That night he hit my roommates car while driving my other roommate's car out of the driveway. He told the other person in the vehicle not to tell my roommates. We are getting somewhat off the topic I understand, but i'm trying to highlight the character of whom I believe to be the perpetrator. At this point I confronted Joshua, and he made up a list of excuses as to why he didn't say anything. In the following weeks he paid the balance for the damage done to the vehicle. At this point I realized that he was a character that did not belong in my life, much less my home, and I decided that this would be his final stay.
Since this point I have done my best to distance myself from Joshua. He has called me once and has messaged me a few times as well to initiate a conversation regarding the issue, I have not responded as I am not sure which direction I wish to take.
Conclusion
The way that the timeline works, all of the issues that I and my roommates had were preluded by a trip from Joshua to my residence. He made his second trip to my house in mid february, and it was in late february/early march that we experienced issues. We changed the router in early/mid march, and he wanted to visit us after this but definitely before my trip to Japan. On his trips, minimal time was spent with me and my friends, and it always included alone time at my house in areas that he should not have been in.
There are a series of other facts that I find to be particularly notable. Joshua is from the UK, and all of the accounts on stars that tried to sit me are from the UK. I also know that Joshua works for some type of tech company, so he has at least a fairly advanced understanding of technology and the way computers work. There are also some rumors of alleged hackings taking place that he is involved in. After the incident I searched around a bit and found the following threads where Joshua is mentioned.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...ayers-1231581/
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...again-1205331/
Certainly none of these instances on their own prove that Joshua is a hacker. However, it is my opinion that given the timeline and factual evidence of what did occur, there is enough evidence to make Joshua one of the most likely suspects. In any case, I would advise the poker community to stay away from him. At best he has poor ethics and takes part in suspicious activity, and at worst he has the ability to hack high stakes players for significant amounts of money.
TLDR ;My holecards are compromised, Pokerstars issues me a full refund for lost funds. Prior to this Joshua Tyler was suspiciously around my computer, I believe he may be the hacker.
What irritates most about this article is why does Jungleman get away with this? He introduced Josh Tyler to Doug and yet he has nothing to say about it all? This seems all too familiar to Phil Hellmuth not saying a word when the Ultimate Bet scandal came out but I think it's time that the poker community forced these 'high stake' names to speak out!
