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Protect Yourself!


2007-03-20 11:00:05
By: Gene Bromberg

After you log-in to UltimateBet you're greeted by a message in the lobby. The message reads like this:

IMPORTANT NOTE - PLAY IT SAFE
  • NEVER give out your password. Our staff never requires your password to provide service
  • Use a password with variations of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters
  • UB pros do not ask for money or sell TEC's
  • Be wary of opening attachments!
  • Invest in a good firewall for your computer!
It's important that you think about security with all your electronic transactions, and this lesson was driven home recently when the account of 2004 World Champion Greg Raymer was hacked (at a different site, I hasten to add). Raymer himself explained what happened in a post to the 2+2 message board:

It appears that this ikeyrson bastard managed to guess my password after making multiple attempts. He then played like an idiot as you are all aware, blatantly dumping chips from my account to his account.

Raymer got lucky--because he's famous a few folks decided to watch him play some hands and noticed that something was amiss. How did they figure it out? Well, it didn't take the poker version of Sherlock Holmes to deduce something was wrong. Raymer was "playing" in a $2,000 Heads-Up match, and here are a couple of the hands involved:

FossilMan: calls 10
Ikeyrson: raises 1380 to 1400
FossilMan: calls 1380
*** FLOP *** [8h 7d Th]
Ikeyrson: checks
FossilMan: folds
Ikeyrson collected 2800 from pot
Ikeyrson: doesn't show hand

Ah, the ol' "Check--Fold" play! You don't see that much these days! And then there's this hand:

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Ikeyrson: calls 10
FossilMan: checks
*** FLOP *** [2d Ac Kc]
FossilMan: checks
Ikeyrson: checks
*** TURN *** [2d Ac Kc] [2c]
FossilMan: checks
Ikeyrson: checks
*** RIVER *** [2d Ac Kc 2c] [6c]
FossilMan: checks
Ikeyrson: bets 2880 and is all-in
FossilMan: calls 80 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Ikeyrson: shows [Ad 9c] (a flush, Ace high)
FossilMan: shows [3h 9s] (a pair of Deuces)

Pretty subtle.

So it's very important that you take the steps required to protect your account. Don't use your daughter's name as your password. Don't use your birthday. Use a combination of letters and digits and mix it up with upper- and lower-case letters. If you get an email asking for your password, ANY kind of password, look upon it with suspicion. You don't have to be paranoid--you just have to be careful.


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