Another online poker scandal is taking shape. Allegations were made in October regarding the winner of FullTilt Poker’s 1Million Guarantee tournament. It was believed at that time that BluffMagCV handed the winning account to a different player as the stakes grew and the tournament end was in sight. In 2plus2 poker forum, there has been a claim that FullTilt Poker has confirmed the rumors as true.

FullTilt Poker Player, Chris Vaughn also competes on PokerStars as ‘SlippyJacks’. He made headlines one week after the win at FullTilt, when he won the PokerStars Sunday Millions. The unlikely success of this previously competitive but not high stakes winning player, raised many eyebrows. This began an internal investigation regarding the ‘BluffMagCV’ account at Full Tilt. Until now the investigative process was still ongoing.
    
In the 2plus2 thread, about the 1Million Guarantee scandal, Soren Kongsgaard or some one claiming to be him, posted a segment of an email he declared was received from the support group at FullTilt Poker:

Upon conclusion of a lengthy investigation into the $500 + $35, “$1Million Guarantee” tournament held on October 21st, we have determined that you were among the victims of one player using more than one Full Tilt account in the tournament. Late into the tournament, a player who had already been eliminated took over the account of a player who was still in, which is against our tournament rules.

If this follow up post is correct the second place winner, Soren Kongsgaard, will likely be awarded the pot and title. Another major online poker room recently faced the choice in front of FullTilt Poker about withdrawing the winners earning due to the violation. During the World Championship of Online Poker, the Main Event came under scrutiny. PokerStars began and completed their investigation, which determined there was a violation of the rules, and chose to withdraw the title bestowed during the major online tournament.

This developing story is coming out after this year has been full of online game bots, dual accounts, multi account violations, account handoffs, and other corrupt online poker players. This has obviously been a tough year for security at the online poker rooms. Even as this year is drawing to a close, it appears there may still be a great amount of fall out from such scandals. With frozen accounts, money laundering, and the aforementioned online poker room scandals, several of the poker rooms are finding security in the networking efforts of some online and off site security companies. As these networks grow to include some of the largest online poker rooms available, the security issues of this past year will fade into distant memory.

To the benefit of the online poker rooms, the internal investigations are being conducted and publicly released.. By taking such solid and open steps to protect the players who are competing instead of attempting to cheat the system, they are helping their cause. This proves the integrity involved in the online poker industry, and their effort to keep a fair and enjoyable game for their players.