Back in 2008, a group of poker players discovered a software glitch that affected 'Six-Pack' sit & gos on the popular online site Betfair Poker.
If all six players moved all-in on the very first hand, when all the chip stacks were even, the winner was awarded first place, but every other player received second-place money.
With Betfair’s offices closed overnight, the software bug went unnoticed — allowing coordinated players to exploit the flaw, quickly move up in stakes, and win hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some forum rumors suggested total losses reached as high as $1.7 million before Betfair intervened the following afternoon.
As soon as the loss was found, the sit & gos were shut down for a software upgrade and were inactive for over 24 hours.
Withdrawal limits helped Betfair recover some of the money and suspend some accounts. Some funds were also funneled into other accounts via high-stakes heads-up cash games.
Everyone's a winner!
The forums lit up at the time, with one poster on 2+2 writing, “The winner got the standard 1st place prize money. The 2nd place person got the 2nd place prize money. And the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th players also got 2nd place prize money!!!
“Chaos ensued, with people testing it out again and moving up to the largest stakes possible. They were just all going all-in every hand, as they were guaranteed to profit! I just wish I had been part of it.”
Some forum members, who claim to have been involved in the action on the night, said Betfair froze their accounts and asked for their money back.
To begin, Betfair issued a ‘no comment’ statement, as the investigation into what happened and who owed what continued. The story was picked up by The Telegraph, one of the UK’s oldest newspapers.
As reported in The Telegraph, Betfair wrote “to a number of account holders accusing them of collusion and ordering them to repay the money this week or face possible legal action.”
An email sent from Betfair to the accused players read, “You recently received payments from playing Sit & Go STTs [single table tournaments] on Betfair Poker in circumstances that resulted in greater payouts than intended."
"(The games) were incorrectly set up to pay everyone involved in certain all-in situations, and this was exploited by you and others to generate substantial returns in a short space of time. As I'm sure you can understand, the winnings received as a result of this exploitation must be returned."
After Betfair’s response, the incident quietly disappeared from public view.
Feature image created using AI.
