Four weeks after issuing a statement largely exonerating a player widely accused of cheating on the site by using computerized real-time assistance, or RTA, Global Poker has begun issuing refunds to other players who had competed against the player.
Though Global Poker's investigation went on for weeks before the earlier exoneration announcement, it appears that continuing forensic examinations of the data may have resulted in proof regarding one or more players' use of RTA. Global Poker, per company policy, has never named any of the player accounts that it has been investigating, though widespread posts by players on various poker forums and social media identified one of the accused players as "projectbaby97".
Many of the accusations Global Poker received came with data captured from GTO Wizard's new Fair Play Check tool, which is available to its subscribers. The tool allows third-party viewers to query GTO Wizard's database of analyzed hands to see if any of those analyses occurred in real time, meaning that the hand may have part of a player using GTO Wizard as real-time assistance. Unfortunately, the initial version of the software tool as released was cited by a Global Poker representative as having generated many false positives that required further research, rather than representing instant proof of cheating.
Players post notices of refunds
Some impacted players began posting notices of refunds on Friday, including in a thread on the 2+2 forums, one of several online resources where users have tracked the situation. Another user declared "He's banned!" without further reference or explanation, perhaps after noting projectbaby97's absence from the tables in recent days.
