"Moneytaker69" Was Abusing Vulnerability Found in GGPoker Client

Published on January 4th, 2024 6:42 pm EST

GGPoker has grown into the largest online poker site in the world, so the last thing that the industry needed was a superuser scandal involving the site.

This is what took place, however, after a user, "Moneytaker69", was found to be exploiting a software vulnerability to make himself practically unbeatable.

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On December 28th, 2023, a user named "GGSuperUser" posted a thread on the Twoplustwo forum titled "User MoneyTaker69 is alleged to be superusing on GG Poker".

Included in the post was a damning overview of MoneyTaker69's play on GGPoker in December, as he not only won a $150 Sunday Multi-Table Tournament for $47,586, but also won 90 BB/100 in cash games, playing 53% VPIP.

In short - nothing less than an impossibility.

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GGSuperUser also posted a number of suspect hands, including a hand against "Nizzatin" in which MoneyTaker69 calls an all-in on the turn with the board reading Qd-Ac-7c-6s.

Nizzatin held 4c-5c for the straight and flush draws, which MoneyTaker69 held Js-2h.

How could MoneyTaker69 possibly make that call?

A number of prominent poker players analyzed the hands that were posted, and there was an almost universal agreement that MoneyTaker69 was a superuser.

So, what was going on? Was a GGPoker insider playing while viewing his opponent's cards? Was there massive collusion taking place?

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The answer is that MoneyTaker69 was exploiting a software vulnerability in GGPoker's software.

In a security update, GGPoker stated that MoneyTaker69 was taking advantage of a client-side vulnerability to gain an unfair advantage against his opponents.

According to GGPoker, MoneyTaker69 was able to "customize his own game client" after decompiling the Windows game client, intercepting network traffic and alterating game packets.

The exploit was accomplished by targeting the Adobe Air framework.

The leak came via the Thumbs up/down table reaction system.

While MoneyTaker69 wasn't able to see any cards, he was able to see all-in equities on both the flop and the turn, which gave him a massive advantage, which he fully took advantage of.

GGPoker patched their software, banned "MoneyTaker69" and re-distributed nearly $30,000 to impacted players.

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GGPoker said that the incident was embarrassing and that they are working to make sure that anything similar doesn't happen again.

GGPoker issued their statement quickly, and the online poker community seems satisfied with their response.

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Filed Under: Online Poker Rooms