CLEAN REPORT FOR CEREUS POKER NETWORK
2011-02-07
Independent audit ordered by KGC
Last year's Poker Table Ratings vs. UB.com encryption row (see previous InfoPowa reports) resurfaced this week with the release of an independent report giving the online poker site and its parent Cereus Poker Network a clean bill of health in security terms.
The audit was carried out at the behest of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission following allegations by PTR, an online poker information site, concerning security aspects at UB.com.
Back then, the allegations were quickly and transparently addressed by the poker company management, but clearly its licensing jurisdiction felt it necessary to have an independent assessment.
RSA, the security division of EMC, and an international specialist in security, risk and compliance solutions; managing organisational risk; safeguarding mobile access and collaboration; proving compliance; and securing virtual and cloud environments, was selected for the assignment, according to a statement released this week by the KGC.
The survey was completed recently and included external testing and a software source code audit of the key components involved in the security issue, which was discovered last May.
A KGC spokesman said this week: "RSA’s final report was recently presented to the Commission and the Commission is satisfied that.....the operator of the Cereus Poker Network and the software developer have addressed and corrected the problem that was identified and, in fact, have enhanced the overall security of software and systems in the affected areas.
"There is no evidence that the security issue identified on May 6, 2010 resulted in any player gaming data being compromised."
A lot of players tend to confuse pot equity with pot odds, and that’s something that has to be put to bed right off the bat. Pot odds help a player determine what their percentage is of hitting a certain hand in relation to the betting on each applicable street. Pot Equity more or less helps that same player determine the actual strength of the hand they hold – particularly when faced with the decision to raise, build the pot, then deciding which action is the best to improve your win rate in online poker.
In summary, ACTUAL pot equity is the calculated value of your hand in comparison to the hand range of all of your opponents.
Like other odds explanations, this one is probably easiest to grasp in a fixed limit game rather than a No Limit-type structure. Pot equity is better utilized anyways in a LHE game, just because hand ranges and expected value (EV) are so much more key to building pots and winning hands in online poker.
For example, lets say you hold a hand like Q Q in the cutoff position. There are 3 limpers in front of you at your $15/$30 LHE game. You have a pretty big hand here, and your pot equity here is most likely more than 3 to 1! The fact you have a high EV here means you should almost certainly raise in your spot in online poker. Since you’re also more than a 30% favorite (minus you running into a limper with KK or AA) here, your raise means you get added value for your hand, as well as a larger pot for you to take down.
This may be a tough concept to grasp at first – but as you gain more experience at the tables and see a variety of different hands and situations, it becomes a little clearer. Heck, even the best and brightest of poker minds can probably agree that Pot Equity is just one of those terms that can’t be explained without ripping your hair out at times. However, I do hope the explanations and hand example above help out in your search to understand it. Do you have the itch for some online poker yet? Head over to www.playersonly.com the fastest growing poker room for USA players on the web today.