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Most Secure Poker Sites

Intro to Poker Site Security

There are 2 levels of security to consider with an online poker site.

• Poker Software and Technology
• The Human Element

Pokerstars and Full Tilt are the largest poker sites that are listed here, so they devote the most effort into security in my opinion. But this doesn’t mean that the smaller sites are lacking in security features. Most of the smaller sites are located on a larger poker network which is maintained by the network administrators. This means that the smaller sites are sort of under the security umbrella of the entire network, however the poker site support team still plays a vital role in maintaining a secure poker site.
Most of the material below discusses the security at Pokerstars because they are the most forthcoming with their information. I’m not sure if this is a great thing or not, but from what I can understand from this information, it would be nearly impossible to hack into this kind of network. I also think that these security features are pretty typical of all of the poker sites that are listed here on Big Edge Poker. These are really the most secure real money poker sites that you will come across on the internet.

Poker Software and Site Security

This part is aimed at those players who have a little bit of a geeky side to them and want to know about some of the software security features.

The most important element in running a secure poker site, is that your hole card information is never sent to any other players. The information is not there for anyone to grab, so this eliminates most of the immediate threats that a poker site can face. Here is a couple key security features of the Pokerstars site.

• 1024-bit RSA key and a Thawte server certificate for downloads
• Custom in-house CA certificate key: 1024 bits
• Standard SSLv3 protocol for client software
• Key generation and triple-DES for encryption.
• 512-bit RSA key updated every 3 months (Estimated secure life of 2+ years)
• Thermal Noise and Entropy based random number generator by Intel
• RNG uses SHA-1 cryptographic hash algorithm for compiling data for outputs

So what does all of this technical stuff mean for poker site security? Well think about it like this; to generate a random number, you need a source (preferable something random, with no pattern). The problem is that there is really no such thing as true randomness in the world as we know it. Although they don’t readily admitt this, the CIA has been known to use gamma ray emmissions and other radiation from the sun because this is more random than anything that man could ever create. So when you are thinking about thermal noise, think along these lines.

What is an entropy input? This is usually something user based. A player might never suspect that this kind of data is being used to generate a random number. A good example of this might be the position or timing of mouse clicks by the user.

Player Security Investigations

This is done by the poker sites in both a proactive and reactive fashion. In the past, player complaints have played a key role in discovering some circles of collusion and cheating.

Unlike the software aspect of running a secure poker site, this is something that is done differently by some of the rooms. Some rooms are facing different cost implications as a result of multi-accounting players, so they invest different amounts of their resources into tracking these sorts of things. Quite often it seems as though investigations are triggered when a new player tries to cash out their funds for the first time. This especially seems to be the case for amounts over $500, so I’m fairly certain that this is triggered automatically at some sites.
If there is ever any reports of cheating or collusion, or for some reason the poker site becomes suspicious, here are some of the things that they will tend to look at:

• Who have you transferred money to/from?
• Has your credit card or other deposit method been used to deposit into another account?
• Has your IP been used for another account? (Yes, this is logged)
• Playing circumstances, for example; Is this a brand new account that won 20K in 5 hands and is now cashing out? (This doesn’t look good).

What to Do about Collusion

If you are ever sitting at a poker table and you suspect that there might be some collusion at the table here is what you should do. Take note of the players involved, the hand #’s, any table chat involved, screen shots of anything sketchy, and a description of what you witnessed at the table. Next send an email to the site’s security team and include all of this information. The rooms understand the importance of maintaining a secure poker site, so they take player complaints seriously in regards to this.

The Most Secure Poker Sites

I believe that Pokerstars and Full Tilt have the most secure poker sites on the internet. You can see players sitting down with more than $100,000 on the table, and with more than $1 million in their bankroll. After playing on these poker sites for several years and moving my money around freely, Id feel pretty comfortable leaving substantial amounts of money on these larger poker sites. Head over to the poker sites for more details and to start playing.