I’m in a scammer-busting mood today. I ran across The-Poker-Shark.com website the other day. This one was almost comical. Instead of analyzing the hype page line by line, I thought it would be interesting to examine the disclaimer page and compare it to what is said on the hype page.
The-Poker-Shark.com is for entertainment and educational purposes only, the content provided is not to be used for any other reason. The-Poker-Shark.com has made every available effort to accurately represent its product, but we do not promise that it is accurate. Therefore, the information provided should be viewed as ‘entertainment only’ and the-poker-shark.com, it’s owner’s, developers, and affiliates are not to be held liable for anything resulting from the purchase and use of this product.
Hmmmm . . . that’s strange because the homepage does nothing but encourage people to use this to gain an unfair advantage in real money games. In the first few paragraphs, Poker Shark says:
Congratulations!!! You are now on your way to making huge sums of legitimate and 100% Legal Money playing suckers in online poker.
Sounds pretty much like they’re encouraging people to use this for reasons other than entertainment and education.
Furthermore, upon purchase users of the-poker-shark.com, bindingly agree to arbitration for any dispute or claim that may develop. Arbitration shall occur in the county of The-Poker-Shark.com and follow the rules of the American Arbitration Association. The users of The-Poker-Shark.com wave the right to pursue legal action against The-Poker-Shark.com, or it’s developer, it’s affiliates, and owner.
Arbitration in the county (not country or state, but county) where Poker Shark is. Of course, you have no idea where they are since there’s no mention of it anywhere. One would think that you would need to at least state the county that you’re asking people to file arbitration proceedings against. I mean most legitimate contracts I’ve ever entered into say something like “. . . agrees to arbitrate any disputes in California . . . ” or some legal mumbo-jumbo like that.
Use Information Provided at own risk!!! For Entertainment purposes only!!!
The-Poker-Shark.com does not promote or encourage online gaming and does not promote or condone actions that would violate the law or the terms and conditions of gaming platforms. Because The-Poker-Shark.com does not claim error free information, we will not assume any responsibility and will not be held reliable for any damage that may result from its use.
Again, the “entertainment purposes only” disclaimer. The real comedy here though is that they claim that Poker Shark does not promote or condone actions that would violate the law or the terms and conditions of gaming platforms. Let’s see how that holds up with what they say on their homepage.
Not to worry! Although some of these methods may be against the ‘Terms and Conditions’ of your poker platform; they remain 100% legal and they are nearly Impossible to Detect! The only person you must answer to is yourself.
Uh oh. Sounds like someone is actively advocating doing things that would be in violation of the T&C’s of the poker room. Tsk, tsk. You just said in your disclaimer you don’t do that.
Because The-Poker-Shark.com will continually update its terms and conditions, it is the purchasers responsibility to check back and stay current. A purchaser agrees to any changes made in the terms and condition/disclaimer. By using The-Poker-Shark.com you agree not to hold liable its officers, employees, or any persons affiliated with the site from anything resulting from the use of this product. (Examples: Personal Losses, Damage, ect.) This information is for entertainment and educational purposes only.
Okay, so I can’t sue them (you have to arbitrate) and now I can’t even hold them responsible. What’s the use of arbitration if I can’t hold the company, officers, or any persons affiliate with the site liable for damages? Better yet, I’m going to take a wild guess that even if you found a way to get them, they’ll just change the terms and conditions which close any loophole they may have left open.
The only right that the purchaser does not wave is his right to request a refund. Refund requests will be accepted between 30 and 60 days after the purchase date. We will only give refunds within this time frame. This is to prevent satisfied customers from immediately requesting a refund in an attempt to get the system for free. Purchaser must show valid reasoning for refund. Only One Refund Request per customer will be accepted.
Yes, the funny thing is that they have nearly the same reason for the 30 days refund period at PokerBot Pro. I’m also a little curious about this “show valid reasoning” clause. All Poker Shark has to do is say that you don’t have a valid reason and you have no recourse.
100% Money Back Guarantee:
The Money Back Guarantee that is offered is only valid to misrepresentation of product. If valid reasoning is shown that our product is misrepresented, we will issue a refund and correct the errors on our website.
Okay, now I see what valid reason clause was about. You can only get a refund if you can catch them lying. If you purchase the product and it’s garbage or you feel it’s a total ripoff you have to prove that they lied about something. Technically, I think that would be pretty easy to do since they say in the disclaimer that they don’t encourage breaking the T&C’s of the card rooms but tell you that you should go ahead and use it to cheat even if it’s against the poker room’s T&C’s. But your total recourse is simply to get your money back. If you use the product, lose a ton of money because it’s a total scam, and sue them arbitrate, they’ll give you your money back. Wow! There’s a company that stands behind the product.
Product
What you will receive is a downloadable e-book that is to be used for educational and entertainment purposes only. In purchasing this product you understand that you are receiving a downloadable e-book, no software is included. Their are recommendations of how to obtain free software that may enhance the e-books techniques, but no software is included.
The-Poker-Shark.com reserves all rights not expressly granted here.
The information provided is copyrighted and should not be reproduced in anyway. Doing so will result in full prosecution of the law.
Update:
I started working on this post several weeks ago and between now and then, they’ve shut themselves down.
It has come to our attention that some of our customers have felt wronged by this website. Please know that this was not our intention, and because of this we have decided to shut the site down. We apologize for this inconvenience. We never meant to wrong anybody.
We really thought that we had a valuable product that people could learn from. But apparently some of you did not think this was the case. We have never not issued a refund, we will be issuing refunds over the next 15 days if you want a refund send an e-mail here:
admin@the-poker-shark.com
If any of you are interested, I am giving away the system for free here. Please give me feedback about what you think about the information. Is it good? Is it bad?
Well, I guess I’ll review the product:
First off, one of my favorite parts of this ebook is on page 5:
There are many programs out
there that say they can hack the Poker Site (They
often claim to be able to change your pocket cards).
These programs never work! They might be able to
change the cards on your screen, but the poker sites
still believe that you have your original hand. You
will lose your money, so be careful!
So after page after page of making you think you’re getting some super-duper cheating software (which is really just the ebook) they come right out and admit that anybody telling you what they heavily implied is scamming you.
So basically what they deliver is a basic strategy guide. It’s obviously a misguided attempt at teaching basic poker strategy because before they even tell you about it they warn:
*A quick note, do not follow this strategy at a home poker game. The level
of play is most likely much stronger and is *guaranteed to be much
slower…It would take all night to have any success*
I’m sorry but any strategy that wins in online poker wins at a home game unless the types of games are drastically different. The only true aspect of this warning is that winning will take all night. That’s how poker works! Playing more hands per hour doesn’t make one bit of difference in terms of expected outcome other than your expected outcome will come quicker or slower depending on the game. If I play 1000 hands in one week on a poker binge in Vegas and play 1000 hands over 6 months in home games, mathematically speaking, my expected outcome hasn’t changed unless some other variable (like the skill of my opponents) has changed.
The killer advice that you once needed to pay for is this starting hand guide (no positional information given):
Rasie with: AA, KK,QQ, AK, AQ
Call with: JJ, (ANY POCKET PAIR) QJ, Q10
Throw everything else away.
This isn’t even good advice. It’s okay advice for a complete newbie to the game looking to not get slaughtered but the entire sell of this ebook was to make you the shark devouring the fish.
The next few pages walk you through such complex strategies as the “fake bluff” where you pick up a hand like pocket aces and tell everyone at the table you have aces while playing them fast. Supposedly when you finally show down your aces everyone at the table will instantly think you’re a poker god.
Next are nuggets of wisdom like this:
Maybe
every once in a while comment on how somebody is
a ‘fish’. If a player loses a pot to you that he should
not have been in, let him know it. This will all lead
to increased intimidation amongst your opponents,
and an overall higher success rate.
I guess the author never heard of the concept of not tapping on the glass. Let me see, nearly every pro player I’ve ever read talks about keeping poor players in the game and this guy tells you to mock and humiliate the worst players. I’m going to go with the pros on this one.
Here’s some of the winner lines the author suggests:
A few lines that will subconsciously intimidate your opponents
‘Fish’
‘I can’t believe you stayed in that pot, Thanks!’
‘Wow, What an idiot’
‘I love it!’
‘Keep it Coming’
‘Want to go play heads up? I’ll bust you all night.’
The ebook next jumps into how to collude. First off, the collusion descriptions are pitiful. Wow, you mean when I’ve got a partner colluding with me that my partner should fold his crappy hand on the river and I shouldn’t split my illegal profits via player to player transfers on the same site I’m colluding on?
Then we get into advanced collusion where you learn about proxy servers. Of course, they only explain what a proxy server is and give you no advice on how to set one up or how to use one but at least they didn’t tell you not to name your multiple accounts Bob01, Bob02, Bob03.
The ebook then tells you about poker bots but refuses (for legal reasons) to name any.
Next we learn how to abuse the disconnect policies of the online poker sites.
The end of the ebook is the moneyshot. It’s basically what every scam site on the internet is selling. Instead of paying $50, $100, or $1000 for this secret, I’m going to share it here for free.
All you have to do to win is find a way to get your friend to install RDP or TightVNC on their computer and then give you their IP and password!
That’s all you need to do to make big money online. How do you do that? Well, let me quote the Poker Shark ebook:
I know this sounds impossible, but it is truly easier
than you might expect. The-Poker-Shark knows that
you will find a way around t his because the fact is
that when you are able to view another person’s
screen you will make more money than you ever
thought possible.
See, it’s that easy! You’re smart. You’ll figure it out.
Of course, let me also share the Poker Shark disclaimer:
I am legally inclined to tell you that installing a
program on another’s computer without their
permission is not legal. And using such software in a
money making manner is not legal. I do not endorse,
condone, or even encourage you to do so.
Yes, even though I just told you how to cheat and sold you an ebook on how to cheat, I don’t endorse or condone or even encourage you to do so. What a load of crap.
Bottom line to all of you who are looking for a way to cheat at online poker and are so desperate that you’re willing to pay some donkey for the secrets to ripping off your opponents, this is what you’re going to get. In a way it’s poetic justice.