A huge Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack recently hit Winning Poker Network (WPN), forcing the network to cancel a million dollar guaranteed tournament last Sunday.
Winning Poker Network is one of the very few that still accepts incoming traffic from United States and it consists of poker rooms like BetCRIS, 5Dimes, or America’s Cardroom. The traffic isn't huge (it averages around 300 cash game players according to PokerScout.com) but the site is trying it's best and the $1mln guaranteed tournament was supposed to be a step into the right direction.
This isn't the first attack on this network, as hackers have already targeted it a week earlier, but without much success. However, when the $1mln tournament started, the attack began and players were affected in numerous ways: the tables started freezing, hands were being folded due to time outs and players were put on sit outs. Support tried their best and paused the event multiple times to deal with the problems, but after 4:30h into the tournament, the decision was presented to players:
"Due to circumstances out of our control, we have been unable to provide a stable, fair gaming experience. Many players timed out, while others remained connected. As per our terms and conditions, the tournament has been cancelled and buy-ins and fees have been refunded to all participants."
Players became furious, not only because of the event being cancelled, but mostly due to the fact that WPN decided to refund all the players, rather then distribute the prize pool based on chip count to remaining players.
On Monday, WPN CEO Phil Payton commented: [i]“Well, I don’t even know where to start. This has probably – and like you care – been one of the hardest…the hardest week of my life. When you have these internet connectivity issues, you have to filter out the bad traffic that’s coming in, that’s causing the internet connectivity issues, and with that, you filter out some good traffic. Hence, players get disconnected, but the site stays online,” he said.
"Whoever was causing the Internet disconnections was waiting for the million [dollar guaranteed tournament]. The second that it started, it [the attack] started.”
The tournament has been rescheduled for February 22nd.
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