Only months after both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet were involved in separate cheating scandals that relied on software glitches which allowed company insiders to take advantage of other players CEREUS Network, the network that was formed only last month and includes only UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, is investigating why its new software awarded the pot to a losing player.

The wrongly awarded player in this case happened to be Phil Hellmuth, a longtime UltimateBet endorser. Hellmuth was playing $200/$400 Limit when he was dealt 10-2 against the K-Q of player “DOUBLEBALLER”. The betting was capped pre-flop and the flop came K-K-J. The post-flop action had DOUBLEBALLER check-raise Hellmuth and the 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner called the bet. After the 2 came on the turn DOUBLEBALLER bet, Hellmuth raised, DOUBLEBALLER reraised and Hellmuth called. A 9 came on the river and DOUBLEBALLER bet AND Hellmuth called. Despite the fact that DOUBLEBALLER had the best hand Hellmuth was awarded the $5,599 pot.

After the hand history was posted on various online forums Paul Leggett, COO of Tokwiro Enterprises, owners of CEREUS, posted the following statement on Saturday November 20 on the UltimateBet blog:

“Earlier today we learned about a poker hand where our system paid out the losing player instead of the correct winning hand. The hand number is #1162170993. We are investigating this software malfunction as our absolute top priority. This is the first incident of this kind we have encountered. We are currently examining the poker system and the application logs in order to pinpoint the cause of this malfunction.”

The statement does not mention the involvement of Hellmuth in the hand. As of Monday morning the company had not provided any further updates. It is currently unknown if the company plans on investigating this matter internally or if the Kahnawake Gaming Commission will be involved.