A second round of betting then takes place. The dealer places three cards face up on the board (called the flop). After the first round, all remaining cards are dealt face up and shared by all players. The initial deal is followed by a round of betting. In Texas Hold’em, each player is dealt two cards (called the pocket cards). A little investigation proved that this intuition was correct. As soon as we saw the shuffling algorithm, we began to suspect there might be a problem. How did it work? Was it fair? An examination of the FAQs at PlanetPoker, including the shuffling algorithm (which was ironically published to help demonstrate the game’s integrity) was enough to start our analysis wheels rolling. Being software professionals who help companies deliver secure, reliable, and robust software, we were curious about the software behind the online game. The PlanetPoker Internet cardroom offers real-time Texas Hold’em games against other people on the Web for real money.

This is the story of how our interest in online poker and software security mixed to create a spectacular security exploit. Since many of us spend a good amount of our days online, it was only a matter of time before some of us put the two interests together. A few of us here at Reliable Software Technologies play poker. Poker is played at kitchen tables, in casinos, and cardrooms - and more recently, the Web. Poker is a card game that many people around the world enjoy. By Brad Arkin, Frank Hill, Scott Marks, Matt Schmid, Thomas John Walls, and Gary McGraw Reliable Software Technologies Software Security Group

Virtual deck of cards online