SOURCE: MSNBC.com

A leading Internet poker site said that a hacker exploited a security flaw to gain an insurmountable edge in high-stakes, no-limit Texas holdem tournaments — the ability to see his opponents' hole cards.

The cheater, whose illegitimate winnings were estimated at between $400,000 and $700,000 by one victim, was an employee of AbsolutePoker.com who hacked the system to show that it could be done, a spokesman for the company anonymously told a reporter.

"This is literally a geek trying to prove to senior management that they were wrong and he took it too far," he said.

The Costa Rica-based company, which is controlled by a parent company owned by members of the Kahnawake Mohawk tribe in Canada, issued a statement later in the day acknowledging the breach and promising to refund all money, including interest, to players who were victims of the scheme.

It also promised a "comprehensive statement ... providing more details of the findings" would be issued soon.

The spokesman said the employee did not withdraw any of the money from the accounts that were used in the scheme.

"We acknowledge a significant internal security breach whereby a resource who was infinitely knowledgeable about the system was able to get into the accounts in question. He played on those accounts and he saw hole cards," the spokesman said.

"We have closed that security breach and we have identified a very serious issue internally as far as communications flow and we're resolving that," he said.