Plans to Prevent Online Poker Cheating • This Week in Gambling

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Recently, our friends at Poker News did a nice write up about online poker cheating which was gleaned from a podcast on PokerFuse. That special edition podcast welcomed the Director of Online Poker Experience from PokerStars, Chris Straghalis. Their discussion covered several things, starting with the integrity of the game. Mr. Straghalis took time to detail the ways that PokerStars approaches the matter, and also detailed what their players could expect from online poker tournaments on their site in the future.

Real-Time Assistance, or what players call RTA by players for short, is not a new thing for PokerStars to deal with. Straghalis stated that the site does not allow players to use that sort of thing… or any tool that would assist them in making a decision in real-time. Simply put, players are “not allowed to use any software” for assistance int he game, he said.

The conversation went on to reveal that the site does not allow players to use anything that could be construed as online poker cheating. That includes RTA’s, or any form of software or devices that give advice while at the tables, and that includes charts. “…if you’re getting an outside influence in real time, alongside while our client is open, (it’s) not allowed.” Straghalis added.

However, one piece of technology that is not considered cheating is the use of so-called “Solvers”. That is a poker software which can calculate ‘optimal’ strategies for players, given a certain scenario. So a “Solver” can give players some valuable insights into optimal play.

There’s a huge caveat, though: PokerStars only allows the use of these “Solvers” after a players session is complete and they have logged off of PokerStars completely. Otherwise, says Straghalis, their use will be detected and identified as online poker cheating, resulting in actions being taken. He added that the company feels “very strong” about that. You can read the full article on this topic at PokerNews.