EPT Barcelona will be the first tournament to try out new post-WSOP rules designed to avoid cheating and controversies including no use of GTO solvers anywhere in the tournament area and new card-pitching techniques for dealers.
PokerStars’ ambassador Kenny Hallaert revealed that the PSLive team considered banning ALL electronic devices from the table but eventually stopped short.
Changes regarding some rules and procedures that will come into play @PokerStarsLIVE EPT Barcelona.
Shotclocks: Time will be reduced on first action in the hand to 15 seconds instead of 30. Timebanks will still be worth 30 seconds each.
We were considering removing all…
— Kenny Hallaert (@SpaceyFCB) August 26, 2024
The decision to clamp down on tech in the tournament area comes in the wake of two recent headline issues: Jonathan Tamayo’s WSOP Main Event win controversy and Matt Berkey’s revelations involving a syndicate of cheats recording cards as they are dealt.
Battling GTO Solvers and Charts
As we shared earlier this week in our Top 5 Controversies from the 2024 WSOP article, the finale of the biggest event on the calendar involved the bizarre scene of Jonathan Tamayo running to the rail between hands.
Not unusual in itself, but on the rail was Dominik Nitsche with a laptop, the founder of GTO-theory training program DTOPoker apparently sharing sims results with Tamayo. Tamayo would go on to win the $10million top prize.
Although Tamayo’s opponents didn’t complain, the optics were terrible for the average player and an outcry inevitably ensued on social media. PokerStars have decided to take the lead by banning any version of this scenario playing out at their EPT Barcelona stop starting this week in Spain.
An updated number 9 in their PSLive rules list covers GTO solvers and reads:
“Players are not permitted to use at the table or anywhere in the tournament room area at any time game theory optimal (GTO) solver software, GTO charts (whether used on an Electronic Device or otherwise) or any AI tool or similar algorithmic software that is capable of affording the user a competitive advantage in the Tournament. We also don’t allow any spectator to make any use of electronic devices with solvers inside the poker tournament area.”
Nitsche was one of the first to question Hallaert over the latest rules, in particular how they plan to police things while phones are still allowed.
Nitsche continued: “The rule is poorly written. “A device with a solver in them” can refer to mobile phones and tablets like it can to laptops. Ban one of them and you need to ban all. Only banning laptops makes it look like you care about the optics more than integrity of the game.
He added: “But how do you police what people are looking at on their mobile screens? Imo if we want to create a fair environment we should have rules in place that are actually enforceable. And yes I’m fully aware that people would absolutely hate having their mobiles taken of them.”
Dealers to change technique in battle with cheats
While that argument/discussion will likely continue for some time, the second main part of the new rules is also under scrutiny.
Recently, Matt Berkey on his Only Friends Podcast detailed how cheating rings have been using sophisticated pinhole-camera technology in multiple highstakes games.
“We heard from the Bahamas. We heard from Texas. L.A., Pennsylvania … the WSOP – there was an instance in the $50K event. There was an instance in pretty much every major room this summer. Triton, WPT, private cash games, Cyprus, Norway, Korea, Florida, Montenegro… all of these are on the list.”
Berkey was spurred on by news from France that two men had been arrested after winning upwards of €200,000 in a single night at poker and blackjack at a casino north of Paris.
It was reported that “the suspects – a 37-year-old Lithuanian and a 63-year-old Ukrainian – allegedly used two minuscule cameras to capture the moment the dealer pulled the cards from the card shoe.”
According to Stéphane Piallat, the head of France’s Central Service of Racing and Games (SCCJ), “It looks like they’ve been going from country to country, hitting casinos one after another, and then moving on. It’s what every gambler dreams of, winning big every time.”
PokerStars have decided to head potential copycat cheats off at the pass by introducing new dealing techniques – a sliding motion with the cards rather than the traditional “pitching”.
Rather than remove players’ mobile phones, Hallaert states: “Instead, dealers will be taught to slide cards instead of pitching over the course of the next EPT’s.”
With this news still hot off the press, it remains to be seen how well the rule changes will be received by players and how effectively they work out in practice.
Let us know your thoughts on the matter: should all electronic devices be banned from poker tournaments, as they are in chess? Will a simple change in dealing technique really smash tech-oriented cheating?
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