Partypoker Bans All Tracking Software
October 5, 2015 11:26 amLast week, Partypoker announced a surprise move to ban all third-party tracking software and HUDs on its poker site, as well as the use of seating scripts which enable weaker players to be identified and victimized by online grinders. In addition, during games players will only be able to view the last hands played, instead of being able to download and save whole hand histories to their local devices.
Commenting on the latest tranche of sweeping changes, Jay Kanabar, Partypoker Head of Poker and Network Operations, said that they were necessary in order to level the playing field, and ensure that the online poker environment was more recreational-player friendly. Elaborating further, Partypoker Ambassador Tony Dunst said:
“These changes at partypoker are designed to create a more hospitable environment for recreational players. Unfortunately, many of the tools and tactics that professionals use to maximize their edge have made the games too difficult for new players to survive. Without them, grinders will merely pass money back and forth while being raked, and games will inevitably dry up. I think these changes will help level the playing field for casual players, and preserve the quality of games for professionals.”
Partypoker’s latest move is seen as necessary in order to repopulate a waning online poker ecology with recreational players, who have largely been scared off by a sophisticated elite of tech-savvy grinders. Even the world’s biggest online poker room, PokerStars, has had to implement a number of restrictions recently, rather than outright bands, including seating scripts and table-selection software. The use of HUDs are also being targeted by PokerStars, which no longer allows such software to categorize players, or display non-numerical data.
“Hand or Situation Analyzers, such as programs that compute equities of various ranges of hands against one another, can no longer be used whilst the client is open,” commented Baard Dahl, PokerStars Sit & Go and Tournament Manager.