Comments on: PokerStars Bans SharkScope Use by Players

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:54:18 +0000

I used to use sharkscope. It’s a great tool. I used it to get an idea of how well my opponents were doing. It was amazing. If I saw someone playing bad, and I checked their stats, they were almost always a losing player. If I saw someone playing good, their stats were almost always profitable. If you scope the table, it can give you instant info on who the sharks and fish are. It doesn’t tell you how to play your cards, you still have to make those decisions yourself. huge advantage to those using that tool.

I’m not looking to play hands with the sharks without a strong hand. I’m much more likely to call a raise from a player with a fishbowl by his name on sharkscope.

By: Ringo

Ringo — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:46:17 +0000

Check out what Adam said August 29th 2009.
Is he the only one with a brain out there?
All these idiots talking about rigging and pokerstars favouring bad players it’s all nonsense.
I don’t know if any of you had noticed but as well as skill, there is also a great deal of luck involved in poker and in order to understand how well you’ve played you need to look at the bigger picture not just focus on a couple of bad beats: Face it, if you haven’t made any money at the end of the year, then you haven’t played very well.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 06:31:43 +0000

Anyone who says they make money consistently at Pokerstars is full of crap. I made over 6k at ILC last year playing live. But at PS no matter what, the Miracle suck out comes when all the money is in. A good Patient player at pokerstars doesnt have a chance. Time and Time again Ive had my money in good and lost to the miracle runner runner strts and and 4 to the flushes. AA against AA has lost 5 Times ON PS by the other player making a flush. Ive never won in the same manner. AA seems to hold up against an under pair maybe 20% of the time. I would love to see a Pro sign on under my Name and get their take on the way the cards fall and see if they think something isnt right. Untill then I guess ill have to hear about how a Player at PS sees more hands per hour and how their software has been indep evaluated and Blah blah blah. Its all BS. Something isnt right. Before Sharkscope decided to create the opt in deal I went out and did a search for all of the Pokerstars pros and not 1 of them was making Money. That was an eye opener.

By: ianalistair

ianalistair — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:05:05 +0000

i think that the sharkscope SHOULD be banned, i am recently out of hospital after six months. i play online because i enjoy the game, the banter, and the chance to win a few bucks. however, having recently returned i have noticed the increased insults directed at me, PARTICULARLY quoting sharkscope. i think its a disgrace that in the days of privacy some half-wit is able to access private financial information, and use it to insult you to all and sundry at the table. secondly, i agree with the player above. i think that the software is designed to favour the bad player, this encourages them to go for more outrageous suck-outs in the future. this in turn shortens the length of time the game is played, exited players are more likely to join another comp; and all this ======= MORE CASH FOR THE POKER=SITE

By: milo

milo — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:36:55 +0000

so what is banned from fulltilt, and what is recommended to use on that site???

By: Adam

Adam — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:51:01 +0000

Pokerstars does not “rig” action etc. There are a few factors that make people say that:
1.) You see a lot more hands per hour than at a live game.
2.) The people that play on pokerstars are less skilled than those you would encounter at a casino.
3.) People have less time to act and are generally looser with their money online.

The end result is players that chase which causes the occasional suck out. But because you can see a lot more hands per hour you see a lot more suck outs. The funny thing is, if your losing money on pokerstars YOUR the bad player so quit whining!

By: TexasKevin

TexasKevin — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:31:47 +0000

Variance is a factor but it is a well known, admitted fact that the sites do in fact “rig” for lack of a better word, games to induce action. That being said, good players win, bad players loose in the long run. Sites like Sharkscope are a GOOD indicator of a players tendicies, over the long haul, and a better indicator if there is a a large sample number. If a player has a negative 30% avg ROI over 8000 or more SNGs, that is a good indication that the player is probably not that good, same true for a positive 30% over the same sample number. If a player has only played 100 SNGs, well, that sample is not large enough to fully gage skill, but the player is a novice so that might be something to exploit. If you are so concerned about “your business” being public, go to the site and BLOCK yourself. Simple, fast, easy. Besides, it is only one aspect of your game (SNGS). It is not your finances being made public as someone said, let’s not get so dramatic. And as JR says, it is not a exact science but the information you are seeing is not a current ROI, it is an AVG ROI, so running good/bad does not dramatically effect that number. Plus the site will tell you if that person is running hot or cold and you can drill down into the numbers to see that information. These sites are a fact of life. People will use them and there is not much you can do about it, besides blocking your own stats. If you do want to gather information on players use programs like Holdem Manager or Poker Tracker 3 and it will data mine players you play with automatically and within the rules. Stop crying about these services and having people chat you up and learn to play better poker so that information becomes positive and you will no longer care.

By: Curtom

Curtom — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:13:19 +0000

The conspiracy theories just don’t add up. I have done quite well on PokerStars in tournaments over the years and know many others that have done the same. I also did well on PartyPoker when US players could play there. It’s not the site folks. Since when does variance have to occur on a specific date and affect the outcome of hands only for a fixed period of time?

Variance can will and does occur at it’s own convenience and can remain for quite a while giving you bad beat after bad beat making you believe that it’s “rigged” when in actuality it is simply the math catching up to itself. On the contrary, you could also run ridiculously good for an inordinate amount of time as well. Does that mean the site is rigged too?

Over the long term the better players make money. It is pretty much as simple as that. SharkScope gives players an unfair advantage and should have been removed. Everyone should applaud PokerStars for this move instead of being angry about it.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:05:59 +0000

I AGREE WITH DEALER AND DINERO. ALSO RANKINGS DONT PROVE TO BE AN EXACT SCIENCE BECAUSE VERY GOOD PLAYERS MAY HAVE A MINUS ROI BECAUSE AT THE TIME THEY ARE RUNNING BAD AND IDIOTS MIGHT BE WINNING RIGHT NOW AND BE POSITIVE.NOTHINGS WORSE THAN HAVING SOME SO CALLED PRO KNOWING EVERYBODIES STATS AND TALKING ABOUT IT

By: dinero

dinero — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:22:05 +0000

i think its a good idea to stop the tracking because people do just put your bussiness out their in the middle of games and if you are a loosing player they call you names. So good job pokerstars!