Continuing the effort of online poker rooms to reduce the impact of skilled regulars sapping money from the unsuspecting and, in turn, the poker economy, the iPoker Network will soon be introducing “Heads-Up Hogging Prevention” to all of its dot-com skins.
Initially reported by Pokerfuse, this new feature is a system which monitors players sitting at heads-up tables, looking to find those who are sitting alone at too many tables for too long a period of time. Oftentimes, heads-up regulars, the most skilled one-on-one pros on the internet poker sites, like to sit down at multiple tables and wait for just the right player to join. If someone who the regular recognizes as a strong player (perhaps through experience or data presented by poker analysis software) sits, he simply won’t play. If, on the other hand, the regular believes the player is a “fish,” he’ll start the game. This type of player, derisively known as a “bumhunter,” is generally disliked by other regulars, and is definitely disliked by the poker operators, as they take up tables for long periods of time without providing revenue.
This is where “Heads-Up Hogging Prevention” comes in. If the system spots a bumhunter, that player’s access to the heads-up tables can be restricted. According to Pokerfuse, an internal communication sent to iPoker skin operators said that the new system’s goal is to “keep the games flowing smoothly” and “fast, smooth and fair for everybody.”
There has been some question as to whether or not some players will be able to get around the Hogging Prevention by simply not updating their client software to the newest version when it is rolled out. As “Jamsym2” posted on Two Plus Two, “The more recent software makes it auto post blinds when someone sits at HU tables. However the huge team of bumhunters at $10/20+ all have backdated the software to the older version to make sure they don’t accidentally play 1 hand vs someone who isn’t a 50bb/100 loser.”
If we were to make an educated guess, though, we would assume that the Hogging Prevention system would be monitoring from the server side. We don’t have any insight into this, though, so that is just a guess. There is also a maximum of four simultaneous heads-up tables per person already in place, so it remains to be seen how much further restrictions can go.
Other new features will also be added in the upcoming update:
• New button on the Speed tables which allows players to quickly add another Speed table at the same stakes.
• Ability to sync the poker lobby’s time to their own time zone.
• Tournaments that will be able to take scheduled breaks that last two or more days.
