An age-old online poker debate/controversy/calm discussion got drudged up recently over on the Two Plus Two message forum when a poster called for PokerStars to respond to alleged rampant datamining going on in the site’s ever-popular Spin & Go tournaments. The general consensus: “Good luck with all of that.”
Poster “1v1” began the thread with the simple complaint:
EVERY Pokerstars spin and go within 30 seconds has 2 viewers appear and stay for the duration of the match from .50-100$. I want an explanation from management why. There is consistently up to 5 viewers for every 2X game and i have played thousands. I have not had ONE game without a viewer. If security is this poor that this is indeed datamining than this should be shared with shareholders that games offered on there investment are NOT being properly policed.
Of course, a table having observers doesn’t necessarily mean anything, as plenty of people rail online poker tables. But 1v1’s point is that there is no reason for anyone, let alone multiple people, to observe thousands of his games, especially those where the prize pool is only twice the big blind. Thus, it seems that these are not real people watching the tables at all, but rather automated “bot” programs setup to observe every game and screen-scrape hand history information.
Datamining is a touchy subject in online poker, as most people feel that it is either cheating or at least wildly against the spirit of the game to acquire millions of hands of data on thousands upon thousands of players against whom the collector has never played a single hand, all in an effort to use that information to gain a competitive advantage in games or to sell to someone else seeking said advantage. Some players, which represent the minority, don’t see it as anything wrong, since online poker games are open for the public to see. Others see datamining as something that benefits the poker community, as the more hand data that’s out there, the easier it is to track down cheaters, like in the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet superuser scandals.
Regardless of how people feel about datamining, though, it is against PokerStars’ terms of service. In the “Third Party Tools and Services FAQ” on PokerStars’ website, the answer to what kinds of tools and services are prohibited is cut and dry. “The practice of datamining (observing games without playing in order to build up a database of hand histories for future reference) is prohibited,” bullet point number four reads.
A few days after 1v1 posted his original comment, PokerStars Sit & Go and Tournament Manager Baard Dahl responded:
Hello,
We are aware that there are sites that collect data from all our games, and we are taking steps to prevent them from doing so. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as flipping a switch, but we have dealt with the issue in the Zoom games, and we expect that we will be able to roll out a solution for the Spin & Gos as well. We are hoping to do so in Q1 of 2016, though it is possible we will have to revise that date.
After the Spin & Go solution is in place, our other games will be covered as quickly as possible.
Thanks,
Baard
No further hints have been given as to what the preventative steps will be.
