Doug Polk has weighed in on the latest RTA allegations rocking the poker world in a video that delivers both humor and serious talking points.
If you missed the furore, here are the cliffs: ACR ambassador Nacho Barbero posted an image of himself playing online at ACR Poker with a GTO Wizard window open on his Instagram account. The use of GTO Wizard – a tool that gives real-time assistance – while playing online at ACR is prohibited.
Barbero's first response was that he wasn't using it for RTA but to coach other players. He also said that he didn't play online, which was a tough line for people to accept given his image. He then clarified this post by saying he only plays one-to-two online tournaments a year.
ACR's first response was to call Barbero a "goofball" and "not a GTO-style player." Its second was to "sincerely apologize" for the first response and promise an investigation. The results of that investigation exonerated Barbero and no further action was taken.
Polk: Sites need to start enforcing rules
Barbero himself decided to forfeit his Day 2 stacks in the Venom tournaments he was playing in the image he posted. All players were in the money by this point and Barbero ended up finishing 25th in the Venom PLO (for $7,926) and 120th in the NLH version (for $7,502).
As Polk says in the video, there's a lot to unpack there.
Polk started off by saying that Barbero had outed himself with "clear-cut evidence" that he'd used software that was prohibited by ACR in its terms of service (even if he wasn't using it to actually cheat).
And he ripped into ACR for its first response, saying, "I don't know how much money you make. I'm going to guess that you do okay. I think perhaps it could be time to find someone to run your social media accounts that's not going to make you look like a f*****g buffoon."
He also questioned why "not a GTO-style player" would be using a tool like GTO Wizard, adding, "If you're going to prohibit the tool, you've got to prohibit the tool."
Is it safe to play online?
Players like Patrick Leonard have said this is a GTO Wizard issue and that its developers should introduce a delay to make RTA impossible. However, Polk doesn't think this is the answer, saying that if you make GTO Wizard laggy, people will just use another tool. "Fighting back against tech by limiting tech is not the answer," he said.
"Instead," he added, "the actual solution is aggressive implementation and enforcement of security measures from these websites and personal responsibility from players who are using these things... If you've got a rule, you've got to enforce it, even if it's someone you don't want to enforce it on. That's the point of having rules."
It all led to the final question: Is it safe to play online poker?
"The answer," Polk said, "is it's going to get tougher and tougher, and you need to play somewhere that respects your money and you think is putting enough resources and energy into detecting cheaters and protecting your play."
That's a statement it's impossible to disagree with.
Watch the full video at the top of the article for Polk's complete take on the issue. You can subscribe to Polk's YouTube channel and follow him on X.
