The GGPoker Network and its primary Russian-facing skin, PokerOK, issued a joint statement today announcing increased restrictions on the activities of online-poker backing stables on PokerOK and on the GGPoker Network in general. The statement follows the publishing last week of an ultimatum issued by PokerOK's CEO demanding that the stables and their backers cease certain activities that are deemed detrimental to the overall player ecology on the platform.
Today's statement, published on several social-media platforms such as PokerOK's Telegram account, declares numerous activities as being actively conducted within the backing stables that must cease by the stable's participants and their backers. The activities include "teamplay, softplay, ghosting, collusion, bumhunting, multi-accounting, collective collection of statistics, notes and mining (of hands)."
The announcement also declares that the only form of backing that will be allowed in the future will have to be conducted through the player-backing function embedded within GGPoker's user client, and that an update is in the works that will allow all players to see who is backing any given player at the tables. Not stated directly but implied via the statement's specifics is that this will result in a massive (if not complete) curtailing of player-to-player funds-transferring capabilities.
The changes may result in modifications to GGPoker's Security and Ecology Policy, which was last updated on March 29. Changes have reportedly already been made to PokerOK's Russian-language version of GGPoker's SEP.
Complete text of statement (English-language)
Translated from the original Russian as posted online by PokerOK, here is the statement announcing the planned measures:
Joint statement by PokerOK and GGPoker Network
1. The activities of stables that systematically violate the rules of the platform (including teamplay, softplay, ghosting, collusion, bumhunting, multi-accounting, collective collection of statistics, notes and mining) must be stopped, otherwise according to the update dated 8 April Environmental and Safety Agreement, the bankrolls of stables players will be confiscated.We accept as true that poker is an individual game, and such activities of stables imply the promotion of an attitude towards poker as a collective game, which is contrary to the entire positioning of the GGPoker Network.
2. Backing of players in tournaments should only occur using the functionality of the PokerOK client on the GGPoker Network. In order to expand the functionality of backing, in the next two months we will implement a function that allows you to see a player’s backers.
3. Stables should not publicly advertise player backing. Backing should be a private arrangement and not a marketing tool to attract more players to stables.
4. Any stable that violates these rules is prohibited from doing business on PokerOK and GGPoker Network, as well as players associated with them, who may be subject to restrictions, blocking or confiscation of funds.
Most stables ignore PokerOK offer
At last report, according to another post made by PokerOK's CEO, the vast majority of the participants in large numbers of stables and backing funds have refused an offer to be allowed to continue playing on PokerOK if they signed a statement declaring they would no longer participate in many of the stables' questionable activities.
The crackdown, which has yet to be publicly embraced by other GGPoker skins, has resulted in thousands of posts in a major thread on the Russian-language GipsyTeam poker forum. Most of the posts made since PokerOK's announcements have been disapproving and occasionally defiant in nature.
The conflagration has spread across much of the online-poker world, in particular at higher stakes. In one Twitter/X post made today, former PartyPoker brand ambassador Patrick Leonard was one of the first to comment on today's joint PokerOK/GGPoker statement:
In replying to a comment made to his post, Leonard declared, "Poker (at least tournament poker) is dead without stables depending on how you define a stable. Maybe long term it is better/healthier but it’s going to be a long winter." Other commenters declared that they were quite happy to see a site -- meaning the GGPoker platform -- beginning to take action against certain stable-related activities.
