WSOP makes announcement as calls for phone ban grow

The WSOP has come closer to a definitive position around the use of solvers at the World Series, although the debate remains far from over.

A heated discussion arose earlier this week after James Chen posted photos of tablemate Frederic Normand with the GTO Wizard app open on his phone. Among the issues of privacy and policy, many were divided over the scale of the problem, the potential solutions, and how effective any such steps could be at a time when advances in wearable and hands-free technology are happening so rapidly.

For now, the WSOP has introduced an announcement at the start of events, clarifying its stance and ensuring that all players are aware of the rule. Click above for the video, as shared by James Chen via X.

The announcement says: "We please ask you not to use any type of poker solvers at any point in time at the table or in the tournament area. If you're found using one of these poker solvers, there's a possibility of being disqualified from this tournament."

GTO or GTFO?

Given that the use of solvers such as GTO Wizard in real time is viewed as tantamount to cheating - as the app can provide game theory-optimized solutions to specific poker situations - one of the proposed solutions is a blanket ban on phones at the tables.

Noted tournament director Matt Savage raised the possibility via a poll on X, asking if a phone ban was worth discussing at the next meeting of the Tournament Directors Association at the end of the month. With almost 3,000 votes, the results were mixed, although almost 50% advocated a ban.

Meanwhile, the topic was discussed at length on the most recent episode of the Solve For Why podcast (head to around the 41-minute mark to jump right in).

"I think it's insane to police what people do in between hands," said host Matt Berkey, and it’s an opinion which a lot of players appear to share. Others point to the fact that many players need their phones for work, family or simply social reasons.

And while phones may be banned at casino table games, as Berkey’s co-host Conrad Simpson says, “You don’t sit at a table game for seven hours… When it comes down to it, people have lives, people have kids, people have jobs… some people work while they’re literally at the table”.

Others in the poker community - in particular, it seems, those who remember a time before mobile phones became ubiquitous - would welcome the absence of phones at the poker table.

Aside from social considerations, there are concerns around the existential threat solver technology may pose to poker as a whole - live as well as online.

As with so many conversations around the ethics of advancing technology, it can be difficult to draw the line between genuine threats and worse-case-scenario doom-mongering. Likewise, some of the arguments supporting the continued use of phones may be clouded by people’s own personal habits and preferences.

The WSOP may have introduced a ‘soft ban’ on solvers at the series when not in a hand (threatening only the ‘possibility of being disqualified’), but for now this remains a problem without a long-term solution.