Online Poker Data Mining - The Pro Opinion IV

Following on from Card Player’s recent report about the data mining dilemma facing the online poker industry we decided to ask a selection of players their thoughts on what has become a very sensitive issue.

Each player was asked if they use online poker tracking tools and if they felt people should be allowed to data mine; is it good or bad for the game, does it change the game at all, and what was their opinion of sites taking action against it? This resulted in a surprisingly mixed reaction which you can read every day over the coming week.

Rory Rees Brennan

I use PokerTracker yes, but I’m not really a big data mining guy, like I wouldn’t be reviewing hands and looking for tendencies of my opponents. I guess I probably should since a lot of players are, but I just don’t.

I think it’s probably bad for the game, online. It just gives the pros even more of an edge on the recreational players since obviously they’d use all these tools less than the pros. Professionals go in with intricate information they know about bad players and can exploit their weaknesses even easier.

I think it’d be pretty cool and interesting if some sites took action against it. I’m not sure how they could, but I’m sure some technical people could find a way to ensure no hand histories or block all players’ statistics. Also if everyone could change their names daily it would be interesting as nobody would know who is who and maybe there’d be more action.

Cristiano Blanco

I don’t use any online software, I just use SharkScope. I play mostly multi-table tournaments online, and all my cash games are mostly live. My personal opinion is that they should be banned, because poker is a game between people, not between software. I haven’t seen any websites doing anything against data mining, but I really hope they will do something in the near future. To give a suggestion I would have to be an expert of software and I am not, but I am sure there is a way to encrypt the information to hide it from others.

Check out the opinions of French pro Arnaud Mattern, Brandon Schaefer and Joe Elpayaa.

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