As a ten year industry pro then I have had to change the way that I operate on a regular basis. In fact only the other day I was having a discussion with many regs regarding the validity of using tracking software and HUD’s in online cash poker games. The argument that these software packages are available to everyone are pretty weak in my book. In theory then they are but realistically then they are not. This is because the online game is still very top heavy with recreational players even though the regs multi-table in greater and greater numbers, this does not alter the fact that vast numbers of recreational players are either watching the games, on play money games or micro stakes.
This leaves many of the regs playing higher up taking chunks out of each other. If you ask every single cash poker playing reg who uses a HUD whether they should be banned and they will all say a resounding “no” and then follow that with “the playing field is level because these items are available to all”. As I said the argument is weak because the reality is that the average new player may hear or read something about trackers and then build up an instant distrust of online poker……I have encountered this countless times and so I know what I am talking about. At the end of the day the online sites do not need multi-tabling regs as much as they need fresh blood coming in at the bottom.
While regs feed the sites by way of rake, if the games are very tight then the regs may not be paying as much rake as what you think and they can massively offset the effect of that by draining money from the fish. The rake already drains money from fish and so the sites can hardly be happy to have regs doing it as well. The poker sites spend vast amounts of money to attract new blood to the site, they are not doing this just to feed winning regs.
I have been saying for ages now how switching poker sites is becoming increasing important and one site that I have been taking a serious look at lately is the new and reopened Pokerroom. The software is good and there are often around 40,000 players active during peak time hours which is good if you want to multi-table. However I think that being able to change your screen name on a regular basis is a vital step forward to being able to side step the use of HUD’s and site tracking software. This may not totally eliminate them but even though I use a HUD quite often, it wouldn’t really affect me in the slightest if they were banned. Pokerroom has good player levels, plenty of fish, good software and good sign up bonuses (if that is your thing) but it is also well established as well and that is pretty important in light of what happened at Full Tilt Poker.
