Players and spectators will be prohibited from consulting solver outputs in any part of the playing area and rail, starting in Barcelona this week.
The fallout from LaptopGate continues as the European Poker Tour has announced new rules regarding the use of technology in the playing area.
Tournament Director and PokerStars Ambassador Kenny Hallaert announced new rules, which included a shorter shot clock, no more redraws at three tables and dealers to slide instead of pitch cards, to prevent the bottom of them from being exposed.
He also outlined new rules regarding technology. No device with solvers in them will be allowed in the whole tournament area, including spectators.
Changes regarding some rules and procedures that will come into play @PokerStarsLIVE EPT Barcelona.
Shotclocks: Time will be reduced on first action in the hand to 15 seconds instead of 30. Timebanks will still be worth 30 seconds each.
We were considering removing all…
— Kenny Hallaert (@SpaceyFCB) August 26, 2024
The specific rule is as follows:
Players are not permitted to use at the table or anywhere in the tournament room area at any time game theory optimal (GTO) solver software, GTO charts (whether used on an Electronic Device or otherwise) or any AI tool or similar algorithmic software that is capable of affording the user a competitive advantage in the Tournament. We also don’t allow any spectator to make any use of electronic devices with solvers inside the poker tournament area.
The aftermath of LaptopGate
This is in the wake of the infamous Main Event rail, where Dominik Nitsche and Joe McKeehen were consulting a laptop on the rail and giving eventual champion Jonathan Tamayo guidance between hands.
It’s not the first time a laptop was used at the rail, but the poker community is more aware of the damaging potential of lookup databases.
The controversy of the final table was escalated by the defiance of Dominik Nitsche thereafter and he has not changed his tune, and quickly challenged Hallaert on the rules, suggesting that this should mean all phones should be banned.
The rule is poorly written. “A device with a solver in them” can refer to mobile phones and tablets like it can to laptops.
Ban one of them and you need to ban all.
Only banning laptops makes it look like you care about the optics more than integrity of the game.
— Dominik Nitsche (@DominikNitsche) August 26, 2024
While Nitsche is right that any phone could, in theory, access any database or computer in the world, the fact that there is a ‘don’t relay solver information’ rule of any kind will surely work well as a deterrent, especially given the exposure the WSOP Main Event story got this year.
It now seems like it is only a matter of time before other tours, most notably the World Series of Poker, announce a similar rule.
Will this rule help? Let us know in the comments: