Partypoker prohibits the use of HUD
In recent years, Party Poker has earned a lot of flattering reviews, regularly delighting with pleasant innovations. In the last 3 months alone, a record (at that time) $ 2,000,000 was announced to the Spins winner, the introduction of a new competitive element aimed at stimulating interest from hobby players to appear more often and longer at the poker tables. This was followed by the establishment of the Diamond Club Elite loyalty program aimed at regular players and offering conditions similar to the legendary (and long gone) Supernova Elite title on Pokerstars. The last good news was the MTT Monster Series poker series that started the day before.
All the more unexpected was the news of the upcoming cancellation of the use of HUD, striking right into the heart of any caring poker player. As much as I would not like to believe that this is just a rumor, but unpleasant information was voiced by one of the owners of Party Poker - Rob Young.
(There should have been a photo of Rob Young, but after engaging Google and scrutinizing the subject, the editorial team decided to post a photo of Sean Young.)
The news of the imminent ban on the use of statistics at party poker has been confirmed by several high stakes regulars. A timeline for the fateful decision has not been named, but it is expected to coincide with the launch of a new platform from partypoker, expected within 9-12 months.
Nothing is new under the moon
In the past few years, the management of many poker rooms have begun to express concern about the unhealthy situation within these very rooms. There are too many regular players, on the contrary, the number of recreational players has decreased. The difference in game level between professional players and hobby players has become enormous! As a result, the speed of losing money by weak players has noticeably increased in favor of strong ones. This has led to a butterfly effect in the form of a waning interest in poker from recreational players, who do not get any pleasure from quick losses and finally leave poker in favor of other entertainment. We must not forget about the noticeable increase in the ways to spend money on the ever-growing entertainment industry (a huge number of paid streaming services providing exclusive content, the progress of computer games and consoles, which are almost indistinguishable from real life and a myriad of other ways to diversify leisure), which have not been completely overcome the aftermath of Black Friday, the tightening of poker and gambling laws in most countries, and a general downturn in the global economy.
Therefore, the rooms began to implement measures to improve the poker environment. This led to the following unpleasant things: cutting down or completely abolishing loyalty programs (this is by no means an allusion to Pokerstars, because opening chests equates us with adventurers from the 17th century, which, you see, is more interesting than some insignificant rakeback), lower guarantees in the biggest online poker tournaments, higher rake and fight against bumhunters. One of the breakthrough directions for improving environmental friendliness was the ban on the use of HUD and tracking software. A similar decision was reached in Microgaming, Unibet, Pokerdom and a number of smaller poker rooms. Now Party Poker has also resorted to banning the use of statistics.
Affected Party's Opinion
The result of the ban on tracking software and HUD will be a decrease in win rates for regulars and a longer “life” of weak players. Naturally, the feedback from professional players about the decision to party poker is extremely hard-hitting. For some, this even means an inevitable game of 0, or even a minus. It would be pointless for them to play at Partypoker under such conditions. There is an alternative opinion, the essence of which boils down to the fact that the advantage of really strong players will only increase. Both due to the departure of weak Raycomes from life (poker, of course) or to other rooms, and an increase in the influx of these same hobby players to the poker tables. Are you ready to spend hundreds and hundreds of hours in poker software to become one of them? Here everyone will decide for himself.
One of the most controversial topics is the fight against bots. Unfortunately, it's already 2019, Skynet is about to seize all power on the planet, which means that the use of special algorithms by unscrupulous players that allow them to siphon money from unsuspecting (or suspecting, but having no evidence) poker players has reached incredible scale. Tracking software and HUD were one of the few ways to prove to the support service of the rooms (including the party poker security department) that it was not a real person who was playing against them, but an insensitive machine. In an ideal world, this would not be a problem with the proper scrupulous work of the technical support and security service of Party Poker and other rooms, but they often fail and allow attackers to leave unpunished, and even with the money of honest and respected people to her.
In especially interesting situations, the use of bots may be the work of not ordinary scammers, but the room itself. Quite a fun deal, isn't it?
Shot yourself in the leg
The Party Poker decision will have different consequences. One thing is predictable with a high degree of probability - the departure of a significant number of regular players and the general drop in traffic on the partypoker network. Professional players will certainly diminish the desire to play at Partypoker. Previous efforts and valiant undertakings are almost completely erased by one decision. Aspirations to catch up with Pokerstars in traffic are destined to remain unattainable dreams.
Online picture at party poker is not too optimistic now
And the consequences of eliminating HUD can be described by a universal picture.
Only one thing can be said with certainty: it's time to make an avatar with the Partypoker emblem and the inscription: "They are killing poker." And I advise you. You can still not play for a week. Online poker party will collapse by 25 people and this will inevitably reverse the situation. This time it will definitely work, infa 146%. However, it cannot be ruled out that in response partypoker will follow the example of Pokerstars and also introduce chests.