Fedor Holtz, Jason Koon's replacement Integrity Ambassador at GG, recently declared war on mining :
– I'm sure we all appreciate poker in its true form – man against man. Therefore, my main priority for security is to strictly limit the use of mining and MDA (Mass Data Analysis) using HUDs.
GGPoker will be strengthening its efforts to combat third-party malware. There will be many more challenges along the way, but this is an important step to ensure fair and safe gaming online.
In the comments to his own post, Fedor addressed Andrew Lichtenberger:
– Hi luckychewy, I think you'll like this :)
“I’m intrigued and glad that at least something is being discussed,” Andrew replied. – But, to be honest, I’m a little skeptical. For example, how will you fight against teams that have already purchased mining and managed to study the over/underbluffs of the field? You won't be able to help players who don't have this information either. The main problem with MDA is that you have no control over your own ban. But I wish you to find a solution that suits everyone.
– You’re right, you can’t do anything with the knowledge you’ve already acquired, but the game is constantly evolving, so the data needs to be updated all the time. When manual mining becomes impossible and third-party software is banned, I’m sure online poker will be better.
“The most vulnerable to mining are amateurs and weak regs who do not change their strategy,” Patrick Howard, the main opponent of the reform, answered Fedor.
In the comments, many took Fedor’s statement with hostility.
“This is complete bullshit.' said Tristan Wade sharply, "Multiple sites have been CAUGHT cheating or having security exploits due to players having data to look through of win rates and such. I’m fine with trying to make the game more secure, but your site just had a super user and this is your focus? FOH😤"
“Superusers on GG and bots on ACR were caught only because players had access to the history of hands,” George Froggatt agrees. – Naturally, in an ideal world, players should not have access to MDA, but in this case, the room should have a very competent security service. Only by creating it will it be possible to prohibit something, but even then it should be somewhere at the bottom of the list of priorities.
GG is looking to ban mining because it would lead to less transparency when it comes to win rates and the poker ecology in general. I hope Fedor agreed to this position with good motives and will direct all his efforts to combat the real threats of online poker – RTA and bots 🙏
George's readers couldn't hold back their emotions:
– One user wrote, "The fact that Fedor is the “Integrity Ambassador” but refuses to answer this proves that he is just another player selling out the community for a paycheck. His tweet on HUDs and MDA only purpose is to give the illusion of security."
But George urged, "We should give him some time. MDA is unfair too, but with how GG have behaved historically, pumping rake, failing to detect superusers, the access to data has allowed the community to protect themselves and been a net positive really."
Patrick Howard tried to explain in detail why the ban will not lead to anything good :
– This is what GG wants to hide from us. Below is a list of players sorted by number of hands at NL200. Almost the entire field is losing without rakeback.
I will give a similar list for NL1k, the win rates there are even worse. At a decent distance, only one person shows a win rate of more than 2evbb/100. Ask yourself: is anyone playing for profit there at all, except the room itself?
According to Primedope, GG has a base rake at NL1k of 4.67 bb/100.
This is more than 2.5 times more than PokerStars or ACR. At higher limits the difference is even more noticeable.
Update: I was wrong about this part.
The base rake at NL1k is about 8 bb/100, that is, 4 times higher than competitors!
At best, the average GG regular is a rakeback slave who grinds for leaderboards and earns next to nothing. And due to the complex PVI system, many players do not even understand what rakeback they have. Is this the poker dream? 🤔
But that's not all. Last April, GG raised the rake without warning. At NL5k they almost doubled it to an incredible 7bb/100, prompting a boycott.
Yesterday they announced that they plan to ban mining. From my post you can see that this feature is useful online as it adds transparency. Mining is necessary to help players assess the profitability of the game. It is also used to catch scammers. Just two months ago, the community discovered superuser MoneyTaker69. This became possible thanks to database analysis.
Bots on ACR were found using a similar method.
Players can actually use data mining to gain an unfair advantage. This can be effectively combated only if all tables are closed to spectators. But in this case, the community will lose any opportunity to monitor the purity of the game. Given the past security issues in GG and other rooms, it seems to me that mining has historically done more good than harm. If GG removes this feature and continues to dominate the market, the future of online looks very bleak.
After listening to a stream of criticism, Fedor wrote a report yesterday :
– Some players express dissatisfaction with my new role. I understand it. My goal is to make the poker environment better and safer not only in GG, but also beyond.
I'm sure this is a unique opportunity for me to do something useful and pass on the valuable feedback I receive from the players. In poker there will always be cheaters trying to take advantage of the system's flaws. We should focus not on problems, but on solutions that will make their lives as difficult as possible.
Perhaps it was not clear from my first post, but my main task is to fight tips and bots. Methods for detecting them have already improved significantly, and this year I expect significant progress in this matter. I will keep you informed.
Fedor did instantly reach out to myself and a rep from the PLO cash team and we are discussing points and priorities.
— George (@George_ymb) February 16, 2024
This role does represent much higher access for players to have input on GG GI team priorities, so I'm hopeful we can make a difference 🙏 https://t.co/Vj3WVCp998
