PTR allows precise information about players' statistics to be available for free for the whole internet. Many people think that this hurts action.

On a positive note, PTR allows various kinds of cheating and angleshooting to be more easily detectable independently of the pokersite.

Anyone know what (if any) the caps on viewable tables are? There should def be a cap that changes based on VIP status or something else

(i.e. you can watch 4 tables without an account, 6 tables with an account, 10 tables with a real money account that has been active in the past 3 months, 40 tables if you're Supernova, 100 if you're SNE)

Didn't spend any time thinking about the specifics, but you get the idea.

Why would ou wanne see 100 tables?

I just spouted numbers off the top of my head. 100 is too high. Focus on the general idea of what I said, not the specifics.

Yeah, I really like this. I'm wondering what it would mean for PTR's ability to track hands. Maybe they just go from recording 99% of peoples' hands to like 10%?

PTR have loads of PCs tracking right? They'd just increase this somehow?

I'd love to see PTR go away. However it does not seem like the sites are going to be able to win that battle.

Instead I'd like to see something similar to what PG suggested where everyone gets a screen name change every '6 months' unless you are a 'high stakes' player. This keeps the 'high stakes' players in the public view which is so important to inspire depositors. At the same time it allows the vast majority of players to keep their long-term play history private.

High stakes could be defined as 50-100+

Here are a few ideas that would help:

1.
I like this idea, something like limiting the number of tables a player can observe to the following:
2 tables: no account
4 tables: account
6 tables: real money active last 3 months (up to and including Silver Star)
8 tables: Gold Star
12 tables: Platinum
16 tables: Supernova
24 tables: Supernova

I don't know what the numbers are currently, but this should at the very least make it much more expensive for PTR to operate.

2. Implement some sort of captcha system if a player is only observing tables and not playing. If after 15-30 minutes, a player has only been observing tables without playing then display a captcha popup box somewhere. Randomize it's location. Continue to popup captchas every 15-30 minutes if a player only continues to observe games.

3. Set a time limit for how long a game can be observed. 45 minutes? 60 minutes? You could even scale it like the first idea, based upon a player's account status. For example:
30 minutes: no account
45 minutes: account
60 minutes: real money active last 3 months (up to and including Silver Star)
180 minutes: Platinum Star
360 minutes: Supernova
Unlimited: Supernova Elite

Do not implement the time limit for games 25-50 or 50-100+ as a lot of people like to sweat those games. Allowing players to sweat the big games is something that is overall good for poker. The same applies to tournaments.

Additionally, some people like to sweat their friends. This shouldn't be prevented. A friends list should be implemented where if two players add each other as friends, then they will be allowed to sweat each other for an unlimited period of time. However, there would be no annoyances around this. A player would not be notified if a friend request was sent. The players would mutually have to agree to add each other on their own.


I don't think the above will totally solve the PTR problem, but I think at the very least, it will make things much more difficult for PTR.

guys, there already is a limit on the number of tables you can observe without being logged in. if they need more accounts/computers, they will set them up. stars can only do so much without actually affecting the gameplay. PTR hurts games without a doubt, but it makes money and has great programmers and isnt going away.

what about eliminating text hand histories? (keep image HHs just to prevent super obvious collusion)

it's not like there's any other good reason to have text HHs

PT/HEM won't work, HUDs won't work, ppl no happy

Also, on most sites you don't collect text HHs as observer. You're essentially changing the game and not doing anything about PTR.

To stop PTR you have to prevent them from seeing the table or prevent them from scraping the actions.

You shouldn't be able to see the names of the tables/HH unless you are a registered member and that your address is verified. I think this way PTR would need a **** load of registered account to be able to have any decent tracking.

If you still can see the names and limit it to at least 1 table. PTR will just increase their number of computer/virtual session and just keep tracking.

I heard a rumor about a year ago that there were some meetings between some of the major sites about organizing a continual DDOS attack against PTR. I'm pretty surprised nothing ever came of this. It seems like the only real way to stop it (until the next one popped up etc).

they just screen scrape anyway

Didn't FTP stop ptr for several months before April 15? Assuming they did, anyone know how they did this?