PokerStars issues Cease & Desist letters to PTR (and they crumbled) - Page 11 - Poker News

RU18LOL · 04-18-2012, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by whatdafeck

Yeah defo shut up shop.

Domain up for sale.

Good news for poker.

Source?

SantaCruz · 04-18-2012, 04:44 PM

I think that bringing down PTR is a good thing for online poker but I don't think PokerStars (or the other sites for that matter) are going far enough.

I realize that my view might not be too popular here at 2+2 considering that many past and present video coaches help run the site but this is how I see it:

The various training sites, DeucesCracked, Bluefire, etc. regularly teach people how to play against specific opponents at the table without those opponents' permission or even their knowledge that a training video is being made.

There are players that I play against every day of whose stats and play I've seen analyzed; I've been shown exactly how to win their money. Great for me, not so great for them, especially considering that they will probably never know that such a video was made unless they happen to be a member of that site. This is more damaging to those players than any info that PTR provides. Profit margins are a little smaller these days, the last thing any player needs are other players searching them out with predigested knowledge of their game. Now that US players are restricted to playing at small sites, the liklihood that any one of us is going to become a case study has gone way up.

The poker sites need to require that video makers either change the usernames (and icons) or provide a way to announce that a video is being made. Just using the chatbox isn't enough since not everyone uses the chatbox.

Squibz · 04-18-2012, 05:13 PM

Works fine for me. Complete speculation, but I would say it's possible they changed to GoDaddy because it's US-based. Also, "domains by proxy" for whois info, same thing that most porn sites do, pretty hard to figure out how you're supposed to take to court.

Registrant:
Domains By Proxy, LLC
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: POKERTABLERATINGS.COM
Created on: 04-Dec-08
Expires on: 04-Dec-14
Last Updated on: 18-Apr-12

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration POKERTABLERATINGS.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains By Proxy, LLC
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2598

Technical Contact:
Private, Registration POKERTABLERATINGS.COM@domainsbyproxy.com
Domains By Proxy, LLC
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States
(480) 624-2599 Fax -- (480) 624-2598

Hood · 04-18-2012, 05:29 PM

The domain has been registered at godaddy for a while. Before today, the DNS servers they were using were provided by a third-party. Today, they switched to Godaddy's own DNS servers. This could be a temp. move. Whether this was forced (the third-party DNS provide complied to a legal demand), pre-emptive, or for other reasons entirely, is purely speculation. But PokerStars is claiming the former.

KelvinKe · 04-18-2012, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChicagoRy

Are you talking about PTR or PokerStars heads up cash table policies for the last few years?

The game state should've been changed years ago to discourage or cut back some of the bum hunting from happening to the extent that it is.

Of course seeing losing stats on PTR is bad for fish. Seeing winning stats of big winners is good for fish though. Of course the heads up cash system encourages tons of bumhunting too, which is a poker room policy and that is a bad system for fish too. So lets not say PTR is all bad, nor ignore PokerStars role in bum hunting and fish being picked on to a severe extent.

Why they never did something like require a minimum amount of hands played when a player sits you is beyond my understanding, it would encourage more action, it would encourage less "picking on" the bottom end of players and as long as the number wasn't too high it wouldn't be very restrictive (sit and play 30 hands unless you or your opponent loses your stack).

By the way, the coaching and interest positives brought up with PTR can be solved pretty easily: Only publish results of winning players (or winning players over $x). No more fish being made fun of, you can still verify a coach/stakee/pro's results and PTR still makes (some) money.

But I'd like to see that come with PokerStars actually addressing the heads up cash lobby system. It's been piss poor for far too long for anybody to act like PTR is damaging heads up cash games but the ridiculous overbumhunting is not is not being honest about the situation.

It's pretty simple, when countries are closing down populations of players and only the best players from the closed down countries relocate and return, you'll have more regs, and when you allow anybody that plays the ability to be "protected" by any other player they don't want to play, this will just compound into such an unbalanced state, so adjust the game state a little bit, that's all.

Start a separate thread and bash Stars seeing as you feel so strongly about it. This thread is about PTR and its damages to the poker communities not Stars' role in combating the bumhunting issues

Dave47 · 04-18-2012, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcl

Mostly because there is no contract? Ptr never said it complied with stars terms n conditions. N even if logging in was only way to datamine, thus breaching he terms, stars just has rights to close the account, not sue for damages

not sure who told u stars could only close your account if t and cs were breached lmao. Thats like saying all a bank could do was close your account after you committed fraud. Remember the time betfair but players accounts below zero? Stars can make similar actions when required

ChicagoJoey · 04-18-2012, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by epcfast

"Coaches" the world over rejoice.
Win rate claims jump massively.

lol this is so spot on, o yea since ptr shut down i've been winning at 6ptbb

jcl · 04-18-2012, 06:21 PM

Looks like it worked.

ChicagoJoey · 04-18-2012, 06:21 PM

bustoooooo

fanapathy · 04-18-2012, 06:22 PM

http://www.pokertableratings.com/blo...files-removed/

(...)
That said, we will fully adhere to the cease and desist notice by Stars, though we do not believe that we are a disservice to the online poker community.(...)

Roy · 04-18-2012, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Whether we are providing replays of infamous hot streaks, colossal downswings, finding critical security breaches in poker software clients or publicly outing bot and collusion rings for the sake of game integrity, PokerTableRatings has had a long history of being actively involved in the online poker community.

Recent contact by Stars has led to the removal of this network’s player profiles from PTR. The current management team of PTR has been in place for just under a year and since day 1 we have been exploring ways to compromise with brands in order to create positive relationships for the betterment of the community. Through these valued partnerships we have created innovative promotions and features for our users and have many more in development. Unfortunately we have been unable to gain communication with Stars during this time and it has come to a hostile dissolution of service for this brand. They have taken formal action against us and we will comply with their demands and have the brand removed from the site.

The most contentious aspects of PTR seem to be the premium services we provide, namely player stats, however when compared to widely-accepted poker HUDs from other software providers, we believe the differences are negligible. Tools exist to give advantages to players who know how to use them and who are willing to pay for them, plain and simple and these will not go away. Players will always be looking for advantages and we are just one of many services offering an advantage.

That said, we will fully adhere to the cease and desist notice by Stars, though we do not believe that we are a disservice to the online poker community. We continue to search and most importantly detect bot rings month after month and provide information about these true game-breaking activities to brands that care about the integrity of their games. We’ve provided unrivaled publicity to players who have gone on to become sponsored celebrities of the online poker world and we have given all players a public forum to show off their impressive wins or gain sympathy for their crushing defeats.

We still fully believe in our product and will continue to introduce new and exciting features to our customers. We have been actively developing new tools that will give more control and ownership of profiles to their respective players so that PTR can be a service that every poker player would be proud to use. The latest events, though a disruption in our plans, do not derail them. Our team is committed to evolving PTR even further in order to continue to provide hundreds of thousands of members of the online poker community with valued services and tools to keep the game of poker fun and engaging for all.

http://www.pokertableratings.com/blo...files-removed/