Hello all,

Below, we have compiled replies to the most common questions that we receive through support. I am aware that this does not reply directly to individual posts here, but I hope this post will clarify our position on the most important issues.

If, after this, you still have questions for us on the broader lines of these changes, I will check back on this thread over the weekend, and try to answer as many posts as I can. However, if your are having questions about very specific features of specific programs, I will still have to direct you to our regular customer support.

So, on to the summary:

What is your revised stance towards Heat Maps?

Heads-Up Displays are no longer allowed to display statistics filtered on card values, meaning things such as post flop aggression values on specific texture types are no longer permitted. This also includes tracking how often players had a specific starting hand, meaning “heat maps” are now longer permitted to be used in Heads-Up displays.

These statistics may still be referenced in post-game analysis review sessions.

You have prohibited any tool that coordinate a player’s registrations into Spin & Gos. Can my friends and I still coordinate our registrations manually?

The only manner in which players are permitted to avoid being seated at the same Spin & Go table is by taking measures to avoid concurrent play within the same player pool. This can be achieved by either playing at different stake levels, or having entirely different timetables for playing sessions.

Our intention is to protect the spirit of Spin & Go registration as much as possible and as such, all forms of coordination while concurrently playing in the same player pool are prohibited regardless of how it is executed. We aim to prevent any large-scale abuse and when we spot any amount of players who are repeatedly and systematically avoiding each other while concurrently playing in the same player pool, we will take necessary actions.

You have restricted the number of possible colors used for a specific HUD statistic. Can different statistics still use different colors?

Yes. Our intention is to limit the contextual/implicit advice that sophisticated coloring profiles may provide to the player. That is, each statistic may only have at maximum three different colors used, based on two raw-value thresholds, but the actual colors used may differ between statistics.

Some non-Spin & Go seating scripts are no longer displayed on your website. Have you changed your stance towards the use of these tools?

Seating scripts that do not manipulate opponents in games in which you are unable to choose a specific table to play on remain permitted for now. We have opted to no longer include such tools in our list of examples, due to revisiting this policy in the future as mentioned here.

Can tools still calculate things like the Hutchinson point value of my Omaha starting hand?

No, such functionality would be considered interpretation of the current game state and is therefore prohibited.

Do the same color restrictions apply to other HUD-like information, such as displaying a player’s stack size in big blinds?

The color threshold restriction placed on HUDs is only applicable for the in-game retrieval of statistics based on a player’s historical play mid-session.

Other information that may be presented in a HUD-like form, such as a player’s stack size in big blinds, the M-equivalent of their stack size or the current pot odds facing a player would be considered game state information and therefore have tighter restrictions applied. No interpretation, commentary or advice can be given by game state reporters, which means that no dynamic coloring is permitted whatsoever.

Tools are no longer allowed to categorize or label players in-game. Can I still use tools to assign my own categorizes or labels?

Yes. Players are still allowed to assign their own categories/labels/badges to players based on their own observations.

Do I have to display the actual numerical value of the statistic itself, or can I simplify its display even further? For example, rather than displaying VPIP = 23%, can I just display VPIP = Green?

Yes, providing the statistic otherwise mimics a traditional numerical statistic in that it is always displayed and meets the threshold/color restrictions, its usage would still be considered numerical based and thus permitted.

Is there anything else you can share to help explain your policy regarding the “basic in nature” line when it comes to reference material?

Another way to interpret the “basic in nature” line is whether the reference material is something a regular person could realistically memorize. If it is something that could be memorized, by referring to it in game, one’s play has not changed; they have just prevented the need to actually go about memorizing it.

If it is not something one could memorize, by referring to it, they are altering the ultimate action they take, presumably for the better, which is the unfair advantage gained.

This obviously doesn’t remove the entirety of the subjectiveness but it does highlight that it is the amount of underlying data conveyed in the totality of the reference material used. It is not based on the number of individual pieces or the size of their representation.

In practice, in the common instance of starting hand tables where each cell of the table contains additional underlying information, such as a stack size, position or action, we’ve been interpreting the upper limit of “basic in nature” as four distinct tables.

Players are welcome to submit their reference material to us via email for definitive answers if they are unsure of the nature.

Which statistics are displayed in a HUD must be static throughout the hand. However, can you alter their display in other ways, other than the restrictions placed on their color?

No - any dynamic behavior, other than the explicit permitted change of their color, is prohibited. This means that displaying a statistic in 8-pt font the majority of the time, but displaying the same statistic in 16-pt font when it is deemed relevant is prohibited.

What do you mean by electronic navigation in terms of reference material? Wouldn’t this apply to everything in soft copy form?

Our original intention was for “electronic navigation” to encompass prohibiting dedicated tools that allow a player to click a button and have a specific chart appear but permit players to manually navigate an Excel sheet or specific folder on their hard drive. To avoid confusion we shall reduce the usage of “electronic navigation” and simply encompass the former scenario under “semi-automated information retrieval”.

Thanks,
Baard

Will there be any information released about catching people breaking these rules and the punishments they receive? Are we supposed to just blindly believe that the people with the most sophisticated software aren't using it undetected?

Millions of hands played by bots only caught when players themselves noticed they were suspicious doesn't give a lot of confidence in your ability to keep the games "fair".

1. When will these changes be implemented? Is there an estimated date?


2. So Huds will no longer be allowed. But holdem manager would still be allowed to run to record own hands etc right?


3. Will programs like tableninja, tableoptimizer, starshelper, be allowed? As you know these programs allow preset betting and post flop betting. Also it allows you to autoregister sngs. Can you tell us if these will be banned soon or it would be allowed. Reason is because i'm sure lot of people don't want to buy these software only to find out it is going to get banned.

Baard; which category does "number of hands played vs villain" come under. how many colours are we allowed to have for this statistic

huds are still allowed, with some new limitations

The new rules are pretty confusing and there are a lot of them, I hope, before you start banning players, you will notify them regarding what they are using which is prohibited, like the pop up you are getting when you are running a banned software

Is displaying VPIP, PFR by player stacksize in SNGs permitted?
Is 3 colors for stats by stacksize permitted?
Is a different trigger point for color change for different stacksizes for say VPIP permitted (resulting in let's say 12 different trigger points for VPIP depending on stacksize)?
Specifically, is CoffeeHUD permitted?
Can you pls comment on the various stats in CoffeeHUD whether they are allowed 3 colors or not?

"This obviously doesn’t remove the entirety of the subjectiveness but it does highlight that it is the amount of underlying data conveyed in the totality of the reference material used."

someone was paid to construct that sentence.

paid to construct it for an FAQ intended to clarify matters.

what a mess stars have gotten themselves into.

when you try to appease people who don't understand what they are complaining about you end up with this kind of squirming.

baard, when you allow paranoid people like mr buiscuit above to dictate to you, this sort of thing will happen; hollow drums bang loudest unfortunately.

You should pay someone to construct sentences for you. Have some self-respect.

I don't mean to offend, but it's incredibly tilting to read such poorly-constructed drivel (and you're not the only one). You're an English speaker - write like one.

Sorry to unload on you sir, but don't you want your opinions to be taken seriously?

To be fair, I was catching up on this thread, and I just read the last three awful contributions by pootietang, and that put me in a bad mood. Obviously, they're all 10000% worse than your posts - no more than a scant few grammatical fragments in all those walls of text. I just hit my tolerance limit.

Let's step it up, people. This incoherent stuff is just awful.

To be fair to him/ her, there is a difference between someone posting on a forum and a company posting about terms and conditions that should be clearly understood by all who use their site. This is especially important when breaking those rules can have such an impact on the end user, i.e. being banned from the site and having their bankroll confiscated.

I think Baard's post is a welcome addition to the thread, although it further confuses me in some parts.
I wish I knew what a "regular person" could realistically memorize. I know my check-raising range on a K54r flop in the BB vs UTG, but I need a series of sticky notes to remind me to pay the rent and get some cheerios.

as someone that writes daily to do lists, often days in advance,..... LOLOLOL

no offence taken.

at least there is someone 10000% worserer than me - that's, like, nearly eleven thousands percent worse - hard to imagine really.

hopefully you can pull yourself out of the bad mood you're in. X

Arty, just use an excel sheet. as long as it is navigated manally as opposed to bringing charts up by clicking a button it's ok. I think. though how 'manually navigating an excel chart or folder on your hard drive' differs from 'clicking a button and having a... chart appear' is anyone's guess.

maybe voice retrieval is the answer, oh wait....

How many charts pasted as sheets in an excel spreadsheet are allowed?
Two or three or as many as we "need"?
How many are "basic"?

Haha ok wtf. Care to explain how the points i am making are not good? or are you just a clueless little sourpuss troll?

is this really meant to be a clarifying statement? you've just made everything 10x more complicated by mentioning "something a regular person could realistically memorize." wtf is that? that's the worst baseline to work with ever.

Just wondering how Jivaro's graphical display for VPIP/PFR/AFq is still allowed under these rules?

Furthermore, their HUD is dynamic, in that if you mouse of the central panel the stats which are being display change.

And finally, you can change the HUD from street to street.

All three would seem to be banned under these rules, yet I still see people using it. Where as similar features in HM2/NC have had to be removed.

I've more or less memorized my charts (nothing special really - just 3b/4b/5b ranges for 6-max cash and some reminders to use mixed frequencies for some hands), but since the rules are unclear, I'm gonna see how I get on without the charts on my desktop.
Remembering to buy some milk is gonna be beyond me, however. :/
I'd like some clarification on this if possible, as I played a couple of donkaments today using my HEM2 HUD and the stats for BB and M were colour-coded. I used 3 colours, which basically represent normal stack, medium stack, and dangerzone. The stack size indication is possibly the most useful HUD stat for me when I play donkaments, since they always turn into push/fold games eventually. Are you saying that the BB (or M) stat can't be colour-coded according to thresholds?
Note: The colour doesn't change mid-hand (i.e. "dynamically"), but the number (and colour) is shown at the start of each hand, such that someone who was a mid-stack on the previous hand (with a number shown in orange, for example) might be a shorty at the start of the next one (with a number in red or green, or whatever colour preference you have for highlighting the short-stack ninjas).
P.S. I cashed in both tourneys with less than 1bb, because I'm the new Allen Kessler. Cheers.

I agree.

Do you mean the numbers aren't displayed in the free version of Jivaro until you mouse over the graphical display? This isn't a change of the stats based on actions in the hand. It is no different than HUD popups in HM2.

You can *MANUALLY* change the HUD stats being displayed to match the street. The Jivaro s/ware is not permitted by PS to do this automatically any more. If Jivaro haven't updated the s/ware yet to abide by the ruling they soon will do so. They are discussing the best manual method at the moment or they've implemented the change - I'm not sure which because I don't use Jivaro. See this thread for latest on dynamic HUD changes [You might have to sign in to Jivaro to read it]: https://forums.jivaro.com/index.php?...eleased#latest

PS are being careful to be as co-operative as possible with those 3rd party s/ware providers who are doing the best to comply so I'm guessing Jivaro users who use out of date versions of Jivaro are not being warned yet by PS to update

In terms of the stats changing. I am talking about in the premium version, it shows something like 3bet / fold to 3bet on the main panel, but if you mouse over it changes those to vpip / pfr.

In terms of the changing of the HUD. I am aware it is now manual (which IMO is pretty useless), but it still making the HUD dynamic, which from what is written in the official PS postings that is a no no.

It is pretty clear that it PS state that anything dynamic in nature, even font size changes, are forbidden. Basically the HUD has to remain static throughout the hand, which the above two features obviously don't meet those conditions.

easystreet by propokerhuds allows manual hud switching by street with hotkeys and is compliant with the rule changes from what I understand

Playing on Pokerstars now..

I got a warning playing with HEM 1 open. HEM 2 remains listed as acceptable for use, why is HEM 1 generating a warning, since HEM 2 is supposed to provide a much greater advantage?

I think it's because HEM2 has been updated so that it falls within the new terms and conditions but HEM1 hasn't