Bot farm said to have taken $10m out of ACR economy

[Dan Druff]

A guy named TylerRM posted this on 2+2: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...n-wpn-1830157/

Whlie there is no verification that his numbers are accurate, he posts a lot of links to data, and I'm guessing this is roughly correct.

ACR has long been known to be poor at detecting bots, and even worse at banning them when people complain. They briefly did a campaign where they would ban bots and publicly out them, but that died quickly.

It is not clear why ACR is so bad at removing bots. Some suspect that owner Phil Nagy likes the massive rake and activity they generate, while others think ACR just doesn't care because it really only affects pros at the end (fish will lose no matter what).

This led to British poker pro Patrick Leonard to post this rant on Twitter:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/padspoker/status/1742916713845579969



Patrick isn't really wrong here, but this isn't the best statement. He fails to call out any particular site (though it's highly implied to be against ACR, and to a lesser extent, GG), and he doesn't give any recommendations as to where to play. He does semi-endorse Pokerstars in a subsequent tweet when people criticized him for this.

Unfortunately, "just don't play on these sites" isn't an option if you're a poker pro without live options, or if the live options don't work for you (for example, if you have children you can't leave at home). Also, in the US market, there are not many options if you don't have legalized online poker in your state (or even if you do, as those sites are fairly dead). You basically have ACR, Bovada, Global, Betonline, and those fail apps like Pokerbros.

[FRANKRIZZO]

Bovada is the tits , really saddned they moved out of ny and won't let nyers play. Not like owner of bovada forget his name will ever step foot in usa.

[dmndkutr]

This did not appear to stay up for long :

[FRANKRIZZO]

For many years acr didn't let you see river card of opponent to protect the fish. Said it was to hard to fix. Now you can see players holdings. 100 k is a pittance. I like it though

[Dan Druff]

Well, this whole thing is getting weird.

As dmndkutr posted, Chris Moneymaker posted a strange challenge to people, offering $100k (of ACR's money) to anyone who can create a bot to play on there, and get 5,000 hands through without getting caught. He claimed anyone successfully doing so would also get a "job at WPN (the ACR network)".

Then... the post vanished.

It was replaced by a new one, this time with Ebony Kenney of all people, speaking with Chris about the matter, and basically making the identical offer.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1743104172075979210


Someone saved the original Chris-only version: https://streamable.com/jdqypm



There are all kinds of bizarre things about this.

First off, as I said in my tweet, it was a strange choice to replace Chris' rather straightforward video with the conversational one featuring Ebony. While Ebony Kenney might have some positives as a brand ambassador, sincerity and trustworthiness are NOT what she's known for. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

In fact, as recently as 2022, Ebony Kenney made allegations that Daniel Negreanu had sexually harassed her at the table (with his eyes, lol) so badly that she couldn't wait to bust out of a $10k event. However, Daniel countered with a video showing that in 2014, Ebony said in an interview that he was her favorite poker player, and that he had a "great energy" to him! LOL! So somehow in 2014 he was her favorite player and had a great energy, yet many years later she was retroactively super-offended by his behavior in 2008. Riiiiiiiight.

So why pick Ebony to co-deliver this controversial offer about botting, rather than just Chris himself, who is generally liked and trusted? No idea.


But the offer itself is also strange. Chris is not making this offer on his own dime, nor is he claiming it's his idea. Rather, he's just delivering a message from ACR management, presumably Phil Nagy.

So they're offering people the free, unrestricted opportunity to cheat with bots, with zero consequence if caught? And if not caught, they get $100k for cheating? What?!

Oh, and then there's also the problem that someone running a successful, multimillion dollar bot ring isn't going to give away their secrets for $100k.


As you might imagine, this offer is NOT going over well.

Also, there are logistical issues. How do you prove you were running a bot for all 5,000 hands? Do you need video of all 5,000 hands being played, and the bot playing it for you? They don't specify this.

ACR is really screwing up their PR lately. This is even worse than Phil Nagy's disasterous Christmas poem, following site failures.

[sah_24]

Well, this whole thing is getting weird.

As dmndkutr posted, Chris Moneymaker posted a strange challenge to people, offering $100k (of ACR's money) to anyone who can create a bot to play on there, and get 5,000 hands through without getting caught. He claimed anyone successfully doing so would also get a "job at WPN (the ACR network)".

Then... the post vanished.

It was replaced by a new one, this time with Ebony Kenney of all people, speaking with Chris about the matter, and basically making the identical offer.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1743104172075979210


Someone saved the original Chris-only version: https://streamable.com/jdqypm





There are all kinds of bizarre things about this.

First off, as I said in my tweet, it was a strange choice to replace Chris' rather straightforward video with the conversational one featuring Ebony. While Ebony Kenney might have some positives as a brand ambassador, sincerity and trustworthiness are NOT what she's known for. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

In fact, as recently as 2022, Ebony Kenney made allegations that Daniel Negreanu had sexually harassed her at the table (with his eyes, lol) so badly that she couldn't wait to bust out of a $10k event. However, Daniel countered with a video showing that in 2014, Ebony said in an interview that he was her favorite poker player, and that he had a "great energy" to him! LOL! So somehow in 2014 he was her favorite player and had a great energy, yet many years later she was retroactively super-offended by his behavior in 2008. Riiiiiiiight.

So why pick Ebony to co-deliver this controversial offer about botting, rather than just Chris himself, who is generally liked and trusted? No idea.


But the offer itself is also strange. Chris is not making this offer on his own dime, nor is he claiming it's his idea. Rather, he's just delivering a message from ACR management, presumably Phil Nagy.

So they're offering people the free, unrestricted opportunity to cheat with bots, with zero consequence if caught? And if not caught, they get $100k for cheating? What?!

Oh, and then there's also the problem that someone running a successful, multimillion dollar bot ring isn't going to give away their secrets for $100k.


As you might imagine, this offer is NOT going over well.

Also, there are logistical issues. How do you prove you were running a bot for all 5,000 hands? Do you need video of all 5,000 hands being played, and the bot playing it for you? They don't specify this.

ACR is really screwing up their PR lately. This is even worse than Phil Nagy's disasterous Christmas poem, following site failures.

Ray Bitar Jr. continues to not disappoint ! lols

[garrett]

Any chance Ebony Kenney and Chris Moneymaker had a thing???

[hesterandeldridge]

the ebony kenney thing doesn't matter druff. your sexism is showing again

the problem is having 2 rec players trying to diffuse a serious problem with a bullshit challenge.

i think moneymaker just does not understand and has been denying the existence of bots on ACR for a while now

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/wugwugwugwug/status/1518120179535958017


i think this goes much deeper than him. that 10 milly bot farm also paid 3 million in rake , so in the end acr is getting paid.

with all the data sets they have , ACR/GG can easily filter out for bots but they choose not to , so imo they are complicit in this

[garrett]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1743104172075979210

[garrett]

gl and lol Online Poker #2024

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/LucasBalizaPLO5/status/1742932679132319932

[FRANKRIZZO]

This did not appear to stay up for long :

Tyler RM on the 2 plus 2 did prove collusion and bots with graphs supporting infestation of bots.

[Dan Druff]

ACR continues to step on its own tail.

First, a guy claims to have already run a bot with 5000 hands since the challenge began:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/RangeTrainerDev/status/1743280893194543391

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/RangeTrainerDev/status/1743315971983409207

Moneymaker verified that the bot doesn't have to win:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/CMONEYMAKER/status/1743116580609798235



However this post would seem to indicate that the bot DOES have to win, but then they clarified in the next tweet that it doesn't.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1743462994695127435


But then they said the bots can't be "auto fold machines", which means.... what?

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ToddWitteles/status/1743465685152645393



Nobody likes this "challenge". It's just upsetting the community, and the general consensus is that ACR is being adversarial about the issue, rather than trying to work to eliminate the bots.

So why are they doing this, if it's just getting everyone angry? And why are they doubling down on it when there's community pushback?

This is one of the worst PR jobs I've ever seen in online poker. Complete fiasco.

Now there's even talk by players of boycotting ACR. This probably won't work (because players tend to be selfish and have a hard time quitting if winning, and also because many players don't read social media), but it definitely is a horrible look.

Just two weeks ago, ACR had a relatively good image in the commnity. Right now everyone is bashing them, and somehow the GGPoker super scandal (which should have been the much bigger story) has fallen into the background.

All ACR had to do was offer to work with the community to eliminate the bots, and put some real effort into doing so. Instead they're on this bizarre campaign to prove everyone wrong.

[mickeycrimm]

n

[Sloppy Joe]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/twt/status/1743498574980104365

[hesterandeldridge]

please dont forget this GG problem as well. Dnegs has not tweeted a word about this and Koon who specifically was hired for this has made zero attempts at communicating as well.

[Dan Druff]

please dont forget this GG problem as well. Dnegs has not tweeted a word about this and Koon who specifically was hired for this has made zero attempts at communicating as well.

I covered it on radio. Archives of that part of the show (both GG and ACR) will be released today.

No point to shout into the wind of Twitter right now about GG, as everyone's focus is on ACR right now. When the ACR matter dies down, I will start pressing GG again to answer the questions I posed.

I agree that GG's entire "integrity" program was just window dressing, and they haven't taken it seriously.

[Dan Druff]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/Barry_Carter/status/1743736299524137194

[Dan Druff]

While that MonkerGuy joke was hilarious, in all seriousness, ACR does need to send the $100k to SOMEONE since they cancelled the contest. See their statement below, which seems to have been crafted directly from my advice yesterday:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ToddWitteles/status/1743736766933451217


So it looks like they caught Matt's bot, which he theorizes occurred because he contacted them for clarification. Then he was in the process of making a better bot, and right before he deployed it, they cancelled the contest.

However, it is very unethical to cancel a $100k challenge just as people are getting close to completing it.

ACR should award the $100k to whoever got the closest, and then move on with what they claim they're going to do.

[Sloppy Joe]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/twt/status/1743712693293592777

[SlowRoll]

please dont forget this GG problem as well. Dnegs has not tweeted a word about this and Koon who specifically was hired for this has made zero attempts at communicating as well.

I covered it on radio. Archives of that part of the show (both GG and ACR) will be released today.

No point to shout into the wind of Twitter right now about GG, as everyone's focus is on ACR right now. When the ACR matter dies down, I will start pressing GG again to answer the questions I posed.

I agree that GG's entire "integrity" program was just window dressing, and they haven't taken it seriously.

Thanks for following up on the GG stuff. They are pushing to be regulated in the US market. That would be a disaster - if they are the benchmark for legal US operators and are functioning as they do today.