ACR pro Jose "Nacho" Barbero caught using real time assistance on stream (update: Ebony Kenney too)

[Dan Druff]

Jose "Nacho" Barbero has been a long time poker pro. He is presently a sponsored pro on ACR, and has gotten himself into hot water.

It all started when an X user named Ghilley found GTO Wizard, a popular real time assistance (RTA) poker program, on Nacho's computer. RTA is considered cheating, and is a form of botting. It is also against ACR's terms of service.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/Ghilleyyy/status/1885276078203171242


Nacho at first attempted to come up with a weak excuse:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/Ghilleyyy/status/1885354419815911523


An X user named "jscamrks" asked Nacho, "Why leaving the space in between windows to have gto wizard visible when you're not using it?", which is a great point!

Obviously Nacho was using it while playing.


ACR attempted to downplay the matter, in a now-infamous tweet, calling Nacho a "goofball" and denying he was doing anything wrong:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1885402164324913585



The poker community freaked out at this response, and rightfully so. Streamer "Beiruzy" mocked it, as did many others.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/beriuzy/status/1885407595495579807



Respected poker pro Patrick Leonard, who might or might not have a connection to ACR itself, tweeted the following, in order to calm things down:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/padspoker/status/1885422188876198197

We’re aware of serious allegations coming out yesterday after one of our ambassadors posted a photo of him playing the venom whilst having RTA in the background. Our initial feeling after starting the investigation is that it was innocent however we are working with the player and the RTA to provide a full report showing timestamps of his gameplay and his RTA history to ensure full innocence.

During this investigation Nacho will be temporarily suspended from playing tournaments on ACR but we plan to conclude the investigation promptly and have him back on the tables and with your confidence in the upcoming days/week.

We understand how big of an issue this is for the community and will treat this case with even more urgency and importance than the thousands of other cases our strong security team deals with on a monthly basis

Thanks for trusting us and hold tight.

He also posted this:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/padspoker/status/1885412816968196478

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/padspoker/status/1885642721836364242



Continued next post...

[Dan Druff]

Oddly, Leonard somehow took it upon himself to do an "investigation" of Nacho, which is bizarre because Leonard is both Nacho's friend and might have some connection to ACR itself. So how is this impartial??

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/padspoker/status/1885836365239288098

I’m doing a full investigation into whether @nacho_barbero cheated in the Venom on
@ACR_POKER. I have every single hand he played and every single hand he has searched on GTOW with the exact timestamps. I’m going to look through all 1371 hands and publish my findings.

FWIW I still think it’s very very wrong what he did and ACR should still take some action IMO as it sets a very bad precedent but I want to do a full investigation and give the community a clear YES or NO if he was cheating that day. If you would like to see anything else please let me know. I will also release the hand histories, GTOW history etc publically. If anybody played a hand with him that isn’t visible in the hands I show I will offer a $1k freeroll. This will be done as professionally as possible and if poker goes bad for me then I’ll make a good poker security staff member I promise!

ACR itself also posted an update, attempting to walk back their earlier "goofball" statement:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1885799970743398441

We acknowledge that our initial response to the concerns surrounding @nacho_barbero’s play was in poor taste and did not convey the seriousness with which we take the situation.

We sincerely apologize for this.

We want to assure the poker community that we are conducting a thorough and objective investigation. Our game integrity and security team along with external investigations are carefully reviewing all relevant data, consulting GTO Wizard for analysis, and ensuring that any findings are addressed in full accordance with our Terms of Service.

If any infractions are identified, we will take appropriate action.

We understand the community’s concerns and will provide updates as soon as we have more information.

I'll give my thoughts in the next post.

[Dan Druff]

It is highly likely that Nacho Barbero was using GTO Wizard while playing on ACR. His story about "students" doesn't make any sense, especially since he had GTO Wizard actively on the screen while playing, and well positioned to be visible.

Is it possible that Nacho had no clue that GTO Wizard was against the rules? Yes. Many of these sponsored pros are disconnected from the social media side of the poker community. They simply show up, play, and tune everything else out. Notice that Nacho Barbero's X account @nacho_barbero seems to only be used to promote ACR, and little else. He just isn't a social media guy, and someone possibly told him that GTO Wizard helps you win, so he started using it.

It's also possible he was very aware it was against terms, and was just careless enough to leave it on the screen while streaming.

Is this a gigantic scandal?

No. But it's a bad look for ACR. Their "goofball" tweet was basically trying to say what I said above -- that Nacho probably didn't realize he was breaking the rules. Still, it's up to site ambassadors to understand the major rules, and to adhere to them.

Furthermore, when these things happen, someone neutral from the community should be brought in to analyze things. Tasking it to Patrick Leonard, Nacho's friend, is bizarre. Also, Patrick has not been straightforward regarding his connection to ACR itself, which is weird. I just asked him on Twitter to clarify this, so we will see what he says.

[Dan Druff]

Patrick Leonard denied having any connection to ACR itself. I believe him, and I think his tweet making a statement by ACR was just confusing.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/padspoker/status/1885852973571649796

I work for their competitor, I refuse to play on their site because of security issues, I call out them whenever they act inappropriately, I was one of the biggest critics during the bot scandal, helping break it to the community, I haven’t played on the site in 6+ months and I called out their ambassadors in videos with 1m+ views about holding them more accountable.

ACR are not hiring me to do this and I’ve never received a penny from ACR except from some security refunds which I argued wasn’t enough compensation (and haven’t grinded there consistently since)

[Dan Druff]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ToddWitteles/status/1885890903945933256

[Serial Fail]

The thing that really bothers me is that if this had been any Tim, Dick, or Harry who posted a screenshot of them using GTOW while playing, they would have just been immediately banned and never allowed back. They'll do an investigation, find nothing was wrong, and allow him back.

Are there any decent options for US players at all?

[Dan Druff]

ACR has always been a flawed site, and their social media presence has always been mismanaged.

Wouldn't surprise me if Phil Nagy himself wrote that idiotic "goofball" response.


Aside from the legalized state-level sites, the realistic offshore options for Americans are:

ACR
Bovada
Betonline


Then there's also Club WPT Gold and Global Poker, both of which use the weird "sweepstakes" model, which for the moment are legal. That's pretty much it, at least as far as sites with any real action.

I really believe I will be dead before we have a large scale, legalized poker site in the US.

[Dan Druff]

Ebony Kenney, come on down!

You're the latest Goofball on THE RTA IS RIGHT!!!

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/MTT_Data_Review/status/1893062686843232336



How fucking stupid can one be to get caught the exact same way, after the whole Nacho flap?

Amazing.

[Dan Druff]

It turns out that Ebony Kenney's offense was 13 months ago, in January 2024. It is just coming to light now, so that's the reason everyone is talking about it.

Doesn't make it any better... just less stupid (because Nacho hadn't been caught yet). Still, it was pretty dumb to broadcast herself using GTO Wizard while playing on the site.

Unlike the "goofball" response which followed Nacho, everyone is staying silent on this. ACR is not commenting, Ebony is not commenting, and none of the site pros are commenting.

That didn't stop the ClubWPTGold X account, operated by PFAer SrslySirius, from taking a hilarious jab at them:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ClubWPTGold/status/1893345006200459773


ACR is seen as one of ClubWPTGold's main competitors. This account has taken shots at ACR before over their other scandals/controversies.

[Dan Druff]

ACR's statement has 40k views and 23 likes. Ouch!

My response to them has 1,400 views and 31 likes.

That by itself speaks volumes.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ToddWitteles/status/1893842184425574813

[Dan Druff]

Here's their statement, in case you don't feel like clicking through:

We are aware of a recently resurfaced screenshot showing ACR Poker Pro, @Ebony_Kenney, with GTO Wizard open while playing The Venom tournament in January 2024. This image first circulated on social media at that time and there was no evidence that the software was used in real-time to gain an unfair advantage.

Following the recent concerns, we re-reviewed the facts and reached the same conclusion. We want to assure players that we take all concerns about game integrity seriously.

ACR Poker remains commited to maintaining a fair and competitive environment for all players. We continuously implement and refine security measures to uphold the highest standards of integrity in online poker.

Bullshit.

Basically, they're saying, "We investigated ourselves, and found ourselves to be clean."

They don't even explain why she had that software open on her screen while playing the Venom. At least Goofball Nacho gave a half-hearted excuse!

Pathetic. ACR continues to be horrible at PR and crisis management.

[tigerpiper]

The excuse is so stupid. They must think their audience is full of idiots.

Game on screen. Cheating tool open on screen.

Uh... duh. I wasn't using that cheating tool.

Joe Neikro approves "I wasn't using that nail file in my pocket! I have no idea how it got there."

[Dan Druff]

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/Ebony_Kenney/status/1893786303080116600

[Dan Druff]

This statement is complete bullshit.

But even if true, it's still cheating.

Looking up prior hands while in the same tournament is still using assistance tools during play.

Ben Rolle opined the same thing, in a long tweet:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/bencb789/status/1894030056751542614

I don't understand why people still believe that analyzing a spot after a hand is justifiable.

It is not as bad as doing it during a hand, but it is still very bad.
It gives you an unfair advantage. You get to see real-time results for a situation on your table.

You get to see the perfect solution for preflop and postflop, which gives you an unfair advantage for upcoming hands that will likely be in similar situations.

It doesn't matter if you use it during or after a hand. Both give you an unfair advantage; during a hand gives you a bigger advantage of course.

Imagine you are CO vs BU, and you play eff. 40bb.
BU checks a spot after a hand you played. Especially preflop, BU now gains an unfair advantage because they can see what to do preflop.

Imagine if one player at a table did this after every hand. This is obviously not okay.
It doesn't matter whether it happens in one hand or across multiple hands.

I really don't understand why people believe that checking spots after a hand in 2025 is a legitimate excuse. Why would anyone use this to defend their wrongdoing?
It just shows that too many people still believe that analyzing hands afterward is okay. It's not.

No point to even debate this, though, because clearly she was using GTO Wizard to check spots in real time, and wasn't waiting until after the hand. Does anyone believe for a second that she thought to herself, "I'd love to know what to do in this tough spot, but I'll just make the best decision I can with my own brain, and check GTO Wizard after, because doing otherwise would be cheating!!!"

No chance her thought process worked that way. It's insulting that she's trying to peddle that excuse to us.

[Ryback_feed_me_more]

If anybody cares our favorite former poster and tech guy for Doug Polk put out a short video on this. Also came across another video somebody did about this on YouTube and they mentioned some guy named Todd Wittles (clearly a total mispronunciation and somebody who doesn’t know Todd at all) regarding this fiasco on ACR. Something has got to give ACR is literally abusing their customers because there’s no viable option out there with as much traffic as they have in reality and Nagy knows it.

[Ryback_feed_me_more]

This statement is complete bullshit.

But even if true, it's still cheating.

Looking up prior hands while in the same tournament is still using assistance tools during play.

Ben Rolle opined the same thing, in a long tweet:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/bencb789/status/1894030056751542614

I don't understand why people still believe that analyzing a spot after a hand is justifiable.

It is not as bad as doing it during a hand, but it is still very bad.
It gives you an unfair advantage. You get to see real-time results for a situation on your table.

You get to see the perfect solution for preflop and postflop, which gives you an unfair advantage for upcoming hands that will likely be in similar situations.

It doesn't matter if you use it during or after a hand. Both give you an unfair advantage; during a hand gives you a bigger advantage of course.

Imagine you are CO vs BU, and you play eff. 40bb.
BU checks a spot after a hand you played. Especially preflop, BU now gains an unfair advantage because they can see what to do preflop.

Imagine if one player at a table did this after every hand. This is obviously not okay.
It doesn't matter whether it happens in one hand or across multiple hands.

I really don't understand why people believe that checking spots after a hand in 2025 is a legitimate excuse. Why would anyone use this to defend their wrongdoing?
It just shows that too many people still believe that analyzing hands afterward is okay. It's not.

No point to even debate this, though, because clearly she was using GTO Wizard to check spots in real time, and wasn't waiting until after the hand. Does anyone believe for a second that she thought to herself, "I'd love to know what to do in this tough spot, but I'll just make the best decision I can with my own brain, and check GTO Wizard after, because doing otherwise would be cheating!!!"

No chance her thought process worked that way. It's insulting that she's trying to peddle that excuse to us.

Ebony gets a free pass because she’s been sucking Nagys dick obviously.

[Dan Druff]

If anybody cares our favorite former poster and tech guy for Doug Polk put out a short video on this. Also came across another video somebody did about this on YouTube and they mentioned some guy named Todd Wittles (clearly a total mispronunciation and somebody who doesn’t know Todd at all) regarding this fiasco on ACR. Something has got to give ACR is literally abusing their customers because there’s no viable option out there with as much traffic as they have in reality and Nagy knows it.

Can you find that video where I was mentioned, and post it here? Interested to see.

And yeah, ACR has a lot of scandals and handles their PR horribly.

Oh and some people have been criticizing SrslySirius for trolling ACR about this (and other things) via the ClubWPTGold account (which Srsly manages), but that's nonsense. Srsly's videos are hilarious, and there's no problem with one site creatively mocking the competition for its scandals. In fact, mainstream TV commercials have been doing this for decades.

[Dan Druff]

In an interview with poker.org, Chris Moneymaker seems irritated with Ebony and Nacho, and said he'd probably fire both of them if he had the decision:

https://www.poker.org/latest-news/ch...-aK3sZ5F7oce6/

[Cat Out Of The Bag]

SITE = JOKE

[Dan Druff]

The story gets even dumber.

Which is... amazing.

Nacho decides to stop kissing the ACR ring, once confronted by Ike Haxton, of all people.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/conrads411/status/1912771086502207880


ACR turns their ire upon Nacho. It doesn't go well.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/ACR_POKER/status/1912953349428695079

At ACR Poker we take our game integrity and our responsibility to ensure a fair and competitive environment for all players seriously.
We expect the same from the ambassadors who represent our brand. That expectation has been tested a lot this year and in light of recent comments made by ACR ambassador Nacho Barbero on a live poker stream —comments which misrepresented our stance on third-party software and game integrity— we have already reached out to Nacho to discuss this event and consider his future with ACR Poker.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/MusicPokerLife_/status/1913086789515948157

They got absolutely destroyed in the comments.