ACR Bans Player for Real-Time GTO. He Still Lost $13.12.

Today's Big Question

ACR Poker permanently banned the account UGLYRETD on September 17 after a video showed the real-time assistance tool TrenirusGTO running beside its client. The account deposited $14.13, played 111 hands in a single day, and finished down $13.12, meaning a computer coached it into losing money slightly slower than it otherwise might have. Seven players who lost to it get refunded.

What happened

ACR Poker permanently banned the account UGLYRETD on September 17 after a video circulated on social media showing the real time assistance tool TrenirusGTO running live alongside the ACR client. The site's security and game integrity team said the account was created on August 2, deposited $14.13, and played for exactly one day: 65 hands at $0.05/$0.10, 27 hands at $0.02/$0.05 and 19 hands at $0.01/$0.02. Across all 111 of them it recorded a net loss of $13.12, finishing a dollar short of break even with a machine telling it exactly what to do the whole time. Seven players who lost money directly to the account will be refunded for the affected hands and notified within 24 hours.

Why it matters

ACR's first statement of the day promised that funds held in an offending account would be confiscated and redistributed to affected players. That is a very serious sentence for a very serious $13.12. The same statement noted that the operator works with GTO Wizard on game-integrity technology, one GTO company now enlisted against another, on terms the statement never specifies. Partnership or plot twist, take your pick.

In the Spotlight

Wagner Died In This Palace. It Now Guarantees A Million Euros.

What happened

La Notte Degli Assi returns to the Casino di Venezia from October 11 to 19 with a 1,000,000 euro guaranteed Main Event. The house opened in 1638 and is the oldest casino in the world. The cards get dealt in its second home, a 15th century Renaissance palace on the Grand Canal that housed Venetian Doges and where Richard Wagner spent his final days.

Entry starts at 400 euros across four early flights and rises to 600 euros for five later ones, each dealing a 200,000 starting stack. The schedule also carries a 1,500 euro High Roller and a 60 euro mega satellite awarding 25 seats.

Why it matters

WPT stopped here from 2009 to 2013. The guarantee is the part that scaled. Covering 1,000,000 euros off entries of 400 and 600 takes a field in the thousands, which is a lot of people renting tuxedos to sit in a room a composer died in, then reloading for 20 euros.

The Explainer

$46.2 Billion In Tribal Gaming Is Arguing With A Crypto Bill

What happened

The Indian Gaming Association has urged Congress to vote down the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, the crypto bill sponsored by Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming that would hand the CFTC authority over parts of the digital asset market. IGA chair David Z. Bean called it the largest expansion of CFTC authority since the 2010 Dodd-Frank bill and said the agency has already been allowing gaming to occur on platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket.

The association wants the text to say plainly that state law, tribal gaming law and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act are not preempted by federal commodities law. Tribal casinos reported $46.2 billion in gross gaming revenue last year.

Why it matters

The fight is over who gets to decide that something is a bet. A commodities regulator that treats a wager on a football game as a financial instrument routes around a federal framework built for tribal gaming, without ever having to actually repeal it. Neat trick, if your goal is changing the rules without anyone voting on changing the rules.

Follow the Money

He Shoved A Seven High Flush For Value And Got A Fold

What happened

Nik "Airball" Arcot moved all in on the river on Hustler Casino Live holding the seven high flush, and Ryan Garcia folded the jack high flush face up. Arcot had the seven and six of hearts, Garcia the jack and three of hearts, on a king, ten, nine of hearts flop. Arcot shoved the deuce of diamonds river for Garcia's remaining $194,500. Garcia showed his cards as he released them, and Arcot said he had thought he was ahead.

The Circuit

Eight Of The 33 Bracelets Are Mystery Bounties. Three Are Omaha.

What happened

The WSOP will award 33 gold bracelets between September 27 and November 10 on WSOPOnline.com, open to players in Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Buy-ins run from $250 to $3,200. Eight of the 33 are mystery bounty tournaments, up from six last year, and three are pot limit Omaha. The largest guarantee is $350,000 for the $1,000 Mystery Bounty Championship on October 18.

Beyond the Felt

The $80,000 Guarantee Missed By 117 Players. So They Raised It.

What happened

888poker's $109 Mystery Bounty Main Event came up 117 entrants short of covering its $80,000 guarantee on September 14, drawing 683 players. Canada's "MrYoungShark" won it for $15,371, of which $8,835 arrived as bounties and $6,536 came out of the regular prize pool. Lithuania's "MantynisNA" took second for $6,027. Six days later the same tournament opens the XL Autumn Series with the guarantee restored to $100,000.

Also Filed

Film Your Worst Poker Table And WPT Might Spend $20,000 On It

What happened

The World Poker Tour is giving one home game a makeover worth up to $20,000, and the entry requirement is a short video demonstrating how bad the setup currently is. Applicants have until September 22, have to be 18 or over, live in the United States and host the game themselves. A panel will score submissions on story, creativity and the state of the existing room.

One More Thing

Howard Feingold Left Poker For Thirty Years And Came Back

What happened

Howard "Howie the Kid" Feingold, a New York tournament regular, has died of complications from a heart condition. Kenna James, the pro who coached him, confirmed the death to PokerNews and said Feingold donated his organs. Feingold played daily from 1985 to 1990, then stepped away for decades and missed the Moneymaker boom. His recorded results begin in 2018 and total $507,078, with a career high of $33,440 for 21st in the 2022 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship.

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SEPT 17 Day 012 - The Leftover Edition

They Locked Up $6,795,000, Then Played For The Other $140,000

Nick Schulman won the $100,000 buy-in Main Event at the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II on Wednesday at Les A Casino in Jeju, South Korea, taking $3,854,888 from a 196-entry field and a $19,600,000 prize pool. It is the largest score of his career and his second Triton title, the first having come in the same room in 2018. Heads-up began with Schulman holding a three-to-one lead over Bernhard Binder, and the two immediately made a deal worth $3,714,888 to Schulman and $3,080,112 to Binder, which left $140,000 and the trophy as the only things still in dispute. On the last hand Schulman limped the button for 1,000,000 with two kings, Binder raised to 3,500,000 with king-jack, and the board ran ace-eight-deuce, five, ten. Binder bet the flop and the turn, checked the river, called Schulman's shove for his last chips and was shown the kings. Binder took $3,080,112 for second. Two days earlier Schulman had finished second in a $50,000 event at the same festival for $810,279, at the time the sixth-largest cash of his career.

AlsoHe Won $3.85 Million And Led The Points Race For One Day Read this brief →

A Man Who Plays Twice A Year Beat 1,282 People, Then Quit

SEPT 16

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