With the continuing proliferation of analytical tools available to the online poker community, what does the future of our game look like?

If you ask anyone who’s played online poker for a few years how the games now compare to those of yesteryear, the answer will almost always be that it’s much tougher now. Where once upon a time it was profitable to simply set-mine in cash games, now even at the low stakes most people are capable of floating, three-betting and hand reading in a way that was once rarely seen.

Typically, the UIGEA is cited as being the chief cause of this change in the game. This draconian piece of legislation led to several poker operators closing their doors to a United States audience, the largest poker consumers in the world. Recreational poker players, fearing their money would be trapped on prohibited gaming sites or worse still that they could face criminal charges, left the world of online poker in their droves. Similar to the economics of the housing market, with no new first time buyers coming into the online poker economy, people further up the poker chain began to feel the squeeze, as losing players disappeared and were replaced with winning players, or those very close to break-even.

Now whilst it’s fair to say that the UIGEA has certainly damaged the game, so too have some of the tools that many online poker players rely upon. Back in 2005, tools like ‘Poker Tracker’ were rarely discussed or even known about by many players. A small select band of people would make comments such as “he’s playing 17/14” and most of us would assume that they were talking in code, or were incapable of being able to make reads on poker players without their reams of data. Now, of course, tools like Poker Tracker and Hold’em Manager are widespread in the poker community. Micro stakes cash game players look at their opponents tendencies and $5 SNG players try and determine the weakest players at the table by ‘sharkscoping’ them.

The wide array of poker tools available to us today have developed a breed of online poker consumer who is capable of playing 16 tables of cash, knowing that their data-mined hands on their opponents will let them play in an almost robotic fashion. Sure they won’t necessarily be playing their ‘A’ game, but if you’ve got 16 tables open your hourly rate may well still be higher playing your ‘B’ game than devoting all of your energy to a smaller number of tables. For poker sites this type of consumer increases liquidity as tables are opened that otherwise wouldn’t be, and the rake that they help generate is obviously welcomed with open arms.

I’m not trying to be pious, I use tools like Hold’em Manager - I think you’re at a tremendous disadvantage if you don’t. I enjoy being able to review hands and look for weaknesses in my opponents. I get that cold sweat of panic when I’m playing six tables and the HUD suddenly stops working. I see a lot of positives in the tools that we have on offer, I just worry about where they will eventually take online poker.

When I started playing online poker seven years ago, if I’d known I would be playing against opponents who were able to capture precise data on my play, who could use tools that would target me in SNGs or MTTs and perhaps, worst of all, that websites would allow people to type in my username and see how I was running, I’m not so sure I’d have been so keen to start playing. If every time you have a bad session, or tilt, the whole poker community has access to watch the hands back, it feels as if a certain level of privacy is being breached.

With so many poker tools and services collecting poker hand data, the next logical step is the development of software which draws on this data and recommends what your next action in a hand should be. Not simply a poker bot, but a poker tool which is able to make recommendations based on the data-mined playing tendencies of your opponents. The bottom line is that computers don’t tilt or try and drag themselves out from being stuck in a session into the early hours of the morning. It’s the human operators of computers that have these flaws. The reliance on computer aided input into poker decision making has increased substantially over the last few years, this is not a trend which can continue without there being problems on the horizon.

Poker at its very core is supposed to be a game of imperfect information. If we reach a state where the computer is able to recommend what your next move should be from the data you have mined, then online poker will be damaged irrevocably. I’m not suggesting that poker is a ‘solvable’ game, and that a computer could beat the highest games, more that it could damage the micro and lower stake games which would ultimately impact the games higher up the chain. Poker would then become a game of whose computer is able to determine the highest plus EV lines the most accurately. This doesn’t sound much like the game of poker that many of us fell in love with.

So how can this be resolved? It’s certainly not possible to ban all of these tools and expect every single online poker operator to work in unison to achieve this. Nor can we agree between ourselves as players that there will be an amnesty where we will all lay down our poker tools. Innovations like ‘Rush Poker’ temporarily level the playing field but it will only be matter of time before Poker Tracker and Hold’em Manager change their HUD mining to draw in table information during a hand rather than at the end of it.

I think the most viable solution is anonymity. If every online poker user (with the exception of sponsored pros) is assigned a random username that changes each time they log onto play on their chosen site, then the ability to accurately mine data will be removed. Poker players will have to focus on how best to beat the type of opponent in front of them, rather than relying on mined hand information. Admittedly this will mean losing reads on opponents that you have uncovered having spent time playing against them. This would be disheartening but something worth considering as being part of the greater good.

Already there is a drought of heads-up games at the mid to high stakes on many poker sites. This is solely due to many poker players being unwilling to sit with opponents unless tracking sites show them to be losing or weak players. This drought is likely to spread itself to short-handed games next and is a trend that needs to be reversed. The introduction of anonymity would make weaker players feel that they were not able to be targeted quite so easily. The veil of incomplete information would be restored once again, and online poker players could get back to the task of trying to outthink each other using their individual poker skill as their only tool.

I firmly believe that the UIEGA will be overturned in the not too distant future. We just need to make sure that if and when it is, the world of online poker looks as enticing as it once did to recreational players. We want, and need, these types of players re-depositing and back at the tables. To achieve this, online poker will need to welcome them with open arms and a seemingly safe sanctuary. Not offer them the kind of intimidating environment where Big Brother is watching your every move and anyone can load up a website and see every strength and flaw you have in your game.

To follow the progress of Rob and the other members of the Dublin Two-O, check out the Grading board.