You will all remember the recent affair that has been dubbed "LaptopGate". This involved WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Tamayo and German pro Dominik Nitsche. Tamayo was accused of cheating by the poker community because Nitsche was using a solver on his laptop during his rails on the final day, giving Tamayo advice after almost every hand.

Unfair win? Community criticizes Tamayo's rail for using solvers during the game

However, the first problem with the solver came right at the start of the WSOP Festival when a player used it right at the table. The European Poker Tour (EPT) series has learned from the mistakes of others, and new PokerStars ambassador Kenny Hallaert took to social media to bring us fresh news that the EPT has implemented into its tournament rules. One of them is the solver problem, and that should be solved for good after the new update.

Solver ban for players and spectators

In fact, the new rules clearly state, " Players are not permitted to use any optimal game theory (GTO) solver software or GTO tables (whether used on an electronic device or in any other form) or any other artificial intelligence tool or similar algorithmic software that is capable of giving the user a competitive advantage in a tournament at any time. Also, no spectator is permitted to use electronic devices with solvers in the poker tournament area." These rules thus clearly prohibit the use of solvers in any form, throughout the tournament area.

Changes regarding some rules and procedures that will come into play @PokerStarsLIVE EPT Barcelona.

Shotclocks: Time will be reduced on first action in the hand to 15 seconds instead of 30. Timebanks will still be worth 30 seconds each.

We were considering removing all...

- Kenny Hallaert (@SpaceyFCB) August 26, 2024

Shorter shotclock

Another new addition to EPT tournaments will be a shotclock of just 15 seconds. Organizers argue that they noticed stalling in tournaments, whereby players were trying to survive the bubble or skip a few payjumps. This change should increase the fluidity and dynamics of the game, but at the same time the time banks will still be unchanged at 30 seconds.

"We noticed that a lot of people tried to intentionally slow the game down by spending almost all of their time banks before the flop or spending them on basically every decision when the hand was close to the bubble (or) on payjumps. So, to improve the pace of play, we decided to go to 15 seconds," Hallaert said.

Forget the redraw

There will be no more redraws at three or two tables in EPT tournaments from now on. Organisers have decided to do away with this time-honoured practice to speed up play and also to ensure that short-stacked players cannot avoid playing in the big blind when they know their table is about to be disbanded. Instead of the classic redraws, there will be a random order of table dissolutions starting at five tables.

The new way of dealing

We recently brought you an article about cheaters who were caught red-handed by the French police. It was a type of new scam where the player at the table had a small camera attached to the side of his mobile phone, which allowed him to see his opponents' cards. He was able to see them because dealers throw cards through the air when they deal, so the camera captured the value of the card as it flew towards the player.

Fraudsters robbed poker players of hundreds of thousands of euros, arrested by French police

The EPT is introducing a new dealing rule after this new type of cheating swept the world. Their dealers will no longer deal the cards by throwing them from a height, but the cards will be slid across the table to the players, and so no cameras will be able to record the value of the players' cards.

The response from the poker community to the new EPT rules has been positive and they will come into effect during the current EPT Barcelona series. The only rule that will not yet be used in Barcelona is the new style of card dealing.

Of course, the new rules have also earned some criticism, and this came from "LaptopGate" participant Dominik Nitsche, who claims that the new rule banning solvers is supposedly poorly written and difficult or impossible to enforce in practice.

What do you think of the new rules on the EPT? Let us know in the comments on our social media channels.

Source - Twitter, Pokernews, PS, Flickr