Twitter customers alleged on Friday that high-stakes poker professional Jose ‘Nacho’ Barbero was utilizing RTA (real-time help) whereas enjoying in a web-based poker match – an allegation that he denied.
The storm started with a screenshot of Barbero’s Instagram that confirmed poker software GTO Wizard operating within the background whereas the sponsored professional performed the Venom occasion on ACR Poker. That’s an enormous no-no within the on-line poker world.
Barbero claimed ignorance, and mentioned that whereas this system was open on his laptop, he wasn’t truly utilizing the solver whereas enjoying. The Argentinian mentioned he was utilizing it for teaching functions for different gamers, and was prepared to show it.
“I used to be teaching 4 of my horses on a Discord name,” Barbero wrote on Twitter. “I don’t play on-line. They don’t have the GTO Wizard Professional, so I used to be some spots for them. My unhealthy. I emailed GTO Wizard sport integrity and so they’re going to ship all of the spots I searched yesterday and are going to publish them.”
ACR Response, Investigation Begins
ACR Poker responded on Jan. 31 that Barbero “is a goofball and we love him. Anybody who’s performed with, towards or round him is aware of he’s not a GTO-style participant and certain by no means shall be. We’re assured he was not utilizing GTO Wizard to achieve any benefit for himself.”
A day later, nevertheless, the location acknowledged that response was too flippant “and didn’t convey the seriousness with which we take the state of affairs. We sincerely apologize for this.”
The positioning deliberate to research the difficulty each internally and externally, and work with GTO Wizard to deal with the difficulty. A day later the corporate launched an announcement concerning the incident, backing up Barbero’s declare that he didn’t use the software whereas enjoying.
“Following an intensive inside investigation of all fingers performed within the tournaments Nacho participated in, we’ve concluded that at no level did he use real-time help (RTA) to assist his or every other participant’s decision-making throughout dwell fingers,” ACR famous. “We perceive that unbiased events are conducting their very own evaluations, and we’re assured that they’ll come to the identical conclusion. We stay dedicated to transparency and equity, and we are going to proceed to work to earn the continued belief of our gamers and group.”
Additional Investigation
Fellow high-stakes standout Patrick Leonard launched his personal findings based mostly on an evaluation of over 1,000 fingers and in addition decided Barbero was telling the reality.
“From his 240 fingers complete [VPIP], he made 105 ‘flawed’ performs,” Leonard defined. “So round 40 p.c of the time, he made the wrong play.”
He went additional, saying that Barbero’s play was indicative of a dwell participant, not somebody counting on solvers. Leonard did word, nevertheless, that this was nonetheless a nasty search for on-line poker.
I spent this weekend doing an investigation into the Nacho Barbero GTOW/ACR/Venom scandal. I attempted to offer as a lot info/information/precise fingers to present a illustration of his sport play on that day. I went over 1300 fingers (652 intimately) analysed his GTOW historical past and used the… https://t.co/omQeYGLNIM pic.twitter.com/AU2ZziYb7B
— Patrick Leonard (@padspoker) February 3, 2025
Barbero was happy to see ACR and Leonard’s findings clear him of dishonest, however determined to bow out of the multi-day match anyway.
“As somebody who represents not simply ACR Poker however the sport itself, I ought to have been extra conscious of how my actions might be perceived,” he mentioned. “And I perceive that some individuals will proceed to query my actions throughout Venom. For that motive, I’ve determined to forfeit the remainder of my play within the Venom and the 2 lively stacks I nonetheless have in play.”
Barbero, a former Magic: The Gathering champion, has racked up almost $22 million in dwell match earnings throughout his profession, together with a WSOP bracelet.
The usage of RTA continues to make headlines and the World Collection of Poker Paradise just lately made a rule to ban using any such know-how throughout play.
A web based participant in Michigan was additionally just lately banned on WSOP On-line for alleged RTA use, and in November, a excessive curler winner was disqualified within the WSOP On-line worldwide collection, shedding out on a bracelet.
