18 April 2012, Poker Table Ratings went offline for a while following a Cease and Desist letter sent by PokerStars earlier in the day.
The Poker Data mining service Poker Table Ratings also known as PTR is under fire from the big gun in the poker world PokerStars.
PokerStars are determined to prevent PTR from mining poker data from their site claiming that Poker Table Ratings are infringing on their intellectual property rights and breaching the terms and conditions of pokerstars.com.
PokerStars maintain that their current course of legal action is “not an idle threat” and “The people behind PTR have taken considerable steps to hide their activity and shield themselves from action. But we are on their trail now and will keep at it.”
Poker Table Ratings sells statistics and data collected from online poker players, the collected data is then sold, the data can then be used to find names, win rates, playing style and statistical graphs.
PokerStars seem pretty upset by the ordeal hence the subsequent legal action and PTR themselves seem adamant about bypassing detection measures in place at major poker-rooms.
PTR currently data-mine poker stats from all the major poker networks and recently added 888 Poker to their portfolio.
Data-mining poker hand history for resale is banned at all poker sites and the networks are always trying to block any automated attempts made to use their collected hand information yet many such services continue to exist.
Current terms and conditions at PokerStars prohibit such poker data mining services as can be seen in the below extract.
PokerStars Banned Tools and Services
PokerStars do not Allow and prohibit the following types of Poker Tools and services:
- Software that shares hole card data with other players or programs is colluding.
- Any program that works off of a centralized database of player profiles or hands played is prohibited.
- Any program that plays without human intervention aka ‘poker bot’ or reduces the requirement of a human playing. auto-folders are banned.
- Data-mining (watching hands without playing to build up a database of hand histories for future reference) is not allowed.
- Software that offers direct game play advice on the appropriate action to take is also not permitted.
Read more about PokerStars Banned Tools and Services