A few months ago, Pokerstars announced that it was working on limiting the effectiveness of seating scripts in cash games.

Well, the online poker titan limited the effectiveness of the scripts, but it has now banned all automated programs on its platform.

On February 27, Severin Rasset communicated Pokerstar’s intentions of slowing down the bot infestation that was taking over cash games. The intended policy changes were to level the playing ground, protecting beginners from being targeted by more experienced players.

At the time, the objective of the policy change was to limit the functionality of the scripts in profiling potential clients.

 

Pokerstars’ seating scripts

Since its inception, a creek of players has been using automated programs to prey on weak players. The programs are used to profile other players and select tables with relatively weaker opponents. While it is an excellent strategy to play against weaker opponents, it was taking a toll on cash games.

Pokerstars was forced to act after a petition on the popular Two Plus Two poker forum.

Pokerstars bans all seating scripts

Basing on earlier communication from the poker powerhouse, we did not expect a blanket ban on automated programs. We thought that Pokerstars was only going to impose functionality limitations.

But apparently, we thought wrong. The ban came into effect on April 11 and hence, at the moment, you can’t use a seating script at PokerStars.

Here’s a forum entry by PokerStars’ game integrity representative as posted at Two Plus Two that confirmed the blanket ban on automated programs.

I am a representative of the Stars Group Game Integrity Team.

Due to ring game seating scripts inherently causing this “table blocking”, we are making changes starting from today to prohibit players using these seating scripts.

This change is effective immediately. It will take several days to update information on our webpages.

We thank the players who have raised their concerns with us on this issue.

Regards,
Scott S

Was it a good or a bad move?

Well, it will depend on which side of the fence you are on. If you are one of the users who relied on automated programs to target weak players, then, it may not be the best of the moves for you.

However, to the broader poker community, the decision was welcomed with open arms. For instance, on the forum thread, the decision was applauded by almost everyone.

 

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