Didn't play much, but I do have an opinion to share.

I haven't really played much since my last post, and what I did play was nothing special. I will be making an appearance, as usual, at the Poker Nuts In Canada game tonight. The game is their usual weekly game for Wednesdays, "The Nuts' Happy Humpers". It happens at Full Tilt tonight at 8pm ET and has a low $1.50 buy-in. I always enjoy the games, the people are great and the fields are small, so it should be a great game. Maybe I'll see you there?

On to a rant I MUST get off my chest. Many of you know that I have been playing online poker for quite some time now. I play almost everywhere and I play a lot, though quite a bit less lately. One of the things that has always bugged me is these online stats tracker sites that ILLEGALLY track your stats anywhere you play for the purpose of sharing it with others. Most sites have a policy of removing your stats upon request, but none of them ask you for permission to track you in the first place. They all say that their information can be used to improve your game and find your holes in your game, but let's be serious, MOST do NOT use it for that. Most players use it to see how the players they are up against play and how well they do. That is information that would ONLY be available to those who actually played that person and kept track of what happened, well, under normal circumstances. Many of the poker sites, especially the big ones, have strict rules about using this information and some will even ban your account if you are caught using these sites while playing on their software. What these sites do is steal data that is being transmitted over the web to compile detailed information about every single player they can, and then either selling the information to other players to use(like PTR) or they give you a general breakdown of player's stats to give you an idea of the player's success(like OPR or Sharkscope). There is varying levels of fault amongst these sites but none are as bad in my opinion as PTR who sells hand histories of individual players, information that an individual could NOT have access to UNLESS they themselves compiled the data, which in most cases might even be close to impossible. Hence my opinion of them as thieves and an overall detriment to online poker as a whole. I don't fault the players who use the information as much as PTR, because they might not do it if PTR didn't make it so easy.

Now comes my real complaint, and you guessed it, it's about PTR. Just recently they had announced that they found network security issues with some of the big networks. I won't go into details about the issues, cause that has nothing to do with my point, but let's just say that PTR found security holes that would allow hackers to steal and cheat on the poker softwares PTR tested. Now, as great as it is to see someone caring about the security of poker players everywhere, I have a problem with this particular case. Here are my reasons why :

1) PTR is not, never was, and hopefully never will be, asked to do this by anyone!
2) They WILLFULLY broke the law and HACKED the networks and their signals!
3) PTR then released all details publicly BEFORE contacting the respective networks and informing them!
4) PTR made a video proving that it was possible AND showed it publicly!
5) PTR has made it clear they think of themselves as an authority for the online poker community.

Now, to put this into perspective, here we have a site that WILLFULLY breaks rules and laws, telling respectful businesses how to run their operations. SICK! They claim to be doing it for the protection of the community, yet publicize it both written and in video(for any hacker to see), and make it look BAD for online poker. They tell player's who were notified by them, or learned the news from their site, to not play at the networks until THEY, PTR, give the all clear. Who are they that I should wait for THEIR all clear?

In both cases the overall result for players and poker is that the security holes get fixed, which is a good thing for poker. However, the way they go about doing it and publicizing it is totally the opposite. In a recent post I read about the Barney Frank bill that is being looked at in the US, one of the Rep. Senators had this to say about giving the 2 big poker operators a license if and when online poker were legalized in the US : "These entities should not be invited to play a role where they are going to have to act as policemen," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.). "We don't want former criminals deputized as cops." Well I say that statement describes exactly how I feel about PTR and their involvement in this scandal. Do we allow them to take "credit" for finding these holes, and allow them to get away with the obvious illegality of what they did? Even though the end result is positive, many negatives don't make a positive in my mind and they don't deserve to be rewarded. Nobody made them, asked them, or even approached them about doing such a thing. So should we honor them for taking it upon themselves to do what only a hacker would even think of trying? I am sorry but in my opinion no matter how much so called "good" comes out of this, PTR is NOT respectable in the least in how they've handled it. They only proved that they are lawbreakers and thieves, capable of doing things many of us couldn't possibly bring ourselves to do because of our morals, and they want us to give them credit for it and respect? NO WAY EH!

That's my rant, and it is only my opinion, so take it for what you will.

Good luck on the felts!