A lot of information is tracked on mobile apps. It’s all there; You can find the price of Bitcoin, check out hotel rooms on the other side of the world, and see where Elon Musk’s private airplane is at any given time.
For poker players, mobile apps can do a lot. They’re a place to play the game, a resource for training – and tracking other players. You see, poker is a game of information, and these days, players can get their hands on more of that information than ever before.
Many online poker players want tracking – but not all
Why Would Anyone Track a Poker Player?
Poker tracking apps, like SharkScope, keep vast amounts of data on poker players – but why are players tracking each other on mobile apps?
By checking the habits of winning players, someone can use that information to make themselves a better player. They might have strategies that you can copy or they could be playing in games that you should know about.
So let’s say you want to check up on your friend, PokerPlayer123, and see how well they are doing at the tables. In a few moments, you can have their entire profile on the screen of your smartphone.
It’s pretty surprising to see how much data there is on individual players on SharkScope, which is available on PC, MacOS, iOS, and Android devices. You can check to see exactly how much money they are making online, what their ROI is, and dozens of other statistics.
Is Tracking Poker Players Unfair?
Poker can get very analytical, especially for players who want to make real profits.
Not everyone thinks that tracking data is healthy for the poker world, including GGPoker, one of the largest online sites in the world. They’ve been taking steps to limit tracking software, in an attempt to keep play fair for all of their players. The GG team cited “player experience & security”.
Information can give players an edge and for that reason, tracking apps like SharkScope exist. There’s a lot of free information available, but lots of the juicy statistics are locked behind a paywall. So, it’s not accessible to everyone, unless they are willing to pay.
But accessibility isn’t the only thing to think about.
Useful data is there (if you’re willing to pay a small monthly subscription)
How Online Cheaters Get Caught By Poker Tracking
In the movies, a poker cheater gets caught when someone spots them shuffling in a funny way. Catching cheaters in online poker games is much more difficult and requires detailed analysis.
Every major poker room has a department to monitor games and watch for cheaters, but regular players do their fair share of detective work too. It’s not tough to understand their motivations; the quicker they get the cheaters caught, the quicker they (and other players) can increase their win rates.
By checking win rates or profit, it’s sometimes easy to see who is winning more than they should be winning. That’s part of the confirmation used to show that alleged cheaters like Mike Postle were doing something underhand.
Imagine that a player at your table seemed to never lose a hand and always turn a profit, so you decide to check their records. If you saw something suspicious about their graphs, then that information could be forwarded to whoever is running the online game.
But not on GGPoker, at least not for apps like SharkScope. Of course, they have their own team watching games for cheaters, but some players think that security should be a collective effort – not entrusted to just one company.
