Email From Pokerstars Support

[bbgun 0]

I've heard Obama is a pretty good poker player. Table selection ftw.

It's really not fair to sit with Obama though...he's always on your left.(Be sure to tip your waitress)

[Canadianpoker83 0]

now I know why pokerstarssupportJose has been sending me personal emails ever since I was at latinstuds.com

Haha funniest thing i'd heard today, although it's only 12:20 am

I'd prefer online poker didn't have any software involved whatsoever. But what can you do?

Sometimes i do as well.

Calm down, Francis.

lol

[Largetotals 0]

Tough to have one without the other...

tough. Neg.. impossible until we get those damn neuro transplants going..

[sennin 0]

Two conflicting thoughts on this.1. None of their damn business what programs someone has open. If a person is smart enough to gain an edge through software they have researched, good for them. I wonder if they are going to ban software like s'n'go wizard, for evaluating sng play AFTER the sng ends.2. Good for them for making online poker more like live poker, where you only have your mind to keep track of who is playing aggressive, who is weak, who cbets after a raise always, and so on, and so on.

As long as you dont have Stars open there's no way they can really ban it

[whatgreatis 0]

It's really not fair to sit with Obama though...he's always on your left.

[Suited_Up 2]

It's really not fair to sit with Obama though...he's always on your left.(Be sure to tip your waitress)

Quite true.But isn't that usually the best place to be?

[FourFlusher 0]

I wonder if you can just minimize Stars, open a new browser and go to Sharkscope when you want undetected?

[TwstdWrstr 10]

I wonder if you can just minimize Stars, open a new browser and go to Sharkscope when you want undetected?

Um that's not gonna work, lol. Stars would still be running on your system.

[bull62 0]

I wonder if you can just minimize Stars, open a new browser and go to Sharkscope when you want undetected?

Open a new browser, then tape a sheet of paper to your monitor covering the browser. Lift the paper up to look at sharkscope, but make sure you put the paper back down before pokerstars sees it.

[TwstdWrstr 10]

Open a new browser, then tape a sheet of paper to your monitor covering the browser. Lift the paper up to look at sharkscope, but make sure you put the paper back down before pokerstars sees it.

but make sure you use construction paper or butcher paper, that college ruled notebook paper is too thin and they can see through it.

[psujohn 0]

1. None of their damn business what programs someone has open. If a person is smart enough to gain an edge through software they have researched, good for them. I wonder if they are going to ban software like s'n'go wizard, for evaluating sng play AFTER the sng ends.

Of course it's their damn business because they need to know what software is running on your system to protect their clients. How would you feel if your opponent was running a bot? How do you expect Stars to detect that w/o looking at what's running on your system? The "ethics" of online poker is really pretty simple. If the site says it's allowed then it's fine. If the site says that it's not allowed then it's not fine. If you don't like where they draw the line then play somewhere else or lobby them to change the rules.As for sng wizard: Some examples of tools and services which are prohibited only while PokerStars is running are: 6. SitnGo Wizard 7. SNG Power Tools

[Gallo 1]

Two conflicting thoughts on this.1. None of their damn business what programs someone has open. If a person is smart enough to gain an edge through software they have researched, good for them. I wonder if they are going to ban software like s'n'go wizard, for evaluating sng play AFTER the sng ends.2. Good for them for making online poker more like live poker, where you only have your mind to keep track of who is playing aggressive, who is weak, who cbets after a raise always, and so on, and so on.

I'd prefer online poker didn't have any software involved whatsoever. But what can you do?

^^^^^^This

[flintsword 4]

I remember stumbling across sharkscope while looking up poker sites generally while playing in the PartyPoker Milions a number of years ago. I got much the same email from PartyPoker.I am sure that electronic support programs are going to get more and more restricted simply because they DO give a player using them an edge.So where does it stop? I often look up players using either bluffmagazine.com/pokerdb or OfficialPokerRankings just for fun. I recently was playing at a Pot Limit Omaha table and looked up how a member of my Poker Posse was doing and was shocked to find he had moved to the top 0.32% of players on OfficialPokerRankings.com for 2008 . (player in question is Money579 for the curious)Both the above sites allow you to construct "friend lists" so whenever a friend makes a final table or cashes ... you get an email.This is social poker software, but they run the risk of falling into PokerStars 'black book' as "an unfair edge" in the online site's quest to provide a 'clean' playing environment.Given the UltimateBet fiasco, the Absolute Poker fiasco, and other cheating news, the top sites are taking a really, really hard line on cheating as well as tightening up the definition of what constitutes an unfair advantage. I can't really blame them. Think of the black eye online poker has taken in the UltimateBet scandal, where hole cards were accessible by certain people since 2004 so you can't really blame sites for tightening up.

[qyayqi 11]

1. Use the SharkScope HUD - This product now supports PokerStars and has been designed with your privacy in mind. If you launch PokerStars from the HUD (and only if you launch it from the HUD) and keep the HUD open, Pokerstars will not be able to detect you using the HUD or visiting the SharkScope.com website.

oh, good. if they can wrap it & poke the pstars all-seeing brown eye, so can anyone writing a bot. nothing but good news here, ladies.

[Ship_itt 0]

Sharkscope has been a site banned by Stars for many months. I haven't heard about anyone being banned but according to their terms of service, it's possible.I think the evolution of this went something like the following:Douche bags pointing out other players ROI for whatever reason.Losing players emailing stars to find out how people knew they were losing.Stars turned a blind eye because surely no winning player is dumb enough to point out how badly the losing players are. More douche bags ROI comments.More losing player emails.Stars contacts Sharkscope and asks them to make changes to comply with Stars TOC so that they won't go on the Stars banned software list.Sharkscope declines.Stars puts them on the banned software list.Poker forums have threads created discussing the issue.People still use Sharkscope but stopped pointing out losing players ROI.Douche Bags that still point out how much money someone loses get an email and can no longer use Sharkscope.Don't be a douche bag.

agreed- dont tap the tank

[Mercury69 3]

Good. Fckn cheaters.:-)

[knoxxxy 0]

sorted....i complained to them and asked if i am still allowed to search MYSELF when i have pokerstars open....Or whether i couldn't have it open at all.....Hello Ben, PokerStars has been listening to recent player feedback regarding SharkScope. SharkScope remains a prohibited service while playing at PokerStars, but as a result of player feedback, we have now reconsidered the methods that we intend to use to prevent players from accessing unauthorised profitability and ROI data. We want to limit the amount of information that third party results websites can publish because of our strong commitment to upholding the integrity of our games. We oppose websites publishing player profitability data by default for two key reasons: Firstly, many of our players simply don't want their ROI information to be publicly available. They have a right to privacy of this information. Secondly, it gives an unfair advantage to those players who are able to obtain ROI data about players who have not consented for their information to be shown. We have been working with various sites that currently display player profitability data and the vast majority of those sites have agreed to modify the default settings for the display of player data. Sites who are working with us have agreed that profitability data will only be available on players who have themselves specifically opted in, thus giving their consent for their profitability data to be displayed on that service. The default setting will be that tournament cashes only will be displayed. The sites who intend to comply with our data policy also agree to allow players to opt out totally from their service, so that zero information will be displayed about them. SharkScope has refused to remove player profitability and ROI data by default and therefore their service now falls into the category of prohibited for use in conjunction with the PokerStars Client. However, we understand that players have expressed concerns regarding our recent detection methods, and we recognise that we made a mistake. Consequently, we will explain the error, and correct it. We detected players who visited the SharkScope website by having the PokerStars Client monitor active network connections using built in Windows functions for that purpose. The data returned by this function is similar to that which is returned by the Windows accessory called 'Netstat'. A periodic query to Windows determined whether the SharkScope IP was being accessed. This was a YES/NO query, purely regarding access to the specific SharkScope IP address. If a connection to the SharkScope IP was detected, this fact and only this fact was sent back to the PokerStars server. We then sent warning emails to players who had accessed SharkScope in conjunction with the PokerStars Client. This technique ensured that players accessing the SharkScope website were detected without breaching their right to privacy. At no stage was a player's internet browsing history ever queried, or transmitted from the PokerStars Client to the PokerStars Server. However, despite our assertion above, we understand that some players are unhappy with the perception that PokerStars monitors their internet browsing habits. Consequently, even though PokerStars does not monitor players' internet browsing habits, we have decided to disable and completely remove this feature of our software to avoid even the slightest perception of privacy breaches. After all, our policy to prevent Third Party Websites publishing player profitability data by default was based on our strong belief that players have a right to privacy. We also accept that some players who received a warning did not visit the SharkScope website with the expressed intent to break PokerStars rules. We would like to apologise to those players. It is SharkScope who should bear the greater burden for breaking PokerStars' rules and our enforcement emphasis will now focus on them. To confirm, SharkScope will remain a prohibited service, for the reasons listed above. We ask that players do not use it at all in conjunction with PokerStars - the website, the HUD, or any other future tools that they might develop. However, we will divert our development efforts to limiting the effectiveness of SharkScope by preventing their ability - or the ability of certain other datamining sites - to extract the data from the PokerStars client without either the permission of PokerStars, or the players concerned. We believe that this policy correction will deliver on our twin commitments of listening to players who have overwhelmingly asked us to prevent SharkScope from publishing their private information, but also listening to players who were concerned about their browsing privacy. As always, we welcome feedback on this policy, so please email us anytime at support@pokerstars.com. We will work hard to deliver the best possible poker games, with the highest standards of integrity now and into the future. Regards,PokerStars Game Security.

[Merby 3]

sorted....i complained to them and asked if i am still allowed to search MYSELF when i have pokerstars open....Or whether i couldn't have it open at all.....Hello Ben, PokerStars has been listening to recent player feedback regarding SharkScope. SharkScope remains a prohibited service while playing at PokerStars, but as a result of player feedback, we have now reconsidered the methods that we intend to use to prevent players from accessing unauthorised profitability and ROI data. We want to limit the amount of information that third party results websites can publish because of our strong commitment to upholding the integrity of our games. We oppose websites publishing player profitability data by default for two key reasons: Firstly, many of our players simply don't want their ROI information to be publicly available. They have a right to privacy of this information. Secondly, it gives an unfair advantage to those players who are able to obtain ROI data about players who have not consented for their information to be shown. We have been working with various sites that currently display player profitability data and the vast majority of those sites have agreed to modify the default settings for the display of player data. Sites who are working with us have agreed that profitability data will only be available on players who have themselves specifically opted in, thus giving their consent for their profitability data to be displayed on that service. The default setting will be that tournament cashes only will be displayed. The sites who intend to comply with our data policy also agree to allow players to opt out totally from their service, so that zero information will be displayed about them. SharkScope has refused to remove player profitability and ROI data by default and therefore their service now falls into the category of prohibited for use in conjunction with the PokerStars Client. However, we understand that players have expressed concerns regarding our recent detection methods, and we recognise that we made a mistake. Consequently, we will explain the error, and correct it. We detected players who visited the SharkScope website by having the PokerStars Client monitor active network connections using built in Windows functions for that purpose. The data returned by this function is similar to that which is returned by the Windows accessory called 'Netstat'. A periodic query to Windows determined whether the SharkScope IP was being accessed. This was a YES/NO query, purely regarding access to the specific SharkScope IP address. If a connection to the SharkScope IP was detected, this fact and only this fact was sent back to the PokerStars server. We then sent warning emails to players who had accessed SharkScope in conjunction with the PokerStars Client. This technique ensured that players accessing the SharkScope website were detected without breaching their right to privacy. At no stage was a player's internet browsing history ever queried, or transmitted from the PokerStars Client to the PokerStars Server. However, despite our assertion above, we understand that some players are unhappy with the perception that PokerStars monitors their internet browsing habits. Consequently, even though PokerStars does not monitor players' internet browsing habits, we have decided to disable and completely remove this feature of our software to avoid even the slightest perception of privacy breaches. After all, our policy to prevent Third Party Websites publishing player profitability data by default was based on our strong belief that players have a right to privacy. We also accept that some players who received a warning did not visit the SharkScope website with the expressed intent to break PokerStars rules. We would like to apologise to those players. It is SharkScope who should bear the greater burden for breaking PokerStars' rules and our enforcement emphasis will now focus on them. To confirm, SharkScope will remain a prohibited service, for the reasons listed above. We ask that players do not use it at all in conjunction with PokerStars - the website, the HUD, or any other future tools that they might develop. However, we will divert our development efforts to limiting the effectiveness of SharkScope by preventing their ability - or the ability of certain other datamining sites - to extract the data from the PokerStars client without either the permission of PokerStars, or the players concerned. We believe that this policy correction will deliver on our twin commitments of listening to players who have overwhelmingly asked us to prevent SharkScope from publishing their private information, but also listening to players who were concerned about their browsing privacy. As always, we welcome feedback on this policy, so please email us anytime at support@pokerstars.com. We will work hard to deliver the best possible poker games, with the highest standards of integrity now and into the future. Regards,PokerStars Game Security.

PStars support = WINNER!

[magnus72 0]

Open a new browser, then tape a sheet of paper to your monitor covering the browser. Lift the paper up to look at sharkscope, but make sure you put the paper back down before pokerstars sees it.

funniest thing I have read. EVER

[NoSup4U 0]

So PS can tell that right now I'm posting on FCP?

Yes

I wonder if you can just minimize Stars, open a new browser and go to Sharkscope when you want undetected?

Open a new browser, then tape a sheet of paper to your monitor covering the browser. Lift the paper up to look at sharkscope, but make sure you put the paper back down before pokerstars sees it.

Super LOL :)Also LOL at the recent PS email. Its not like this monitoring was somehow new. Just cracking down on Sharkscope was. The downside of no regulation for online sites is that they're pretty much free to invade as much of your privacy as they want by searching/monitoring everything that goes on on your computer.Mark