Re: [ba-poker] Ethics of using PokerTracker

["Stephen H. Landrum" <slandrum(deleted the rest)>]

At 10:39 AM 4/12/2005, Hubert Chen wrote:
> How do people feel about the ethics of using PokerTracker to profile
> your opponents?

I think it's a valuable tool you should have in your arsenal.  If you are 
playing significant limits, then other players are definitely using it 
against you.

> I think few people would argue with using it as a tool to help improve
> plug up your own leaks. But being able to look at all the hands that
> anyone has shown down ever is more powerful than having a friend
> help you.

You can capture all your hand histories and write your own programs to do 
data mining.  The information is provided to you by the poker sites.  I 
don't see why using an off-the-shelf program to do the task is any 
different than writing your own code.

> Does it matter if other people do/don't know that you are using it?

No.  You are using information that is readily available to everyone.  If 
your opponents choose not to use it, that's their business.

Online poker is not that same as over the felt poker, and it's unwise to 
think that the same rules apply, regardless of whether you think they should.

Is it unfair for a player that has a photographic memory to play 
poker?  Should he have to announce to everyone at the table that he can 
remember every single hand he's ever played?  Of course not.

--
Stephen H. Landrum <slandrum(deleted the rest)>