A player streaming on WPT Global in May 2025 left a spreadsheet of preflop ranges visible on camera. Patrick Leonard flagged it publicly. The account was banned in about thirty minutes.
That’s the part most people underestimate. It wasn’t a solver. It wasn’t a bot. It was a spreadsheet, and it was enough.
If you use any poker helper tool, you need to know exactly where the line sits, because “I didn’t think that counted” is not a defence anyone accepts.
The one question that decides everything
Forget the tool categories for a second. Every major operator’s rule reduces to the same test:
Does it influence your decision while a hand is being played?
If yes, it’s Real-Time Assistance and it’s banned. It doesn’t matter whether the tool is a $2,000 solver or a chart you drew yourself on paper. It doesn’t matter whether it’s sophisticated. The question is timing, not technology.
PokerStars puts the distinction plainly in its third-party tools policy: studying away from the table is fine, tools that tell you what to do during the hand are cheating. GGPoker’s definition is broader still, covering any external assistance that gives an unfair advantage, influences decisions in real time, or lets you play in a way you otherwise couldn’t replicate.
Banned: what will get your account closed
- Solvers running during play. PioSOLVER, GTO Wizard, Simple GTO Trainer, anything in that family, open while you’re in a hand.
- Any AI assistant you’re feeding the current spot into, including general-purpose chatbots.
- Preflop and postflop charts open during a session. Yes, including ones you made yourself. GGPoker prohibits all charts during active play.
- Push/fold charts referenced mid-hand.
- ICM calculators and range calculators used live.
- Bots, obviously — software making decisions with reduced or no human input.
- Ghosting, where another player advises you on hands in progress.
- Hole card sharing with anyone or anything outside the game.
Allowed: what you can actually use
- Everything above, after the session ends, with the client closed. Off-table study with solvers is not just permitted, it’s how everyone improves.
- Hand history review and database analysis between sessions.
- Your own notes on opponents, taken during play. Reading a note that says “this reg overfolds turns” is observation, not external assistance.
- HUDs, where the site permits them. This is a separate rulebook — see below.
- Training sites and coaching, provided the coaching isn’t happening live.
The standard advice from operators is blunt: close the third-party software before you open the poker client, not after.
The grey zone: preflop charts
This is where most honest players get caught out, because the rules differ by room.
| Operator | Position on charts during play |
| PokerStars | Narrow exception for basic preflop charts in unopened pots, with no stack size or position detail |
| GGPoker | No charts of any kind during active play, including self-made ones |
| WPT Global | Prohibits external assistance programs that distort play or give an unfair edge |
| CoinPoker | Zero-tolerance on RTA alongside bots and collusion |
The safe approach is to assume charts are banned everywhere and only relax that if you’ve read your specific room’s current policy yourself. Policies get rewritten. A forum post from 2023 is not a policy.
HUDs are a different argument, and it keeps moving
A HUD isn’t RTA in the classic sense — it shows you your opponent’s historical statistics, not the correct play. But rooms treat HUDs as an ecology question and their positions change, sometimes more than once.
CoinPoker lifted its HUD ban in January 2025, then reinstated it in June 2026. GGPoker bans HUDs and tracking software outright, which is one of the reasons its games stay softer. PokerStars permits approved tools within limits.
Check before you install. Then check again if you haven’t played there in six months.
Enforcement is real, and some of it is public
Most operators say nothing about what they catch. A few publish numbers, and those numbers are the most useful thing available for calibrating your risk.
WPT Global disclosed $427,481.32 confiscated from banned accounts between January and October 2025, all of it redistributed to affected players. That’s self-reported and unaudited, but it’s a running total published openly, which almost no one else does.
CoinPoker banned 98 bot-linked accounts in January 2026, confiscated the balances, and refunded $156,446 to 1,360 affected players. Most of those accounts were sitting in cash games with $50 to $200 buy-ins, which should kill the idea that this is only a high-stakes problem.
GGPoker has been the loudest on RTA since the 2020 Fedor Kruse case, where an investigation found an automated setup scraping table data and feeding it through a solver mid-hand. Roughly $250,000 was confiscated from his account.
The broader context in 2026: detection has improved faster than most players realise. Operators run behavioural analysis at scale, and solver-assisted play leaves a signature — deviation patterns and timing consistency that look nothing like human decision-making across a large sample. You are not evaluated on one hand. You are evaluated on ten thousand.
What actually happens if you’re caught
- Account frozen while the investigation runs. You won’t be told what triggered it.
- Permanent ban if the finding goes against you. Operators generally don’t publish their reports.
- Balance confiscated. Not just profits — the full balance, in many cases.
- Funds redistributed to players you took money from, at rooms that do this.
- Reputational damage that outlasts everything else. Once someone is publicly named, it follows them across live and online poker permanently.
There’s no meaningful appeal process at most sites, and no regulator that will take your side on a terms-of-service breach.
Live poker has RTA rules too
People assume this is an online-only issue. It isn’t. The WSOP, WPT and EPT all prohibit solver use during play. Phones are restricted at the table in most tournament rulebooks, and consulting strategy material mid-hand is a penalty offence.
The enforcement is less technical and more human — floor staff, other players, and cameras — but the consequence of being caught is the same, and in live poker the reputational hit lands harder because everyone at the table watched it happen.
How to stay unambiguously clean
- Close all third-party software before you open the poker client.
- Study on a different device, or at a different time. Never both open at once.
- Read your room’s current third-party tools policy in full, once, and again after any major update.
- If you’re unsure about a specific tool, email support and get the answer in writing before you use it.
- Don’t screen-share or stream a session with any strategy material visible anywhere on the desktop.
- Assume your setup is being monitored during play. Client-side anti-cheat modules exist and you consented to them at install.
FAQs
Is using a poker helper tool illegal?
Not criminally, in most jurisdictions. It’s a contract violation, and the operator’s remedy is banning you and keeping your money. That’s usually worse than a fine.
Is RTA poker cheating if everyone at high stakes does it?
The premise is wrong — most strong players are simply well-studied. And the sites don’t grade on prevalence. One player using it is a ban.
Can I keep a preflop chart open on a second monitor?
Assume no. GGPoker bans it explicitly. PokerStars allows only a very limited version. A second monitor is not a loophole.
Are HUDs banned?
Depends entirely on the room, and positions change. Verify before every new site.
How do sites detect RTA?
Through gameplay pattern analysis, timing data, device and process checks, and player reports. Exact methods stay private, deliberately.
What if I only used it a few times?
Investigations look at your full history, not the session you’re worried about. Partial use is still a breach.
Founder of PokerClubGames.com and a Poker Researcher with 10+ years of experience in SEO, WordPress development, and gaming content strategy. Specializes in researching online poker sites, poker apps, tournaments, bonuses, and poker strategies. Experienced in poker platform reviews, affiliate marketing, and creating SEO-focused poker content for global audiences.
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