Online Poker Cheating: RTA, Multi-Accounting, Ghosting & More

In 2025, the World Series of Poker updated its rules to explicitly ban charts, apps, and all electronic assistance devices in the tournament room. The crackdown on cheating in poker is no longer just an online issue, it’s extending into live venues too.

Online poker cheating takes many forms, not only in Spin & Gos. Some forms involve software that plays hands for you. Others involve players receiving advice in real time. This guide covers every major form of online poker cheating, how rooms detect it, and the ethical standards that serious players and coaching organizations must uphold.

WHAT IS REAL-TIME ASSISTANCE (RTA) IN POKER?

RTA stands for Real-Time Assistance. It describes any tool, software, or person that gives live strategic advice during an active game.

These tools give players an unfair edge. They offer optimal decisions based on the cards, betting actions, and other game factors, removing the need for independent strategic thinking.

RTA is one of the most widely discussed forms of online poker cheating. Modern solvers generate near-perfect game theory optimal (GTO) outputs faster than any human can think.

WHY RTA IS BANNED IN POKER ROOMS

Poker rooms ban RTA for three core reasons:

• Unfair advantage: If one player always makes the mathematically optimal decision, the playing field becomes uneven. Poker is a skill game played with incomplete information. RTA removes that challenge entirely.
• Erosion of trust: Recreational players quit when they think opponents are using software. This damages the poker room’s reputation and long-term player base.
• Integrity of the game: RTA reduces poker to a contest of who has better software, not who is the better player.

COMMON EXAMPLES OF REAL-TIME ASSISTANCE SOFTWARE

• Poker solvers (PioSolver, GTO+): These are legitimate post-game analysis tools. Using them mid-hand during a live session, however, is an RTA violation.
• Real-time HUDs: Some Heads-Up Display software goes beyond showing opponent stats and actively suggests decisions. Any tool that advises play in real time crosses the RTA line.
• Custom automation scripts: Players sometimes use scripts that execute GTO-based decisions automatically. Because these scripts play for the user, they are classified as RTA no matter how they are built.

NOTABLE RTA BANS AND POKER CHEATING NEWS

Several high-profile cases have shaped how the industry responds to RTA use:

• Fedor Kruse (2020): Kruse, a German pro poker player, was banned from multiple online platforms. His roommates revealed he had been running solvers in the background during live play, calling the setup his “dream machine”.
• GGPoker Ban Wave (2020): GGPoker banned over 80 accounts in a single month and refunded more than $1.2 million to more than 4,000 players who had played against RTA users.
• WSOP Electronic Device Rule (2025): The World Series of Poker updated its rules in 2025. It now clearly bans charts, apps, and any electronic assistance in the tournament room.

HOW POKER ROOMS DETECT RTA

Poker rooms monitor for two primary signals.

First, they look for unusually consistent optimal play. They flag decision sequences that mirror solver output with near-perfect frequency across a large hand sample.

Second, they track timing tells. Players using RTA may make complex decisions in very short times, or pause for oddly long periods while waiting for software output.

MULTI-ACCOUNTING IN POKER

Multi-accounting means one player creates and uses multiple accounts on the same online poker site. It is universally banned because it lets a single person deceive opponents who assume they are playing against different individuals.

WHY MULTI-ACCOUNTING IS BANNED

• Unfair advantage: Multiple accounts let a player hide their playing style, avoid detection, and gather more data than one account could.
• Self-collusion: In cash games and tournaments, a player controlling multiple seats can coordinate actions with themselves, effectively colluding alone.
• Fresh identity abuse: Players who are exploited by observant opponents can “start fresh” under a new alias. This lets them escape the consequences that skilled opponents would otherwise impose.
• Tournament integrity: A player with multiple entries can bust one account to help another. This directly undermines tournament fairness.

HIGH-PROFILE MULTI-ACCOUNTING CASES

• Justin Bonomo (2006): Bonomo admitted to multi-accounting on PartyPoker, creating several accounts to enter the same games and tournaments. His accounts were permanently banned, though he later became one of the highest-earning live tournament players in history.
• Jared Bleznick (2015): PokerStars banned Bleznick for using multiple accounts at the same cash game table at the same time, giving him an unfair edge over opponents.
• Bryan Huang (2020): PokerStars banned Huang after he was found to have registered multiple accounts in tournaments, violating the platform’s one-account-per-player policy.

HOW MULTI-ACCOUNTING IS DETECTED

Poker sites use several overlapping methods:

• IP tracking: Multiple accounts logging in from the same IP address trigger automated flags for closer review.
• Play pattern analysis: Coordinated folds, suspicious timing, or mirrored betting patterns between accounts can reveal self-collusion.
• Behavioral and timing clues: Accounts that share betting styles, session times, or decision rhythms may be flagged as belonging to the same person.

GHOSTING IN POKER

Ghosting refers to a player getting real-time advice from an outside person, usually a stronger player, during an active online game. The “ghost” watches the action and suggests optimal plays, effectively making decisions for the person at the table.

This blurs the line between coaching and collusion. Opponents think they face only the registered player, not an expert on a second screen.

WHY GHOSTING IS BANNED

• Unfair skill advantage: The player at the table gains from the ghost’s superior knowledge without their opponents having any way to account for it.
• Deception: Opponents are misled about who they are actually playing against. This is a fundamental violation of fair competition.
• Ethical breach: Poker is built on individual merit. Winning with hidden outside help undermines the credibility of any result.

SPECIFIC GHOSTING SCENARIOS

• Heads-up matches: Even small guidance from an expert ghost can shift the outcome of a high-stakes 1v1 match.
• Tournament final tables: The larger the pot, the greater the incentive for a ghost to get involved. Several cases came from deep tournament runs where sudden jumps in decision quality raised suspicion.
• Staking and backing arrangements: Some backers, particularly those who are strong players themselves, have been accused of ghosting their staked players, especially during streamed online games.

NOTABLE GHOSTING CASES IN POKER

• Dan “Jungleman” Cates & Bill Perkins (2020): Perkins publicly alleged that a pro player was providing real-time advice to his opponent during a private high-stakes online game. Cates admitted his involvement, and the case became one of the most prominent ghosting controversies in poker history.
• Tony “Ren” Lin & “RealOA” (2025): GGPoker permanently banned the player known as “RealOA”. GG ambassador Tony “Ren” Lin was also suspended after both had violated fair play policies during the final table of the GGMillion$ high-stakes tournament.

HOW GHOSTING IS DETECTED

Ghosting is harder to detect than RTA or multi-accounting, but poker rooms use several approaches.

A sudden, significant improvement in a player’s decision quality can trigger a review. This is especially true at high-pressure moments.

Connections between players in staking groups or shared coaching networks also draw scrutiny when coordinated play is suspected.

Abnormal timing patterns, like long, consistent pauses before major decisions may suggest a player is waiting for outside input.

POOLING HAND HISTORIES IN POKER

Pooling hand histories (HHs) means sharing or combining hand history databases from multiple players. The goal is to build a large dataset on opponents. Hand histories typically contain cards dealt, betting actions, and outcomes. In bulk, this data reveals detailed tendencies and patterns.

Studying your own hand histories is a standard and accepted part of improving at poker. But pooling them across players to profile opponents crosses a clear ethical line.

WHY POOLING HAND HISTORIES IS BANNED

• Information asymmetry: Poker depends on incomplete information. A pooled database gives some players a massive picture of opponents’ habits. This advantage has no link to in-game skill.
• Privacy violation: Players do not consent to having their tendencies catalogued and shared across a network of opponents.
• Competitive imbalance: Recreational players are the most affected. They rarely have access to the same tools, so this practice drives casual players away from the game.
• Collusion enablement: Shared hand history databases make it easier to coordinate strategies against specific players, facilitating soft forms of collusion.

REAL CASES OF HAND HISTORY POOLING BANS

• Viktor Blom vs. Brian Hastings (2009): Hastings famously won $4.2 million from Blom in a short online session. It later came out that Hastings had built a 50,000-hand database on Blom’s play. He did this with the help of his friends, Brian Townsend and Cole South. Townsend was then suspended from Full Tilt for 30 days.
• PokerStars (2010): PokerStars issued a series of bans on players using third-party software to aggregate and share hand histories. The platform’s terms of service ban sharing hand histories for competitive advantage.
• PartyPoker (2019): PartyPoker announced a ban on hand history downloads entirely, citing the need to stop data mining and opponent profiling.

HOW BITB SPINS APPROACHES ETHICS AND FAIR PLAY

Every coaching organization that takes integrity seriously has to answer the same question: how do you teach players to win without crossing ethical lines? At bitB Spins, the answer is built into how we operate from day one.

When a player joins bitB, whether through a full staking deal or the free Spin Academy trial, ethics aren’t a footnote, they’re part of the foundation. Here’s what that looks like in practice.

SOFTWARE AND DATA CONTROLS

In-house solver and chart software must auto-close whenever a poker room client is opened. This prevents any accidental or deliberate RTA violation.

Students do not have access to a “reg list” (a list of regular opponents). Shared notes on specific players are not allowed either.

Every new player receives clear best-practice guidance on the rules before they play a single hand. The boundaries are never unclear, and “I didn’t know” is never an acceptable answer.

STANDARDS FOR HAND HISTORY DISCUSSIONS

During hand history review sessions, player-specific reads are never discussed by name. If HUD data about a villain is needed for analysis, the screen name is hidden before sharing.

Population tendencies are discussed only at a high level. No exact percentages or player.linked data are shared openly. These standards protect both the students and the wider poker ecosystem.

BACKGROUND CHECKS AND APPLICANT SCREENING

Every applicant to bitB Spins undergoes a background check before being accepted. Any history of cheating, collusion, botting, or multi-accounting is an automatic disqualification, regardless of results or skill level. Roughly 10–15% of applicants are accepted overall, and ethics screening is a non-negotiable part of that process.

This matters not just for the integrity of the team, but for every player in the games our members play. A coaching organization that tolerates cheating poisons the ecosystem it depends on. We don’t.

For more on what joining bitB Spins looks like, you can read our stable guide here.

CAN YOU CHEAT IN ONLINE POKER AND GET AWAY WITH IT?

The short answer is: rarely, and less so every year.

Modern poker platforms use AI-driven monitoring systems. These scan betting patterns, win rates, timing data, and account link across millions of hands.

Detection methods now include machine learning models trained on confirmed cheater profiles. Unusual behavior that slips past simple rule-based filters can still be caught.

The consequences are serious: permanent account bans, confiscation of all winnings, and often public exposure that follows a player into live poker venues too.

The WSOP’s 2025 rule change banned all electronic assistance devices in the tournament room. This shows the crackdown is extending from online into live poker as well.

Want to play in an environment where these standards are taken seriously? bitB Spins enforces strict ethics policies across all players and coaches. Learn more about joining here,  or start with the Spin Academy 30-day free trial through the same link.