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Watch what you post
Americas Cardroom (ACR) pro Nacho Barbero has been under the microscope since Friday, when he posted a picture of his computer screen showing multiple ACR tables open plus an active instance of GTO Wizard.
GTO Wizard is a real-time assistance (RTA) tool that helps players make statistically correct decisions while they are playing. RTA is banned at nearly every online poker, including ACR.
From ACR’s list of what is prohibited during live play: “Any tool, software, or piece of material that offers real-time advice (RTA) on how to act at the table, that reduces, influences, or eliminates the player decision making process during a hand in play.”
Fumbled response
Poker pro Gilles Simone was the first to bring the possible cheating to the public’s attention, sharing Barbero’s post on X.
Barbero attempted to defend himself, replying, “hey, i was coaching 4 of my horses on a discord call. i dont play online, they dont have the gto wizard pro so i was looking at some spots for them. My bad. i emailed gto wizard game integrity and they gonna send all the spots i searched yesterday and gonna publish em.”
Now, it may be true that Barbero was not actually playing – it looks like he may have been following a player with the screen name “TRAVISRICE,” as his seat is at the bottom of the table on all four windows and his cards are visible mid-hand in one.
Even so, the poker community naturally questioned why Barbero would coach a client during live play, especially with RTA software clearly running. The thought was that even if Barbero wasn’t cheating for himself, he looked like he could have been cheating for someone else, whether or not that person was fully aware of what was happening.
More fumbled response
Normally, an online poker room whose pro has been found to possibly using RTA software would put out a statement along the likes of, “This is certainly concerning and we’re looking into it,” but Americas Cardroom decided a different tack would be better.
ACR, instead, wrote on social media, “Nacho Barbero is a goofball and we love him. Anyone who’s played with, against or around him knows he’s not a GTO-style player and likely never will be. We’re confident he was not using GTO Wizard to gain any advantage for himself.”
After Patrick Leonard issued a more appropriate statement, ACR apologized for its initial reaction and said it was conducting its own investigation.
Patrick Leonard taking initiative
In the meantime, Leonard himself launched his own deep dive into Nacho Barbero’s play in “The Venom” tournament.
“I have every single hand he played and every single hand he has searched on GTOW with the exact timestamps. I’m going to look through all 1371 hands and publish my findings,” Leonard posted on X on February 1.
He has posted several updates since and, just a little while ago, said he has finished his investigation and will upload his findings later today. His opinion on his interim findings is that Barbero did not use GTO Wizard during live play.
“He makes substantial errors and when dealt into hands makes errors arrow 30% of the time including an average of 2.17 ev loss per every 100 hands that he plays,” Leonard said. “I can confirm with almost 100% certainty that he did not play ‘gtow approved’.”
Leonard added that he will share every single hand with the public so anyone who wants to can conduct their own analysis.