PokerStars to ban seat scripting

The world's largest website finally changes its third-party tools policy.

After several years in the works, PokerStars' policy has been changed and it contains some serious upgrades, which will have a major impact on the high-stakes games.

The most significant change will affect the high-stakes cash game players, who have been using so-called "seat scripting" in order to be able to play against weaker players on the high-stakes. This tool constantly scans the tables and whenever a player with statistics which apply that they're weaker than the regulars of these stakes show up, it automatically reserves a seat at the table for its user.

“In order to continue to protect our players and enhance the overall experience, in the coming months we will be introducing a range of changes to our Third Party Tools & Services policy, which we will communicate ahead of time,” a PokerStars spokesperson told Poker Industry PRO.

“One such change is we will be prohibiting any tool or service for table selection efficiency that filters or sorts available games, or automates/semi-automates the process of joining available games based on opponent gameplay statistics or notes,” PokerStars disclosed in a statement.

Seat-scripting tool in action

“For example, the use of seating scripts that join players to a set number of tables that have an average statistic for opponents above/below a certain figure, or work off pre-assigned player notes, are prohibited,” it added.

Even though the site didn't confirm the date of the implementation as of this time, according to Russian Pokeroff, the software developers were recently informed about the changes coming into effect on March 1.

As these softwares made it impossible for those, who didn't use them, to play with recreation players, and many believed this unmans the hobby players to play online, the poker community welcomed the changes, some even stating it should've been done years ago.