The RTA allegations are the first of this year’s World Series of Poker, after last year’s summer festival hit the headlines several times.
The Main Event finale was ruined by scenes of eventual winner Jonathan Tamayo running from table to rail where his coach/backer Dominik Nitsche was reportedly running sims.
Other incidents included players being accused of using charts during play and prompted the WSOP to beef up rules on what is and isn’t allowed. Mobile phones, for example, are not allowed during the final three tables or at streamed tables.
This time it looks like the online WSOP events are potentially being abused, with Patrick Leonard keen to share the evidence…
When people ask me why I don’t play wsop online events… https://t.co/uhWrQENvWi
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) June 8, 2025
Several posters on X/Twitter, however, questioned whether he was using the solver in real-time.
- Looks like HRC, doubt he’s RTAing, prolly other hands he’s running same time. How can one RTA using HRC, output takes a bit of time?
- Not surprised, feels like 100s are doing in the bigger events
- Looks like he ran a spot in hrc and wasn’t actively in a hand. He shouldn’t be doing it but I don’t see him “RTAing”
The OP, however, wasn’t convinced: “Before this believe was checking a spot before folding- it’s how I knew to take out my camera and record. Could be wrong though- don’t want to pile on the guy if it’s a less egregious thing like in between hands or in the replayer etc.”
The WSOP Online T&Cs state: “In addition, You may not use any software program, robot or external aid, which is endowed with artificial intelligence (regardless of whether You are actually using the Software). Examples of such prohibited tools, software and external aids are:
(vi) any tool or program that provides game advice in real time based on the actions of the other user at the table.”
It appears that the player in question is running HoldemResources Calculator (HRC), described by its owners as “an advanced preflop solver for NLHE, suitable for everything from short-stacked tournament play and bounty calculations to deep-stacked cash games.”
Previous high-profile cases have centred on the similar GTOWizard, with the recent Nacho Barbero incident highlighting the issues.
Obviously all of nachos friends (including me) will defend him, the haters will hate. Nobody will actually know so no point arguing about that. The unarguable has to be that GTOW needs to have a delay, it’s needed a delay for so long but surely it needs to happen before wsop this… https://t.co/Eia2tXS72V
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) January 31, 2025
An incident last year saw Kevin “Gr4nd Theft” Ruscitti suspended by WSOP Online Michigan after fellow players levelled accusations of RTA against him. That led to WSOP Online publicly reiterating their stance on game integrity…
WSOP Online have been contacted for comment on this latest incident.
