A new poker scandal in the online poker world unveiled on the 2+2 forums involves a German pro player, Fedor Kruse, who plays under the name “GlitchSystem” at PokerStars. The player has been accused by his flatmates of using a Real Time Assistance (RTA) poker solver to win high stakes cash game hands.
A former successful Call of Duty streamer, Kruse turned to poker around 2015. He was sharing a flat in Veina with two other players who have identified themselves as “Manuel” and “Niklas. According to his flatmates, Kruse was a break-even player but he suddenly switched to cash games and quickly climbed to the highest stakes available (NL40k on GGNetwork and NL10k at PokerStars). He won in many difficult high stakes games. Just after switching to high stakes cash games, he also began to lock his room while grinding, which compelled his flatmates to confront him as he had become quite suspicious for them.
During confrontation with his flatmates, Kruse confessed that he was using a real-time solver, which he called a ‘dream machine’ in his words. After this, he was kicked out from the flat, and his roommates decided to share all relevant information and data to PokerStars Integrity Team and GGNetwork.
Screenshots and WhatsApp chats shared by Kruse’s flatmates as evidence in a TwoPlusTwo post from Sunday go on to prove that Kruse was using a real-time assistance (RTA). The usage of such solvers during play is strictly forbidden at online poker sites as they provide players with the optimal solution for hands. They also tell the users exactly how to play their range correctly, always or mostly resulting in a win.
In one of the screenshots, Kruse is sharing a hand history on WhatsApp with Niklas. His friend stated “you played with a solver” and Kruse agreed. In another screenshot, he refers to his “dream machine”.
His flatmates also took a picture of Kruse’s two-computer set-up designed to fool the mouse-tracking system. Of the two computers, he used one to play poker, while the other to keep a solver open. When playing a poker hand, he pulled out a pre-solved spot and followed the decision tree therein to consistently play his range correctly and thereby make game-theory optimal decisions to take down hands.
Poker Community Reacts
While Kruse is yet to comment on the allegations, poker forums are full of posts on the scandal. Matt Berkey, a professional poker instructor, took to his twitter to suggest that this is a serious issue.