Americas Poker Room
What is Americas Cardroom?
ACR is an unregulated online poker room that offers real-money games to players in the U.S. It is one of the few online poker rooms where international players have an opportunity to play online against U.S. players.
Switching to Rakeback. Americas Cardroom do allow players to make a one-time switchover if they were unaware of how to set up a rakeback account, or later wish to switch over from VIP rewards. Simply contact Americas Cardroom support via live chat – the most convenient option – or email / phone if you prefer. Inform them that you’d like your existing account to be moved over to a 27%. Funding your Americas Cardroom online poker account is easy. All it takes is $10 to make an online poker deposit (unless otherwise stated). We provide a number of different deposit methods to get cash into your account.
Americas Cardroom originated as Doyle’s Room and was relaunched under its new name after being purchased by the Winning Poker Network.
The Accusation
In a video posted in February, podcaster Joey Ingram talked about player collusion, the use of bots and possible super users taking advantage of a lack of security on the Americas Cardroom for profit. “I can’t recommend anyone play ACR cash games,” he posted on Twitter.
The accusations aren’t the first of their kind for ACR. There have been discussions on poker forums about the site and some questionable practices for years.
And while Ingram talks a good game, he offered little proof to support the allegations he made. After posting the video, Ingram was called out for not providing evidence to support his claim.
Ingram was quick to respond: “Clips for the accounts will be posted. Information on the collusion I’ve received. The site has to check the back end. The bots are obvious as fucking day.”
Players are on guard
Players take cheating accusations seriously. After the Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker scandals, players have been keeping their guard up.
But sometimes, the lure of playing online poker outside Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware (the states that have legalized online poker) is too great. Since April 2011, U.S. players have been taking somewhat of a risk playing on unregulated sites.
How you move your money in and out of a site can be subject to scrutiny under the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). To help get around any gray area, ACR offers deposit and withdrawal options in over 60 of the top cryptocurrencies, which may be offering a false sense of security to its players.
ACR tournament loophole
On Thursday, Ingram released a second video that highlighted banned accounts and the exploitation of the tournament registration process at Americas Cardroom.
Apparently, there is a loophole that allows players who late register for a tournament to sit down at the same table.
As Ingram explains (starting at 6:24 in the video), a team of players can late register together as the money bubble approached. They can then collude to ensure they reach the money, and then chip dump to one player after the money bubble bursts.
Ingram provided a list of players, both active and banned, with win rates previously in the 30 percent range suddenly posting win rates in the high 80 percent range. And again, while suspicious, it still doesn’t actually prove anything. But alarm bells are going off.
Ingram also posted the list of questionable players to his Twitter feed for all to see. He called on Americas Cardroom to investigate beyond the loophole and look into the relationships between the players.
These are just two (Zynovij & GodTierBluff) instances we know of accounts that were banned on the same date for using the ACR tournament exploit in the most obvious way.
86%
88%
In the money % pic.twitter.com/yjiECV2MHr
— DJ Joey Ingram (@Joeingram1) February 6, 2018
To which ACR responded:
Yes we caught these players NOT breaking T&C's but finding a loophole. Thanks for pointing out that we do police the games and ban when necessary!
— Americas Cardroom (@ACR_POKER) February 6, 2018
Responses to the allegations
The one thing that became evident when following the tweets, videos and responses to Ingram’s cheating allegations is that the accusations are surprising to some and not to others.
To one group, the allegations are confirming what they suspected.
To another group, the allegations are unfounded and Ingram is chasing another fifteen minutes of fame.
And then there are others who simply don’t understand the nature of bots and what Ingram is alleging.
You can feel the frustration in some of Ingram’s responses, but these two tweets seem to sum it up:
Yes, I am one man. No one else gives a fuck.
— DJ Joey Ingram (@Joeingram1) February 7, 2018
If you can't figure out the exploit from this video, god help the world.
— DJ Joey Ingram (@Joeingram1) February 7, 2018
While Ingram’s account of his observations is plausible, these types of allegations are hard to prove.
Americas Cardroom admits in their public response to Ingram that players took advantage of a loophole. They didn’t say they fixed it or had plans to fix it.
The big question: will the allegations be enough to keep poker players away?
Unfortunately, as long as regulated online poker struggles to make its way back across the U.S., players without other options will continue to play.
And as long as U.S. players continue to play on sites like Americas Cardroom, their bankroll could be be at risk.