New OPR rules regarding pokerstars stats

I like this for the fact that players will not be able to see other players stats and think they can make moves based on these stats.
Makes me have even more respect for pokerstars.
What are your thoughts?

PokerStars Policy


PokerStars has mandated that websites displaying player's rankings and ratings require players to opt-in before displaying certain data (net profit, ROI etc).

The opt-in opt-out procudures below only pertains to PokerStars players and data.



Opting In/Opting Out of Official Poker Rankings (OPR) (Only applies to PokerStars players and data)
Opting In (PokerStars):

If you'd like to opt-in, allowing OPR visitors (including yourself) to view your extended PokerStars statistics (net profit, ROI etc), please follow the instructions listed below:

Within the PokerStars Software, transfer $0.03 to OPRanking (Copenhagen)
The funds will be transfered back to you within 5 days, and you will have opted into OPR PokerStars display system.

Opting Out (PokerStars):

Opting Out of OPR (PokerStars):


Within the PokerStars Software, transfer $0.01 to OPRanking (Copenhagen)
The funds will be transfered back to you within 5 days, and you will have opted out of OPR PokerStars display system.
See FAQ for how to opt-out on other poker rooms.


PokerStars' Policy Regarding "Rankings/Ratings" Services
To ensure player privacy regarding certain player statistics and financial information gathered by websites (hereinafter "Service Operator") that collect and organize PokerStars players' results by various means, PokerStars has devised the following rules with which such Service Operators must comply:

1. No player profitability data (i.e. ROI, net profit, etc) may be displayed on any player unless the player has explicitly opted into such display by transferring $0.03 to a prominently published PokerStars account owned by the Service Operator. This request must be acknowledged by the Service Operator by sending the $0.03 back to the player as confirmation within a reasonable time frame not to exceed 5 days.
2. Any player may choose to completely opt out of having any information about them displayed on the Service. To do so, player will transfer $0.01 to the service operator's PokerStars account. This request must be acknowledged by the Service Operator by sending the $0.01 back to the player as confirmation within a reasonable time frame not to exceed 5 days. Note that the amount here is different, in order to distinguish an opt-out request from an opt-in request.
3. The use of the "transfer from user to Service and back again" method for opt-in and opt-out is required. This method permits these requests to be handled privately and securely without the disclosure of the player's Email, real name, or other private information. Only the player's PokerStars User ID is required.
4. Both the opt-in and opt-out options must be prominently displayed on the main / front page of the Service (at minimum, a normal-sized link on the front page to a more complete description elsewhere).
5. If the service's operation pre-dates the establishment of these guidelines (December 2006), there shall be no "grandfather clause" for existing data. 100% of historical profitability data must be removed from view until such time as a player explicitly opts in as above.

Any Service Operator found to be in violation of these rules risks having their access to PokerStars' game client restricted and/or the service impeded, including but not limited to the warning of players who access the Service while the PokerStars client is open.

They send it back to you with-in 5 days so I don't really see a problem with it.

This is pointless, its not hiding anyone's statistics. You still see winnings, average buyin and total games played. 4 seconds to estimate ROI

Edit: I hadn't read all the rules, I just saw the blocked info yesterday. So, all info can be blocked now?

If all else fails you can always go to bluffmagazine.com and look up players by their online name and poker site. Pretty much all the same information.

This will be for all the tracking services? How many are there? I don't know why Pokerstars allowed such detailed access in the first place.

You can't see ROI or profit without a subscription to bluffmagazine.com, so unless you think it's highly important to see another players profit/ROI, then you'll need a subscription.

It is unclear what happens if any player does nothing. Neither opt-in, nor opt-out.

From the gist of the OP, I think it will apply (eventually) to all services that data mine all day, every day, every game, every place.

That in mind, the next question might be;

How might Poker Tracker stats differ?

Poker Tracker is a history of games you yourself have participated in, and to a lesser degree games you yourself have been railing. There is a limit (30 hands/table ???) I believe to how many games PT will record if you are just watching.

What about point 5?

It looks like this has been in place since 2006??

IMO, this is going in the right direction to making their customers feel more secure that their info is being guarded, this just may be a small stepping stone to what will become the norm for all tracking sites.

Nope, at Pokerstars there is no datamining and unless you use a 3rd-party AHK script or something (which is illegal) you cannot get any stats on players unless you are being dealt into hands.

Newest version of PT3 (beta 15) has the ability (presumably cleared by Stars) to mine 30 hands before you sit down.

Just want to remind you all that DB had to do the same thing a while back....you had to send 3 cents to opt in or something like that