ACR Poker says it investigated the real-time assistance (RTA) allegations against sponsored pro Nacho Barbero and concluded that “at no point did he use real-time assistance (RTA) to aid his or any other player’s decision-making during live hands.”
Barbero, Argentina’s all-time money leader with $21.6 million in Hendon Mob earnings, came under fire last week for posting a photo apparently showing a GTO Wizard solver output pulled up during an online poker session on the unregulated poker site. The high-stakes pro denied using it for in-game assistance, claiming it was to coach other players on a Discord call, and ACR released a widely criticized statement calling Barbero a “goofball” who is “not a GTO-style player and likely never will be.”
Now, the US-facing unregulated poker site says a “thorough internal investigation of all hands played in the tournaments Nacho participated in” has cleared him of any wrongdoing.
“We remain committed to transparency and fairness, and we will continue to work to earn the continued trust of our players and community,” ACR wrote on X.
Patrick Leonard Clears Barbero in Separate Investigation
The Phil Nagy-operated site also noted that “independent parties are conducting their own reviews, and we are confident that they will come to the same conclusion.”
That includes online pro and streamer Patrick Leonard, who conducted his own investigation by searching GTO Wizard and looking at 1,371 hands played by Barbero.
After looking at hundreds of “close spots,” Leonard concluded that “Nacho was in no way using GTO Wizard to cheat preflop or post-flop.
“In almost every close spot he used either a different sizing to what GTO Wizard would use or a different hand selection,” Leonard said in a video breaking down his findings. “Post-flop he had completely different ideas of what GTO Wizard would do. There’s no history of him using his own account to do this.”
The British pro looked at both preflop and post-flop play and specifically at three-bet pots where he said RTA use was the most common. In these spots, Leonard said Barbero continually used too small of three-bet sizes.
“Nacho played consistently bad in three-bet pots throughout the entire hand history of Venom,” Leonard said. “There was many, many inaccurate three-bet spots,” Leonard said.
Leonard conceded that Barbero could have used someone else’s account to look up hands. “This is definitely possible and is something that could be possible of any player.”
Leonard is admittedly friends with Barbero, leading some to call for a truly independent party to investigate. Despite not finding evidence of cheating, he called Barbero’s actions “very, very bad” and noted that “as an ambassador, he needs to be held to higher standards.”
Reflecting more broadly on the state of online poker, Leonard said he was worried about how easy it was for players to cheat with RTA tools and called on operators and poker tool companies to implement delays and other methods to prevent RTA.
“I believe we’re in a very dark time in online poker right now,” Leonard said.
Editor & Live Reporter U.S.