Nacho Barbero has found himself in the middle of a big RTA (real-time assistance) controversy after posting a story on his Instagram profile where he has four poker tables open and a GTO Wizard chart in the background. Doing this on ACR, the site that he is representing, makes things even worse in the eyes of the public and raises some additional questions.
Nacho Barbero is ACR’s sponsored player, and World Series of Poker bracelet winner who is also the number one ranked player on Argentina’s All-Time Money list with $21,670,348 in total live earnings.
Barbero’s Explanation
Barbero denied accusations and said that he was coaching four of his horses and checking some spots for them as they don’t have GTO Wizard’s premium subscription. He also said that he emailed the spots he was searching for to GTO Wizard’s integrity team and that the spots would be published.
Of course, his response triggered even more people to attack him in the comments, so one follower said that using RTA for one of your horses while they are playing is also a breach of the TOS (terms of service).
Barbero then started a prop bet, offering 10 to 1 odds that he could prove he was not using RTA for himself. This still doesn’t put him in the clear, as he is not allowed to use it for anybody else, either.
The whole thing got even weirder when ACR responded by repeating the things Barbero said, which again doesn’t make him innocent of breaching the TOS.
And, of course, as expected, that didn’t resonate well with the followers, as one of them wrote, “Possibly the dumbest response to cheating I’ve ever heard. If you play on this site or collect a paycheck from ACR, you are scum.”
ACR’s Internal Investigation
A few days after the controversy started, ACR released a statement that differed from their previous post and everything Barbero said: “At no point did he use real-time assistance (RTA) to aid his or any other player’s decision-making during live hands.”
The next thing ACR posted on their X account was a typical PR post where they were trying to wash the whole thing and move on.
The problem with this kind of post is that you can believe it so many times, but at some point, it becomes worthless and just a formality. If we just remember the always-existing controversy about bots on ACR, continuing their illegal operations in European counties after regulators warn them, etc., there is always something shady going on with ACR.
Third-Party Investigation
ACR also said, “Independent parties are conducting their own reviews, and we are confident that they will come to the same conclusion.”
One of the independent parties was online poker pro Patrick Leonard, who reviewed all 1,371 hands Barbero played in the Venom. Leonard posted a video on his X account where he explained the process and how he would conduct the investigation.
After he finished an investigation, Leonard said, “In almost every close spot, he used either a different sizing to what GTO Wizard would use or a different hand selection. 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.”
With all the evidence, it looks like Barbero didn’t use his own account to cheat, but he may have done it from another account.
Leonard also posted an interesting pool where people anonymously voted if they ever used RTA.
