Oops, ACR Poker Did It Again: Another Team Pro Is Accused off Using RTA

Ebony Kenney Used GTO Wizard During The Venom

On February 21st, 2025 Eric “Nemoplaysopker” James shared on Instagram the downloaded story of ACR Poker ambassador Ebony Kenney with the following comment: 

“ACR Poker pro Ebony Kenney had added this story and eventually blocked me for calling this out. Here is a video that appears to show GTO Wizard (or similar solver) being used while playing in the 2024 @acr_poker Venom. I reached out to ACR for comment who has continued to stay silent. @dougpolkpoker @thelodgecardclub @acrpokerlatam @farazjaka @poker_org_ @pokernews @chainsawpoker @disco_chad @cardplayermagazine @cardplayermedia am I just overreacting here? 🤔 This was January 2024 in the ACR Venom. Looking for the community’s response since I never got one from ACR, Doug Polk, or PokerNews.”

In this story, you can clearly see that Kenney has a solver chart open in the background of a Venom event table she is sitting at.

Of course, poker players started to ping Kenney and demand clarification. The poker pro responded after a few days with a confirmation about using the GTO Wizard during the Venom 2024 — but not for cheating. We’re quoting her statement word for word:

“I want to address the screenshot recording that’s been making the rounds. This clip was posted by me more than a year ago, which was also circulated during that time. After losing a big hand, I opened GTO Wizard to run the spot while I was not in a hand.

Let me be absolutely clear: I have not, and have never, used RTA software in real time to gain an unfair advantage while playing.

While I do use GTO Wizard, it’s rare because I don’t study nearly as much as I’d like to. When I do use it, it’s strictly to review past hands or run drills-never during play. I fully understand how this looks and the weight of my actions, not just as a poker player but also as an ambassador for the game. I take full responsibility. I love poker with my whole heart and stand firm in doing my part to uphold the integrity of the game.

Additionally, I know there’s been speculation surrounding my recent Venom run and bounty pull. I’m more than willing to share my hand histories with anyone who wants to review them. I stand by my play and guarantee you’ll find no evidence of RTA use.

I remain committed to transparency and to keeping this game one we can all continue to love and respect.”

It’s safe to say that this statement displeased a lot of players, including Kenney’s former colleague Vanessa Kade, who left the ACR Poker team before the end of her contract due to disagreements with the team and pointed out to Ebony that taking “full responsibility would be quitting”.

People supported this point of view, calling on Kenney to leave the ACR Poker team along with Nacho Barbero, as they both violated the network rules by opening a poker solver during the game. Kenney remained silent to this demand.

ACR Poker’s Official Statement: Ebony Isn’t Guilty of Cheating

The response from the ACR Poker Team didn’t have players waiting for long. And just like with Nacho — speaking through Weird Poker News words — they investigated themselves and “found no wrongdoing”.

Quite expectedly, only a few players truly bought the honesty and impartiality of the investigation and the truthfulness of its results.  Some players went as far as to remind the ACR Poker team of its rules regarding the use of any forms of assistance in real time — for example, Jake Wood shared on X a screenshot directly from ACR Poker website:

This response only pushed players to share more and more opinions on X and criticize ACR Poker even more severely than even during Nachogate. 

How the Poker Community Reacted to Kenney’s Situation

This time, the poker community didn’t have even a shadow of doubt about showcasing their annoyance towards ACR Poker. Among all the angry comments and accusations, some new (and vital) questions about the integrity of online poker came to light, ones that aren’t easy to answer.

Aaron “abarone68” Barone summed up the events of the last month, highlighting the absurdity of the official responses from the parties involved:

“So in the past few weeks, two ACR pros have admitted to using GTO Wizard during play to

1) Assist others who may or may not have been currently playing 

2) Review hands that may or may not have been happening at the time 

Even if both parties did not use the program to assist in an active hand, at least one clearly gained an edge by reviewing the hand while at the table. Furthermore, the normalization of “Well I’m not cheating per se” sets us down a dark path where it’ll be near impossible to punish actual cheaters.  

Want to know what would help curb cheating?  Actual repercussions.  As long as it’s burying heads in the sand and slaps on the wrist, nothing will change.  Nothing except that interest the game itself, slowly shrinking over time as players feel less and less comfortable playing online poker.  Not only at ACR, but everywhere.  

So please, miss me with that “highest integrity standards of integrity” bullshit.”

He also stressed that no one needs another “friendly” review or self-review of hands played by accused players because it makes no difference for recreational players who surely won’t play poker after seeing things like that. 

Jans “Graftekkel” Arends mocked ACR team’s responses in his own humorous manner stating:

“If you ever catch me with GTOw open during a session, don’t worry. I just forgot to close it after a study session, I was only showing people how it worked, and I was only using it to look up hands I played just before. I would obviously not be using it to cheat, don’t be silly”

Patrick “padspoker” Leonard, who was involved in reviewing of Nacho’s spots, did not express any desire to do the same this time but instead shared questions he wants to know answers to:

“I think it’s very important that the following is addressed/answered

1- Is checking hands in GTOW after a hand is finished ok?

2- Are pre flop charts allowed?

3- Do you have anything in place to stop either of the above if they are against ToS?

4- What is the punishment if found guilty of either of the above?

5- Are GTOw a partner of ACR

6- if 5 is yes, do you consider them to be an undetectable and destructive threat to your site?”

No one from ACR Poker has come out publicly to answer these requests. However, the last post did motivate some players to check out not only WPN rules this time but GTO Wizard too — and “JoeFromCanada” found that GTO Wizard “Use of Service” clearly prohibits using this software during live poker games, including online:

Finally, Ben “bencb789” Rolle expressed his surprise at the fact that the use of solvers to check spots immediately after they’re over has become so normalized in the poker community:

“I don’t understand why people still believe that analyzing a spot after a hand is justifiable.

It is not as bad as doing it during a hand, but it is still very bad.

It gives you an unfair advantage. You get to see real-time results for a situation on your table.

You get to see the perfect solution for preflop and postflop, which gives you an unfair advantage for upcoming hands that will likely be in similar situations.

It doesn’t matter if you use it during or after a hand. Both give you an unfair advantage; during a hand gives you a bigger advantage of course.”

To us, this seems like the perfect time for the poker community to come to an agreement over any and all forms of hands review solvers during the game. It would also be a good moment to develop some sort of accepted practice towards online poker rooms and prevent the normalization of “soft” forms that help players obtain an unfair advantage.