New slide dealing at PokerStars live events to keep poker safe

PokerStars is introducing further updates to its live events rules, showing its ongoing commitment to protecting players both online and live. The changes, which are a result of direct player feedback to eliminate potential for abuse and cheating, will take effect at EPT Monte Carlo, aside from slide dealing which will be rolled out over the coming months and implemented fully by EPT Barcelona in August, to bring consistency to its processes and regulations at all its live events.

The changes announced include: fixed hands per level at Final Tables, slide dealing phased rollout, expanded smart device restrictions, stricter seating rules and shot clocks to begin at Level 11 in hyper-turbo tournaments. “These changes are all about integrity and player experience and safety”, said Toby Stone, EPT Tournament Director. “We’ve listened to what players want, what their concerns are about playing in tournaments nowadays and made changes that directly address those concerns. With what we are bringing in, players know they are playing on a fairer, more even playing field, and they aren’t being disadvantaged either by illegal action that is hard to detect, or behaviour that is technically within the rules but perhaps not in the spirit of the game.”

Final tables will move to playing a set number of hands per level rather than having time-based levels. All players will play the same number of hands per level. The move is designed to reduce players trying to gain advantages over others by stalling or speeding up play.

Slide dealing will be introduced in select events at EPT Monte Carlo and will be fully implemented by EPT Barcelona in August. Slide dealing prevents phones or smart devices from having the chance of catching any card faces during a pitched deal.

In August, PokerStars announced a ban on solvers in the tournament area during play, either by players or spectators. Starting from EPT Monte Carlo, the list of banned devices at the felt and being used during play will expand from phones to include all smart accessories, such as smart watches, rings, glasses and other wearable technology that can transmit or receive data.

New entries will be required to sit down immediately upon arriving at the table. This is to ensure that players cannot take advantage by lingering to skip blinds or observe play. Tournament staff will be empowered to force players to join the table if they deem someone is taking too long to take their seat.

Shot clocks in hyper turbo tournament formats will now begin at Level 11. Players will receive two 10-second time bank cards at the start of that level. A further two cards will be issued to players at the next break, with a maximum of four time bank cards given out in most tournaments. This ruling has come into action as a direct result of player feedback.

The new rules further expand on updates to PokerStars’ live events rules which were implemented in 2024 demonstrating PokerStars’ ongoing commitment to game integrity online and live. They included banning solvers from the tournament area, reducing shot clocks from 30 seconds to 15 seconds and replacing late elimination redraws with random breaking order for the final five tables. The new rules aim to stop players gaining unfair advantage through smaller loopholes and eliminate circumstances that allow players to create an edge by ‘gaming’ the system.