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ACR Intros Poker Wills and WPN CEO Talks Real Names

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

The Winning Poker Network is always upgrading and improving. Players have been noticing more transparency in the last few years, especially with the flagship Americas Cardroom site. And WPN took its desire to garner more trust with its players to a new level in December 2020 when CEO Phil Nagy hired Randy “nanonoko” Lew.

The longtime poker pro (and former member of Team PokerStars) took the position of Security Consultant and Gameplay Expert. His new role was broad with a special focus on detecting fraud, collusion, and bot activities. Further, though, WPN tasked him with communicating with the public, explaining the network’s security measures in detail but in non-technical language.

Lew has been doing just that. His regular video releases mix with social media posts to stay in touch with players on WPN poker sites. In just a short time, WPN has increased its security and transparency.

The latest software updates include heightened player protections and mouse hotkeys, and future updates will address broader issues like establishing poker wills.

WPN even published a manifesto, and Nagy addressed a competitor’s policy regarding the use of real names in high-stakes games.

April Software Updates

Around the middle of each month, WPN collects its bug fixes, updates, and improvements in the form of a big software update. The last one was on April 14 and offered quite a few notable changes.

First, the update added another layer of player protection, one that many online poker sites adopted in the past several years. The feature keeps players seeking a seat at a cash game table from seeing the names of players seated at those tables or how much money they have in front of them. Players must take a seat and play a big blind to see that information. The goal is to keep poker pros from seeking out weaker – or perceived weaker – competitors or to take advantage of their short stacks.

Second, as a part of a larger effort to ban prohibited third-party software that gives players unfair advantages, players using prohibited software will no longer even be able to open a WPN poker client.

Third, players now have the ability to use mouse buttons as hotkeys.

Finally, smaller changes included improved sound settings and the ability to change table backgrounds for individual tables. There were technical improvements behind the scenes to enable easier detections of poker bots. Also, it added another level of security for apps running WPN software.

A subsequent update customized the sound settings further to allow players to choose one master volume setting for all sounds.

May Updates and Beyond

The next WPN systemwide update will take place on May 13, requiring an hour of downtime from 7am to 8am ET. There are numerous changes set for that update:

–Hotkey options for table focus

–Ability to set “never run it twice”

–Separate winner animations for run-it-twice hands

–To remove satellites from GTD tab in MTT lobby

–New sounds for winning a pot and Blitz tables

–Exit cyclone dialogue improvements

–Easier private messaging password entry

Even further down the road, the tech team is still putting together June updates, but one is set for June 1. That one will include:

–Custom color palettes for felt, background, and cards

–Staking option for MTTs

–Poker wills

–Start sounds for jackpot tables

–Blitz animation removal option

–More new sounds

–New skull avatar

–Blitz improvements for buy-in dialogue and filling tables

–More security to weed out restricted apps and programs

–Links to share replayer hands

All players are welcomed to keep up to date and add input via the WPN forum.

What is a Poker Will?

One of the aforementioned site updates is the implementation of poker wills. This will officially be called “bankroll beneficiaries” and is a bit like a power of attorney but for poker winnings.

If they choose, players will be able to choose the option in the settings menu and set the parameters for any money distributions. For example, a player will designate a time period, like one year or 18 months for example, that will trigger a poker will. Thirty days before that time period expires, WPN will attempt to contact the player in all ways possible, but if unsuccessful, WPN may pay that player’s balance per their wishes.

As a more complete example, let’s say that Jill Poker plays regularly on WPN. She may maintain an average balance of $1,000. But she wants to protect that money, as one would a bank account balance, in the event that she becomes incapacitated or…gulp…dead. She can designate people to receive her balance, either all to one person or percentages of it distributed to various people per her wishes.

The “bankroll beneficiaries” option will allow players to designate the recipients of their balances. At this time, distributions can only be made via cryptocurrency, so players can choose their currency and the addresses to which they want money distributed.

“We use bitcoin for this process to secure anonymity,” WPN notes. It is unclear if WPN will make more options available in the future.

WPN Manifesto

Call it a motto or a manifesto. WPN decided to declare its intentions for the company, its goals and values wrapped up in a statement of sorts. And it all boils down to this: “Trust is money on the table.”

Further, though, the WPN manifesto takes that statement deeper. That meant defining that trust in more detail and how WPN can build on the trust that comes from a poker player trusting a site with his or her money. The bottom line is that trust comes from the rules of the game, communicating them openly and candidly, and caring about the same goals and motivations.

-1. Playing fair means the company and players honor agreements and play by the same rules.

-2. Building trust means sharing questions and perspectives, being transparent and learning from mistakes.

-3. Caring about players and their concerns, thusly resolving conflicts through understanding.

No Real-Name Requirements

For more than two decades, the online poker world grew off the basis of players being able to compete anonymously. They chose screen names by which to represent themselves online, and they revealed their identities when and if they chose. Most high-stakes players did, ultimately, reveal their identities, though some remained mysterious for quite a few years. Isildur1 was the best example of the latter.

Many poker sites have since transformed into an even more anonymous playing environment to promote fair play. They have created anonymous tables that prevent others from even seeing players’ screen names, meaning players could not target the weaker among them.

Lately, however, GGPoker took a different avenue by requiring that some high-stakes players reveal their full names. The WSOP and WPT required this of players during some tournaments during the pandemic, which was part of the rules announced before anyone paid their buy-ins and entry fees. But the GGPoker decision to implement the “Real Name Policy” for cash game players has been controversial. They claimed it was to prevent players from creating multiple accounts.

WPN CEO Phil Nagy weighed in on the policy…and GGPoker’s possible motivations. He disputed the notion that real names will increase security and trust among players. “All reputable poker sites already comply with stringent ‘know your customer’ guidelines, which involve IDing players,” Nagy wrote. “Sites either know their players or they don’t.”

Nagy asserted that the motivation for the new policy could be to “ride the coattails of some of the biggest names in the poker industry.” By revealing the players who compete on GGPoker, the site benefits from the publicity, from being able to say that Joe Poker plays on its site. Nagy noted, “GGPoker stands to benefit from this association without compensation.”

WPN’s soon-to-be-revealed staking feature will require players to reveal their identities, but Nagy claims that players will be aware of this requirement before they sign up. And the reason for the name requirement for that feature is because players can mark themselves up and profit from the staking. And this remains an option for players who want to participate.

 

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