Anybody Here Beat ACR MTTs?
I've been struggling with MTTs on ACR quite a bit recently ($6-$20 buyin range), and wanted to get a sanity check from you all. I'm generally skeptical of the idea that ACR could be rigged, since a massive conspiracy would be required, and anyone who the cards were rigged in favor of would know about it--wouldn't we have heard from some of them?
However, the pattern that has been suspicious for me is that in practically every tournament, I run well early (I seldom bust out in the first couple of hours) and have a big stack by the time registration closes. After registration closes, one of two things almost invariably happens: 1) I run ice cold and only can open a few hands an hour, 2) I get the money in good and get sucked out on. As a result, I have a lot of min cashes but almost no deep runs on the site. This is especially true of the larger tournaments; I've final tabled a few of the smaller ones.
My goal here is not to get your opinion on whether ACR isn't (or is) rigged, but to gather data from people regarding their own empirical results.
7 Replies
This is my ACR profit history from Sharkscope. Based on my results, it looks like the game was beatable, but is now bonkers. Note, however, that I only have 928 games logged over several years. But you can see that I was doing very well, but some time around 2 years ago, the game became very, very tough (for me at least):
This is my ACR profit history from Sharkscope. Based on my results, it looks like the game was beatable, but is now bonkers. Note, however, that I only have 928 games logged over several years. But you can see that I was doing very well, but some time around 2 years ago, the game became very, very tough (for me at least):
I've had the same experience as you. I was winning until late 2023 or so and then my results have just completely cratered. Something like -30% ROI over my last 600 tournaments. (And even if you roll 2023 into there, when I was still a small winner, I'm still down overall in that period.)
I've been running way under EV expectation-- it's basically impossible for me to win a big pot or 60/40-- but it also seems like the games are tougher there than anywhere else. The schedule and structures really suck now (not only did they get rid of most of the medium-field tournaments, but everything gets cut to 7/8 minute levels after late registration), and there's a huge bot and RTA problem that they seem to be doing nothing about:
https://x.com/conrads411/status/19127710...
And that's why I barely if at all play there anymore. It's just become a money sink for whatever reason. I know I'm good enough to win tournaments, so why waste my money somewhere I keep consistently not winning?
My Sharkscope isn't as extreme as yours but it is over a much larger sample and follows a similar pattern. You can practically see where I peaked and started sliding back, and it's probably around the same time you did.
Thanks, Nath. Very helpful information. I know they have had a bot problem, but they claimed to have cleaned that up -- yet I still can't win lately (although don't play too much there). I also lose way too many hands on the river where I am way ahead.
I wish there were good alternatives for US based players. I don't like Bovada/Ignition due to the anonymous play, and game selection. Any recommendations would be great.
I've been doing well enough on Ignition to keep playing there. I don't like the anonymity, but there's enough bad play, in conjunction with the wide payouts and better structures (lots of 15-minute level tournaments), that my ROI has been very good. That's where I play most of my tournaments.
BetOnline seems pretty soft to me, but their schedule is pretty thin.
Global also seems soft but I've also been getting my ass handed to me on there in a similar way to ACR, which I can't even verify because they don't do hand histories, which makes me wonder if I'm just wasting my time.
ClubWPT Gold has been extremely soft, but right now they don't even have real multi-tabling functionality.
If anyone's interested, I've switched to Global and am enjoying it. Volume/guarantees aren't as good as ACR but so far my results have been good with no suspicious patterns. (Despite what Nath said--hopefully that doesn't start happening.)
Hardly recommending it since they're all shady and I haven't even tried to withdraw yet, but that's the update.
I finished 2nd in the 22 12.5k last Sunday on Global so my frustrations with the site are currently on reprieve. (Not entirely, though - I got into three 70/30s at the FT and lost them all. I won one big flip AK vs. 88 BvB and lost the other two I got in. I had a 6:1 chip lead heads up and the guy was too tight/passive, should have been an easy win. Then I lost AT < JT and 88 < AJ AIPF.)
ClubWPT Gold is really soft and they finally introduced multitabling, but the software for that is still a mess.
I still have pretty good results on Ignition. BetOnline seems pretty soft but they just don't offer a lot of tourney action.
ACR of course fired Nacho Barbero for commenting while playing a streamed tournament that ACR doesn't really care about bots or RTA.
