Nacho Barbero Sacked by Americas Cardroom after U.S. Poker Open Gaff

Last week, the U.S. Poker Open concluded on PokerGO. For many at the final table, it was a case of so near and yet so far, as Shannon Shorr sealed a remarkable victory in the final event to top the overall leaderboard. For Barbero, one conversation with fellow pro Isaac Haxton did for a sponsorship as remarks about Americas Cardroom and their online poker security protocols ended their association.

The Start of the Fire

“We have already reached out to Nacho to discuss this event and consider his future.”

The scandal surrounding ACR players and RTA (Real-Time Assistance) programs began months ago. At the top of the year, Barbero was streaming his participation in ACR’s Venom Main Event to fans when eagle-eyed viewers spotted the RTA in the background, which is illegal to use. The program helps players make optimal decisions in real-time, negating the need to use your brain or memory to make those calls against others who don’t use such programs. You can see why it’s wrong to use them.

Following that incident, ACR Poker issued a statement saying: ‘We take our game integrity and our responsibility to ensure a fair and competitive environment for all players seriously. We expect the same from the ambassadors who represent our brand. That expectation has been tested a lot this year and in light of recent comments made by ACR ambassador Nacho Barbero on a live poker stream – comments which misrepresented our stance on third-party software and game integrity – we have already reached out to Nacho to discuss this event and consider his future with ACR Poker.”

Clearly those discussions ended with a smack on the wrist because just a few weeks later, Ebony Kenney, who has been in a relationship with ACR CEO Phil Nagy, was pictured with RTA visible in the background. Kenney didn’t admit to using it ‘in real-time’, stating that she had never done so and used GTO Wizard to study post game and review hands. ACR Poker defended that position and the reaction from fans was clear: both players should have been fired.

But the fire was gathering pace and this week, caught some fuel from an unexpected source.

How the Drama Unfolded

“How they gonna know? I should never have posted it online.”

It was during the U.S. Poker Open livestream on PokerGO last week that Barbero struck up a conversation with Isaac Haxton. Barbero hinted that he didn’t believe ACR was doing enough to combat players using real-time assistance tools while they played on the site.

“This thing about GTO Wizard, bro,” Barbero said to Haxton. “I should have never posted it. How they gonna know? I should never have posted it online.”

“I’m surprised ACR didn’t just catch it automatically, to be honest.” Haxton replied as Barbero laughed. “You can just have GTO Wizard open on your computer while you’re playing and ACR doesn’t even know? Are they even trying?” Haxton asked.

Again, Barbero laughed and replied: “I don’t think they’re trying.”

That was enough for ACR CEO Nagy to pull the trigger. In a statement released to the public, Nagy said: “We hold our team members to the highest standards of integrity and commitment. Recent comments by team pro Nacho Barbero regarding the use of GTO Wizard have raised serious concerns about his understanding of our security measures and his role as an ambassador. We never censor our pros or tell them what to say, but we do expect them to speak truthfully and be well-informed about our security efforts so they can represent us – and the facts – accurately. The nature of these comments reflects a fundamental misalignment with our values. As a result, we have decided to part ways with Nacho.”

Moneymaker Wades Into Row

“As an ambassador, we should be held to a higher standard.”

After the initial incidents involving Barbero and Kenney unfolded, the 2003 WSOP Main Event winner and possibly the best poker ambassador of all-time, Chris Moneymaker, was quite clear on how he believed the episodes should have been dealt with, stating that he’s have sacked them both.

Following Barbero’s comments during the USPO, Moneymaker appeared on Poker.Org’s The Interview podcast and was even clearer.

“Not to get too in-depth on how our security protocols work, but they’ll go through, and they’ll look at the account and if the account [has] used RTA, they’ll get a warning. And after the warning is issued, if it’s found to happen again, then they would get banned. As an ambassador, we should be held to a higher standard. If I owned ACR, I would probably get rid of both of them.”

While Moneymaker was unequivocal in how he’d have dealt with the instances, he didn’t openly state they’d been malicious to use GTO Wizard. However, this did not dclear them of wrongdoing in the former world champion’s opinion.

“You’re probably not cheating, you’re probably just an idiot, which, honestly, I really don’t want idiots working for me either.”

Moneymaker said that he believed that Nagy’s leniency was the reason both players didn’t lose their ambassador roles at the time of their initial transgressions.

“Phil hates firing people,” Moneymaker said. “When he fires somebody, he gets really sick. It really hurts him. So, we always joke, it’s really hard to get fired from ACR. Like, you really got to screw up.”

After Nacho Barbero’s latest allegation of ACR’s lax security protocols, the company had little choice but to make a statement sacking. The issue is that Kenney remained and the transparency that Moneymaker clearly advocates is not necessarily representative of the company he himself so admirably represents. ‘Be More Moneymaker’ is something that players aspiring to ambassadorships for over two decades have lived by.

ACR Pros might do well to follow that mantra closer than anyone.