After reading Phil's thread on bots etc I have to say, how scary does it sound that Phil is saying that bots cannot be stopped and the tone was more of a trying to minimise the problem - it's like there is an acceptance of them and trying to minimise them rather than eradicating them is all that can be done.

This sort of honesty is refreshing and not something you ever hear Stars, Party etc admit to, but I think to the lay poker player and general casual player they won't take lightly to joining a site that admits it has bots but just try to minimise them.

After watching a recent pod cast by Joey Ingram (9mins 6 secs) he shows graphs were the bots on ACR has almost identical stats. They are winning at a scary rate. Their owner seemed to take a very flippant approach to the subject, not to mentioned the huge issue they faced on the MAC client.

Knowing they are rife on Party. ACR and Stars does not bode well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUKdz58M44U

I really think a great move forward to this is to have the RIO poker program interact on a regular basis with the user where the player has to click on things like "click the number 5 below" every x minutes - this is just another trivial click for the user and also lets RIO know the user is a real player. Who on earth would ever object to that? We can all give up a 1/20th of s sec for the sake of the integrity of the site.

The posting of the hands played after session is just a brilliant idea by they way. I think this will also show up any attempts where players are are colluding and teaming up in 3 and 4 bets in front of their targets.

I have to say I am really looking forward to the launch - I like many others play on Sky Poker in the UK as it is very secure, does not have bots to my knowledge, doesn't offer their data to 3rd party data mining site and so none of the PT4 and Holdem programs work on it - great deterrent.

The one thing they did brilliantly when they launches was they had their own live channel and used to review hands from players during cash or tourney play - the players would write in with hand ID's and the experts would review them. If you got your hand reviewed you felt great. They would also give updates live on the tourney running and show leaders boards etc. All great and made you feel part of it.

I have to say I am only joining RIO because Phil has his name to it - My human instincts tell me he is a stand up guy and is trying to take online poker to the next level - the ideas seen so far are very encouraging - I just hope he gets the support he deserves.

Hope This Helps

Regards

John