Seating script changes come in to effect next month and now software which gives complex hand advice during play will be restricted.

PokerStars have unveiled plans to limit the use of third party tools that give an edge to players, starting on March 4. This includes seating scripts and certain hand charts.

Speaking on the PokerStars Blog, Severin Rasset acknowledged the difficult balancing act an operator has deciding which tools to allow and which to prohibit:

Third party tools are always an interesting topic in this debate. On the one hand, there are legitimate and useful tools out there that can help players to train, get better and enjoy the depth of the game. On the other hand, there are tools that provide their users with sometimes small and other times clear advantages over others, undermining the spirit of the game.

As reported earlier this year, seating scripts are going to be prohibited in March. They are defined by PokerStars as:

Any tool or service that sorts available games or (semi-) automates the process of joining games based on the game-play statistics or notes of other players will be prohibited. A tool that solely (or semi-) automates adding players to a set number of tables, without any reliance on information about other players, is permitted

Hand chart restrictions

The other big change is that starting hand charts will be limited and prohibited in the case of automated reference material. This means that a standard hand range chart you would see in a book or article is allowed, but a live virtual one which changes in tandem with your table dynamics would be banned.

This means only preflop and unopened pot hand charts are going to make the cut. Software that would do complex ICM and Nash calculations in-game would not.

HUDs and hotkeys are still allowed, as are tools which display basic game-state information such as pot odds or absolute hand strength.

You can read the full details of the changes coming on March 4 here.