Bum Hunting in Poker Rooms: Overview of Rules 

What Is Bum Hunting in Poker?

With a slight variety in how you phrase it, bum hunting in poker is intentional targeting specific players — usually weaker or recreational ones — with the purpose to play only or primarily against them while simultaneously avoiding playing against stronger players.

This practice is widely considered to be unethical, predatory, and harmful for the game because:

• It scares new and recreational players by making them feel like prey.
• It slows down the pace of the game due to players deliberately refusing to engage in actions against each other in anticipation of other “victims”.
• It encourages other regulars to bum hunt in order to remain competitive.

Since the primary group who struggles because of bum hunting is amateurs, poker rooms are usually focused on protecting them first.

How Poker Rooms Prevent & Regulate Bum Hunting

Among the most popular preventive measures, excluding explicit prohibition of bum hunting, poker rooms usually implement:

• A complete ban on the use of scripts for automatic seating at tables based on parameters, including individual characteristics of players or groups of players.
• Using a randomized automated sitting system not allowing players to see and choose specific tables — only stakes.
• Anonymization of players seated at the table, allowing their nicknames to be seen only after joining their game. Sometimes an additional requirement is paying the big blind after seating.
• Creating special cash games such as ZOOM, Rush&Cash, SNAP, etc. where players cannot only choose the table but even stay at the same table after they fold their hand or end the hand.

Some poker rooms go even further as WPT Global uses an AI system to manually limit the amount of players labeled as pros per table.

Punishment for Bum Hunting: Examples

It’s worth noting that bum hunting isn’t always mentioned in the poker rooms policies. For example, WPT Global uses the term “VIP hunting” without an additional explanation, while RedStar Poker doesn’t specify this practice at all.

However, all these rooms are still consistent with prohibiting unethical and predatory behavior, using only examples of what they consider to be bum hunting and without listing all possible instances. This means that even if the room’s website or policies don’t use the term “bum hunting”, they still monitor players activity and punish them when bum hunting practices pop up. 

We’ve compiled a few examples of how rooms define bum hunting and how they punish it — just to give you a general idea. If you’re unsure whether bum hunting is prohibited in your room, please ask customer support.

iPoker Network

According to the iPoker official policy, bum-hunting is defined as the practice of selectively targeting weaker players while avoiding stronger competition. It is considered predatory behavior and is actively discouraged across the iPoker Network.

In addition to ban on seating scripts, iPoker rooms flags players who consistently exhibit bum hunting behavior for review with subsequent punishment, the severity of which is determined individually. This may be warnings, account suspensions, permanent bans, and even redistribution of funds in favor of victims of the bum hunter.

GGPoker

In the GGPoker Network SECURITY AND ECOLOGY POLICY, bum hunting is defined as the intentional practice of seeking out less experienced users while deliberately avoiding engagement with more skilled users.

The policy specifies examples of actions that are considered to be bum hunting:

• Screening for and engaging certain users.
• Only choosing to participate in games when these specific users are present.
• Targeting specific users, for instance, by leaving a game shortly after certain users depart, and/or resuming the game when those particular users return.

If a player is suspected in bum hunting, they can be punished with warning, suspension, reward removal, or permanent ban.

CoinPoker 

For CoinPoker, bum hunting is the act of selectively targeting specific players perceived as weaker, while deliberately avoiding action against other opponents. The room sees this practice as undermining fair play and the competitive integrity of the platform.

Examples of bum hunting, according to CoinPoker policies:

• Sitting out at cash game tables until a particular user joins, then immediately resuming play.
• Following a specific user’s activity in the lobby and joining games only when that user is seated.
• Consistently leaving or refusing to play once preferred opponents leave the table.

If under investigation of player’s behavioral patterns bum hunting becomes clear, CoinPoker will choose a punishment depending on the severity of actions from the list of warnings, gameplay restrictions, or account sanctions.