Editorial Standards

These are the rules we follow. They apply to every piece of content on ACESLIVEPH — articles, reviews, rankings, newsletter issues, social posts, video content. They exist because trust takes years to build and one careless post to break.

Our voice

ACESLIVEPH is the friend who actually plays. Not the journalist who covers the game from a press box. Not the operator who's selling you something. The grinder who walks into the room, sits down, and tells you the truth about what just happened. We are player-first, plain-spoken, willing to have opinions and defend them, willing to call out bad rakes and shady operators, willing to praise the good ones.

The Three-Source Rule

Before publishing anything negative about an identified individual or operator, we require at minimum:

• Two independent sources confirming the fact (not two people who heard it from the same place), or
• One source plus documentary evidence (screenshots, photos, public records, official statements).

If we have only one verbal source, the story stays unpublished or gets framed in non-attributable terms ("multiple regs in Manila have raised concerns about the rake structure at [room]" rather than naming an individual operator without documentation).

Right of Reply

Before publishing anything substantively negative about an identified person or operator, we contact them and offer a chance to respond. Email or DM. We give them 24 hours.

• If they respond, we include their response in the piece.
• If they don't respond, we publish with a note that they were given the chance.
• If they threaten or try to bully us out of publishing, we publish anyway — with documentation of the threat.

Things we never publish

• Allegations of cheating against an identified individual without documentary evidence.
• Allegations of criminal conduct against any identified party without documentary evidence and legal review.
• Specific accusations of poker-room collusion or game-rigging without documentary evidence.
• Personal information about a player they haven't made public themselves (real name if they go by a handle, home address, family details, employer).
• Photos of identifiable players mid-hand without their permission.
• Speculation about a player's mental health, addiction, or financial trouble unless they've spoken about it publicly.
• Content about a player's personal life unless they've made it public themselves.
• Schedules or details for underground / unlicensed games.

Affiliate independence

ACESLIVEPH earns commissions from some of the operators we review. This does not affect our coverage:

• Editorial decisions are made before any affiliate negotiation.
• An operator's affiliate payout structure does not influence ranking position.
• If an operator threatens to pull an affiliate deal because of editorial coverage, we publish the piece, end the affiliate relationship, and write a separate piece about the threat.
• If we wouldn't write a positive review of something unpaid, we don't write one because of the affiliate either.

See our Affiliate Disclosure for the full list of operators we have or are pursuing relationships with.

Sponsored content rules

When a brand pays for content placement (e.g., a Player Spotlight, a featured listing):

• Always labeled "Sponsored" at the top of the post.
• The sponsor reviews factual accuracy of statements about themselves; they do not have editorial control over framing.
• We do not accept money to write a positive review of something we wouldn't have recommended unpaid.
• If the sponsor pulls the deal because we won't change our framing, we publish anyway and refund the sponsorship.

Corrections and retractions

We will get things wrong. The rule is: own it fast, own it visibly.

• Factual error: corrected within 24 hours of confirmation. An "Updated [date]: corrected [fact]" note is added at the top of the article.
• Significant factual error or unfounded accusation: retracted publicly. The retraction is pinned to the top of the relevant article and published as a standalone post on social channels. We apologize directly to the affected party.
• Pattern of errors from a contributor: the contributor is dropped.

A correction we own is a credibility builder. A correction we hide is a credibility killer.

AI-assisted content

Some ACESLIVEPH content is AI-assisted — particularly news aggregation summaries, review templates, and educational glossary content. Our rule:

• AI is a starting draft, never the final published piece.
• Every AI-assisted piece is reviewed and edited by a human before publishing.
• We do not publish raw AI output as editorial content.
• AI is never used to fabricate quotes, sources, or facts.
• AI tools used: Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI), and similar large language models. We do not list specific model versions in articles unless relevant to the topic.

Reporting an issue

If you spot an error, an undisclosed conflict of interest, or a factual claim you can disprove, contact editorial@acesliveph.com. We respond to every editorial complaint within 48 hours. Where the complaint is valid, we correct or retract publicly.

Last updated April 29, 2026.