The Poker Bots Issue
June 28th, 2010
The issue of poker bots is an ever present one in online poker. It has basically been around from the very beginnings, and the number of companies and various websites offering poker bots for sale for $20 has only increased ever since. For starters, I think we can rule out these $20 offers, without a second thought. Why would anyone sell something that’s potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for a few bucks? I know these sites feature rather convincing sales copy, but that does little to defeat the above logic.
Can poker bots successfully compete against real poker players at all?
Does current technology make that possible? The answer to that would have to be yes and no. Technology is certainly capable of creating a poker bot that can successfully take on the world’s best players: it has been proven and it can be done. The same way I can’t replicate NASA’s space shuttle in my back yard though, I can’t possibly create a poker bot that could achieve anything close to what it’s supposed to. The poker bot which proved its capabilities against some of the top professionals was developed in a university lab, with no efforts and costs spared. It was also programmed with help from some of the world’s top professionals, so yes, if you can pull all those resources together, you will definitely be able to create a viable poker bot. Also, you probably won’t go around selling it for $20 on some website that screams “scam” from a mile away – I can pretty much guarantee that.
“a poker bot needs to be able to think, so a layer of AI was added on top of the odds-calculus capabilities” it sounds so simple, doesn’t it? As a person who’s worked with AI, I can tell you it’s anything but that, and a statement like that is not just an insult to reasonably smart readers but it’s also a gross underestimation of the intricacy of the game of poker.
Does this mean there are no poker bots playing online?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Some of the experts seem to think that the very entities which use poker botting the most are the online poker sites themselves. They allegedly do it to secure critical player liquidity (the same reason for which they offer rake rebate deals and poker propping), without which they would never survive, so the logical argument is certainly there. Most of the mainstream poker rooms make a clear case of not wanting to see any such attempts made at their tables though.
Poker rooms have a number of ways to detect poker botting, an offense which is considered of the highest degree and which is usually punished by the ceasing of all funds and by the closure of the suspected players’ accounts. One of the ways poker rooms can detect botting is through a software hook which is installed onto the client’s computer together with the client side of the software. This hook has the ability to detect programs running in the background, and it can identify poker bots too.
The solution can be tricked relatively easily though. Botters almost always use a second computer (possibly a laptop hooked up to a PC) to mimic human interaction perfectly and to keep the computer on which the software runs clean. While this move may be a strike scored by the botters, it doesn’t mean botting is anywhere as close to required minimal efficiency as some would like to believe. The poker industry has the resources to raise hell against bots and botters, and therefore I believe that commercially available poker bots are absolutely useless in today’s advanced online poker environment.
If you want to give botting a go, I’ll have to advise against it. Your bot will probably start by losing money, and it’ll continue with having your account suspended and your bankroll confiscated.
Read More About (Tags): poker bots > poker robots
Entry Filed under:online poker
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13 Comments Add your own
1. The Poker Bots Issue | Th&hellip | June 29th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
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2. james covert | July 3rd, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I once read an article as to which included the science behind testing gaming software. In online gambling and poker in general, there are codes and programmes developed to try and beat the system of which form perfect scenarios and outcomes.
As to whether these systems would then be used by the casinos themselves.
Well thats a very scary thought indeed.
3. Per | July 11th, 2010 at 4:36 am
While poker botting on the client side is possible but illogical to use one, what are the chances that a poker site will use bots themselves just to beat the players and rake in more money? This seems possible right? It would be even easier for them to create such a program from the software they themselves are using.
4. Robert | July 19th, 2010 at 7:34 am
I don’t suppose big and popular online casinos use bot themselves. They have a lot to lose if people, there players specifically, found out that the company is using bots in their poker rooms. That would be a disaster. Who would want to play against a bot?
5. Free Poker | July 23rd, 2010 at 3:24 am
The question is: How they can earn more money? With bots and more rake or with reliability and more real players?
6. Eric | July 31st, 2010 at 9:04 am
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7. Johnny Cashout | September 13th, 2010 at 4:38 am
doesnt make any logical sense for online software to jeopardize their license to print money.
Their only cost is upkeeping the server, other than that they rake in 24/7.
stick to popular sites like ftp and ps to be safe i guess.
8. poker game developer | September 16th, 2010 at 5:22 am
Poker bots is only an aid to help players increase their winning, it should be accompanied by poker skills that you already have.
9. Winning Online Poker Strategies | Johnny Cashout | January 15th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
With updates on the past year, there have been a huge explosion of bots caught..unfortunatley they have made pretty huge profits
10. Proform Pete | March 3rd, 2011 at 3:26 pm
I agree poker website them self use some sort of “bot” or program to raise pots. I thik online sites often will give 2 or 3 players mosnter hands so they all bet a lot against each other which raises the rake and the take for the website. Online poker is very questionable.
11. Michael | March 18th, 2011 at 8:20 am
This means that we are been cheated. We played against the bot not with the real player.
I can’t believe this..
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