Online poker bots...?

[sl0ggs]

Found this and thought it might cause some feverous discussion here...

I'm in no way advocating this kind of thing by the way! I would be unimpressed to learn that this was being employed by anyone using the software that I do, and I hope that bringing it to light here doesn't encourage someone to do so! (Not that this kind of program isn't already available anyway...) When I play online I want humans making their bad decisions at that end, else how can I win those marginal hands!

Not sure that they would be much use (or programable) for no-limit games however? Anyone with programming experience got any views on this? Perhaps most poker sites are probing for such things already? (Or at least they should start if possible!!)

It doesn't seem like a major threat right now, as these programs (according to these articles) require some serious man hours of data input and lots of hands to start making money, but it could prove to be a problem in the not-too-distant future as the programs become more sophisticated and the processing power grows... Imagine the repercussions if a poker site was found to be being hit by some such program! Ouch... Food for thought...?

See:
Poker bots!
...and...
Poker bots tested...

Cheers
Sloggs

P.S. having noticed the paranoia creep in in recent posts, I hope I'm not feeding those over active imaginations too much more with this post...!

[barbarian]

hmmmmm worrying stuff. The idea of bots is bad enough but colluding bots? bad news. i don't play for money much and i prefer tournaments to cash games but for a lot of people this must be pretty worrying.

[Prowler]

they'd probably spam the chatbox lol no bot can resist doing it!!

[trustme]

i have read a lot about bots and how the could affect poker. most reports seem to think that its not that widespread. If you play cheap fixed limit cash games then you could come across a bot. Most big poker sites have software to detect them anyway.


here is a link to a previous thread regarding bots.

and here is a test done on bots by a normal online player, the results are quite interesting.

all in all at the moment its not something that i would worry about

[sixofone]

One thing that is missing from those articles is the serious criminal eliment. A group of computer programers mixed with some serious poker players can cause a problem, but not in the way you would think.

One of the old vegas tricks was to hire a poker player to go into a casino and play with dirty money, then after an hour or so he would cash out.

this is one of the easyer methods of money laundering.


Now give the Criminals poker bots that run 24/7 laundering serious amounts of cash through these sites. The poker bots dont actualy have to make money (even though they do) for these guys to get a profit.

The only true way for a poker site to catch eveyone is to run programs that search your computer for .exe files, however this is illigal under the privisy laws.

[Top Pair Ace Kicker]

These reports are as worrying to me as the recent news that we were all about to die from catching Bird Flu, or the reports 15 years ago that we were all going to die of AIDS before the end of the century.

Bots that make 2.90 an hour? Really? Well slap my ass and call me Sally. Where do I sign up for my 2500 hours of programming so I can earn that much?

"The program made £40 over the course of our office day."

Yeah well I made more than that yesterday in 2 hours playing a 0.15/0.25 cents ring game. Not because I am particularly good, but because other people are particularly bad.

'If you had a game with three world champion players and three players at a lower individual level who were colluding (sharing cards and information), then all three world champions would eventually lose.'

Eventually? What, 3 hours? 20 years? 50 years? Just as they are popping their clogs?

I would be interested in knowing what stakes are these people playing to make their 2.90 an hour, but of course it never says.

People may stop playing poker, but I doubt very much it will be anything to do with Bots. It will be because they are crap and lose all their money.

If it really is as easy as:

'There are lots of players new to the game who don't really have a clue what they are doing. They make a lot of errors very regularly, and they are not paying attention to the things that matter"

Then I dont think it takes a bot to take their cash.

OTOH perhaps Ive just got my head in the sand.

[Waru]

Im sure the poker sites are doing what they can to keep the bots out and even if a few do slip through whats to say they cant be beaten anyway??!

I think its funny when ur playing a ring game and people start speaking to various players in the chat and if they get no answer they accuse them of being bots!!! Ive had it happen to me, I just kept quiet as I thought it was hilarious!!!!

[cuyber]

There are rumours off pokerbots on most poker sites, And most of it speculation.
But they are out there......

I was recently playing on a poker site which is still under beta testing..
..
There was 4 tables for nl holdem and on 3 of them there was a bot.

[barbarian]

How do you know if theres a bot on them or not?

[sl0ggs]

Interesting replies, thanks.

Thanks for the links trustme, that shows how much attention I've been paying over the last few months!

I tend to agree with Top Pair in that I'm not overly worried about them... the fact that they have to run for many hours for a little reward is key, but (and it is a big but), if a group get together to run such a setup, maybe they could leave the PC's making money for them, perhaps even while they play themselves somewhere else....? It seems to me more like an 'effort' to make any serious money in such a way... I'd sooner actually enjoy the game and have a go at winning the money than waste all that time trying to set something up to do it for me! Wasn't that always the point of the game? As Top Pair says, you could sit down for a session and coin that kind of money relatively easily anyway... and enjoy it!

Anyhoo, the percentage win, in no limit games, if you only play excellent starting hands has got to be lower than mixing it up and using a bit of intelligence hasn't it? I've not sat and worked that out of course (not that I could!)... I'm currently enjoying a rum and coke before going out, so don't think too lowly of me for making that statement right now!

It's an interesting point of discussion though, and one which will keep coming up as the poker phenomenon continues to grow as it has this year...

Keep up the good work fella's!