TECH NEWS: How to Beat Online Poker Bots

Very interesting:

How to profit from online poker bots | News | TechRadar.com

Good article, especially since just at my last two tables there were people conspiring that a player at the table was a bot. Crazy.

actually all you gotta do is bet in any sequence of 1s and 0s longer than three numbers, for example $10.10 or $101.01, and the bot short circuits

One of the criteria that the sites use in their efforts to track down bots are how much people chat during their time playing online poker, apparently.

It's funny I keep winning big in live poker and then giving online poker another shot. I'll put $200 on pokerstars are see what I can do with it. I've only had 1 really good winning session online. Although live I've had countless. I keep telling myself to NEVER play online cause I'am not into the tools of online poker (only cause I don't know how to use them) and I'm also not into playing only the cards. I am a really good person reader and I've won a lot of money on reading faces and breathing (betting patterns are very important too).

All these bots tell me that it's just not worth it anymore to play online. It almost feels like playing a slot machine now. I wish I could find the artical I read about a year ago about poker bots. It was on pocket 5's I think and the guy a well known online pro talked about how he truely believes that online poker will be a thing of the past in 10 years. The reason poker bots will take over and human players will be at such a disadvatage that the smart ones will stop playing online. Soon the poker boom (online) will die and the poker bubble will then pop and the game will be what it was back in the early 90's. I for one look forward to this.

It's always sad to see people that just want to steal and not earn their way by putting in the effort to play honestly.

With Bots around I would seriously suspect the industry is constantly working on counter measure programs to stop them. First off to save them from a law suit and/or bad publicity then secondly to catch those people and confiscate their account money as they have every right to do. I also think their will be a time when the counter measures grow to the level of wiping out bot use completely. For now we'll just have to do things the old fashioned way, catch these cheats and kick 'em in the bot.

I remember reading the thread on these bots over at 2+2 when it broke. The guy who discovered it presented all his evidence and it was obvious they had to be bots because over ten of thousands of hands their stats were almost exactly the same. If I remember correctly they were very marginal winners (barely 1 BB/100).

When playing a bot it is very easy to exploit it. First they only bet according to pot odds so you can usually just reraise them out of the pot. But if they dont fold, you have to because they have the nuts. Second they cannot pick up on a bluff, so you usually see 3 or 4 other players stealing from them nonstop until they finally go broke. The only bad side is when there is a real person sitting at the other end, and he sees what you are doing then waits and traps you. The good thing, is 99% of the time they only play limit tables, so you wont lose that much.
I read that thread on 2+2 as well and they were in the higher stakes if I remember right. I used to think that I saw them at small Full Tilt Poker tables before. Apparently they did not do much to discourage using them over there. I know that Stars will ban their asses fast for using them.
The real problem that I have with them, is that one bot that uses a central database to share hole cards. So if there are 3 people at your table using it, they all know each other hands, obviously we know why that sucks. That would be easy to spot imo as well, because you would notice if a certain 3 people never got into the pot together, ever. That bot is like multi-accounting to the 14 trillionth power...
Overall I am not too worried about bots, really I wish that Stars would let them come on, but keep a list of known bots for the community. Then after the bots owner goes broke 10 or 15 times, he probably will smarten up. Again sucks that they really only play limit (or doesnt suck depending on where you stand I guess).
I am not going to post the link, but there is a new open source bot that is based on the "best" bot out there. These can actually "learn" after playing against an opponent for awhile and change its play accordingly. I am one of the people that thinks that if they are allowed to go on unchecked, that eventually bots could become a major problem as more and more (and better coders) get into the action. For the few people that run them and actually have one that works, I am sure that they are making a killing.
The other side of the issue (though I am against them either way) is that some people use them in "semi-auto" mode. Mainly it would be for a novice player that is just learning. It will count all the outs and calculate the odds and tell you whether or not it thinks you should bet or fold. You still can set it to actually click the button, but more or less it shows you anything that you may have overlooked (flush draw, straight draw, etc). I use Poker Tracker and sometimes (when not at home on my computer) a program called Tournament Indicator. We all know what the first is, but the latter I use to keep their stats (same as PT HUD) but it doesnt overlap onto the table. These software are about as far as I think that people should be able to go. This is another reason why I like Stars. They have a no-nonsense type of attitude. If they catch you using a banned program, they warn you to get rid of it. Keep using it and expect to see your account locked and funds confiscated. (Though I am not a fan of Stars being able to see all of the programs that I have running...)

yes, but can you do 1000 pushups in 12 hours?

LMAO!! Apparently I am the only human in the US that actually (*gasp* - runs/bikes/does a pushup).

odin is pokerstars the only site that does this?

? I am confused. does what?

Is p-stars the only site that bans Bots.

They all have no bot rules, but Stars definitely does the farthest to assure that they arent playing there. FT used to ignore them, but I think they have started to crack down. At least at bigger limits. I am sure they are all over in small limits on the other sites (not Stars).

I wish I could find that artical that talked about how to end of online poker is coming in the next 10 years or so due to poker bots. It talked about how in 10 years the tech will be so much further advanced and the bots refinded that the online game will die.

I don't know if this is true or not, but to be honest I am not willing to take that risk with my money online.

Presumably the technology for tracing them will have improved significantly, too.

i lol'd

Heard That also, its a way to defeat if you suspect. If you see ppl betting odd numbers they might be just be doing that to protect themselves From being botted lol

We can all only hope that they are doing all they can to prevent misuse of bots, ect.

People say bots don't make much money maybe $1 per hour I've heard. If you employ 200 bots playing in various rooms and even some playing in the same room programmed to play with each other instead of vs. each other you could make upwards $200 an hour.

that was a great article

hi Id like to know if its right for a site to put bots into their sngs I had noticed them on smaller tables lately they have mover up and the site did an upgrade few weeks ago and since then they have been playing sngs too hadnt seen then make final 3 til the other day one actually won the sng is this right??? how can they get away with that???

Very interesting information, poker is a mind game and its easy to see who is cheating and hopefully others will too. Some of us invest a lot of time playing poker and its seems so unfair when someone is cheating. Lets catch them, report them and keep online poker fair !

Ban the bots! (What if they lost $1 per hour? At 200 tables it would turn into a big losing scheme. LOL)

I always suspect a bot when one player is playing eight or more tables at a time. I figure I like playing against them because they are predictable. If they raise, I fold. On the other hand, I have noticed I can raise with nothing much and they will fold. I like that

Your hear that guys? Zach,Chuck,Vanquish and all you other 24tabling ringplayers are bots

Great article btw

warning, warning, will robinson!!

shouldn't that be "Danger, Danger, Will Robinson"? Or is there a different version of "Lost In Space" up north?

Yes, we got the canuck version, more polite, but I agree 'danger danger' is the original.

The bots are cheating but I also feel that sometimes others are cheating by using software that tells you other players hand ranges and the odds of you winning the pot. Those are things that you are supposed to figure out on your own but I fear that I might have to turn to this as nearly everyone else has.

Thanks for the link! Very interesting reading!

I disagree. The game needs to be kept as fair as possible in order to keep people paying and playing.