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...)