ProGambling

Online Poker Bots: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them

Many online poker players are faced with the reality of playing against poker-bot software. This article examines the developing sub-culture of people who call themselves "poker botters."

Online poker players have more and more software available all the time to help them with their game. Odds calculators, player database accumulation programs, and statistical analysis software are among the more popular. Individual poker rooms are faced with the task of reviewing all these programs and deciding which ones are not allowed to be used on their site. Lately, quite a few poker rooms have banned database-sharing websites and software.

But there is another type of software emerging, one which all the poker rooms specifically do not allow: Poker Bots. This is a program that actually plays the game for you. The reason it is not allowed at poker rooms is because there is a fear among some of the less sophisticated players that they are being cheated, and one of the manifestations of this fear is the concept of poker robots taking their money. While most of the actual poker bots out there are nothing to fear, the bots make a convenient scapegoat for these pathetic little people who think the world is out to get them.

Their fears are becoming more and more justified as time progresses, however. The poker bots are getting better. A company called Shanky Technologies now sells one that plays extremely well and can be completely customized by the user to handle any conceivable poker situation. So now the quality of the pokerbots are becoming consistent with the skill of the poker players who own them. And there are some pretty smart people tinkering with this software.

The poker rooms publicly state that their policy is “no poker bots allowed,” and anyone caught will have their account frozen. But in reality this policy only exists for Public Relations purposes at any site except for Poker Stars. This makes sense, because Poker Stars is the undisputed leader in this industry and therefore has a brand image to protect. All the other rooms lag seriously behind. It’s no wonder that they don’t take any actions against the bots. If you were in their position, would you be motivated to cut off hundreds of your best paying customers?

The longer they wait the more impossible it becomes to institute an anti-bot policy. At rooms like Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet, they would be hurting their balance sheet so badly by doing so that their accountants would never allow it. Those places are now full of bots, so these businesses can no longer stop them without slitting their own throats. This is because bot-play is now making up a significant percentage of the daily rake. If somebody really wants to take advantage of this trend they should open and advertise a “Poker Bot friendly” online poker room. The popularity of customizing your own bot and pitting it against humans and other bots is becoming obvious.

Poker-botting is becoming an all-consuming hobby for many technically-minded people. Who can blame them; it’s pretty cool. Kind of like that “Bot Wars” show that used to be on cable TV. If you are an avid online poker player you may as well join the party. Poker Bots are not going anywhere and they just may be the only legitimate future that online poker has to look forward to.

Poker Bots
Poker Bot software that is becoming popular with online poker players.

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