The story of the Poker bots

Full Tilt and Poker Stars have booted bots off the system to create an ever safer online Poker playing environment.

When you are sitting at the table you can’t be sure that your opponents are really there. This is the biggest problem with online gaming and yet players rightly trust that cards are indeed generated randomly and that players sitting at the tables really do exist. One problem for players and poker companies alike is the growth of the phenomenon of poker “bots”. These bots provide an unfair advantage to those using them and essentially remove what would be a level playing field for all players.
This is the reason that the 2 biggest poker sites, Full Tilt and Poker Stars have banned their use in conjunction with their software with most other poker sites following suit. Often these bots represent the pinnacle of Artificial Intelligence technology. Compare them with a chess programme and it can very quickly be seen that the bots are making even more complex decisions than those chess programmes that are beating grand masters. The reason for this is that the bots are missing several pieces of highly important information.
Not only do the bots not know what the other cards on the table are but they are facing opposition that is deliberately feeding them with false information as to the value of their own cards. Programmes that are able to burn through the deception as well as make the correct money making moves for their operator are few and far between. The truth is that even a bot is just as likely to get it wrong as a regular player.
It takes a great deal of investment, time and energy to get the bot programmes up to the standard whereby they are making money that it would be more profitable for the creator to simply take a seat and play. Enough of the bots were successful for the major poker sites to take action though. Once the big 2 sites took steps to end the use of bots most of the other poker sites did too, since the bots play according to a mathematical equation they aren’t that hard to spot by the sites.
Bots will always be around now that the genie is out of the bottle but the poker sites have become incredibly good at recognising them. The players will lose all of their money still located within the site and will be booted, Full Tilt seized $50,000 from players found to be using bots.