Anonymous Poker Tables III (Poker Bots Cheating)

It really amazes me that this stuff is not getting more attention than it is. I think a big reason nobody seems to care or write about poker bots is that they are mostly at low stakes. This is really terrible though, and I am trying to get the word out. I hope that networks will do more to stop poker bots especially at anonymous poker tables where other players can’t police the networks. When playing at anonymous tables your opponents simply show up as player 1, player 2, player 3, etc. Here is an image that shows what anonymous tables look like. In this case the players are labeled Villain 1, Villain 2, etc.

I have talked about the potential for anonymous poker cheating previously. However, I was not aware just how developed the technology and support for poker bots has become. If any of you have challenged the “Neo Poker Bot” you will know that it is actually quite a challenging bot to play against. While I think poker bots are predominantly at low stakes I wonder how sophisticated they can be. Obviously, the low stakes bots just play a very TAG style and 3-bet in certain situations with premium hands for value. However, I have a feeling with a good poker mind behind one it could become quite a good player. After reading through some of the PDF manual I feel as though I could build quite a strong bot. What is really crazy is that there is a 90+ page user manual to support people that are trying to use poker bots to cheat. This is really disturbing to me. It really is unfortunate that such an operation exists. Poker players don’t want to sit and lose their money to a poker bot.

I did some research on forums around the web about these poker bots and they do not seem to be getting detected. It would be great to see some stats on this, but anecdotally it does not look good. Poker bots are especially a concern in an environment of anonymous poker tables. It can be difficult enough to spot a tight bot on a normal table, but unfortunately the task is much more challenging on an anonymous poker table. It amazes me just how many networks are moving toward this anonymous poker table model.

It seems fairly clear to me that numerous poker networks (I won’t name any names today) are not doing a good job of stopping cheating and bots at anonymous poker tables. I am not a technical support wizard, but I would love to hear some stats (from poker operators) on just how many poker bots are getting shutdown. Please poker operators if you are reading this feel free to contact me….. From what I can tell poker bots are all over the online poker world, and in all likelihood they are especially common on anonymous poker tables.

Would love to hear your thoughts

-ThePokerCapitalist

 

 

Part II Internet Poker Struggles (Poker Law)

Legality

In the early days of internet poker online poker companies were able to get gaming licenses from numerous locations around the world. Because of the lack of a global standard, many poor and borderline criminal companies received licenses and misused player funds. Unfortunately, there have been numerous circumstances where player funds have not been segregated, and when online poker companies have gone broke all the players have lost their money. Microgaming is one network that still operates, and has a history of not segregating player funds. See this thread on 2 plus 2 about microgaming skins and the lack of player refunds. Most of you will also have heard about the “Ponzi” scheme, Full Tilt Poker, which was at best a very poorly run company and probably criminal as well. There are other examples as well but I will spare you all the stories of broke online poker companies. With no global standard internet poker has been more akin to the wild-west than 21^st century America.

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The Rise of Internet Poker Part I

The first hand of online poker was only dealt in 1998 (Source Wikipedia). Since then massive changes have occurred in the realm of poker gambling. The internet has revolutionized the way that poker is played. Perhaps slightly dramatic, but think for a moment about how gunpowder changed warfare, the wheel changed transportation, etc. Internet did exactly the same thing for poker. Prior to the internet you had limited options if you wanted to play poker. Either you were playing in a home game, a poker club (possibly underground), or in a casino. The limiting factor in all of these games was player pools. This all changed in 1998 when the first real money poker hand was dealt online.

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Poker Vacation Kauai

It has been a little while since I updated my blog because I have been on vacation! Everybody needs a poker vacation from time to time, and Hawaii is my favorite place to go in the winter. The island of Kauai is absolutely amazing and the temperature was 75-80 degrees the entire time. So I stayed close to the Poipu beach area with my wife and a couple of very good friends. One of my good friends has a cool website on fashion in case you are interested.

Our accommodation was about a 3 min walk to this beautiful beach

 

 

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