POKER EVENTS

The rise of gambling bots may soon depress online poker. In the very near future, online poker may become a suckers’ game that humans won’t have a chance to win. Bots are quite scale-able and it will be virtually impossible to prohibit computer or computer-assisted online playing.

Poker sites are trying to assure customers that they will kick bots off their site and seize their assets. But unlike the statistical trail left by crude poker cheats at Absolute Poker, it is possible for bots to randomize their strategies and even hire individual humans to run them. Ultimately the Albertus Polaris program and its offspring could be more effective than any Justice Department indictment in crippling the growth of online gambling.

Poker enthusiasts have argued for online legalization, saying that poker is a game of skill. And of course, it is (just like chess and checkers). But ironically, it’s because poker is a game of skill that humans’ chance of winning are undermined. Unlike checkers, the key to poker is to predict whether other players are bluffing. On the Internet computers are probably better at predicting a rival’s hand from his or her past play. But computers are much better at confounding the expectations of their human opponents. Computers can play randomized strategies much better than we can. Our brains are so hardwired to see patterns, it’s devilishly hard for most of us to generate random behavior.

High quality bots are an online gambler’s worst nightmare. Bots won’t kill poker. They’ll just drive it off line.

Online poker rooms have always fought the fears that poker bots - computer programs that play against humans and sport an unfair advantage - are prevalent on their sites, but recent activities at a number of online poker sites have increased those fears. At one major poker room emails were sent to players announcing a refund of cash lost during certain cash ring games where bots were suspected. These emails have not mentioned how many players were affected, but did say that certain accounts - those suspected of using bots - have been frozen pending further investigation. Sphere: Related Content