Pokerbots Making Online Players Sad

Anonymous Coward wrote to mention a Wired article about the rise of Pokerbots in online gaming venues. From the article: "Smart, skilled players are rewarded in the long run, especially online, where there are plenty of beginners who would never have the nerve to sit down at a real table. But WinHoldEm isn't just smart, it's a machine. Set it to run on autopilot and it wins real money while you sleep. Flick on Team mode and you can collude with other humans running WinHoldEm at the table. For years, there has been chatter among online players about the coming poker bot infestation. WinHoldEm is turning those rumors into reality, and that is a serious problem for the online gambling business."

Comments

Re:Poker

[Hedonist23]

I understand where this comment is coming from, but what people don't understand is that poker is actually a much different game than other forms of gambling. It's a game in which you play against other players, not the house. As far as the house is concerned, you can win every hand and become a millionaire, as long as they get their rake (the percentage a house takes out of every pot).

Poker is a skill game, that's why people can become pro's at it. That's why even semi-pro's like me can make a decent living off of it, especially now with the boom in popularity of the game.

Re:on-line poker is for marks

[XMyth]

Why would they waste their time cheating?? The rake alone is massive profits.

And besides, if they EVER get caught cheating (former employee rats them out or something) then people will simply stop playing there and now they've lost what was their big money maker...the rake.

A B&M casino could cheat you just as well.

Re:Automated

[CastrTroy]

You are technically allowed to count cards. They are also technically allowed to kick you out of their casino, and technically allowed to blacklist you from all the casinos in the state. They don't like it when you win. There's no laws against cheating, but then again, there's no laws against kicking you out of the casino either.

Re:From Someone Who Makes His LIving Playing

[TexVex]

I would suggest you read some of David Sklansky's books on poker. He is big on his Fundamental Theorem of Poker, and the utilization of Game Theory.

The FTOP states that you profit every time you play a hand exactly as you would if you could see all the cards, and you profit every time an opponent makes the wrong play assuming he could see all the cards. Making a "mistake" in this context means giving your opponent favorable odds to chase a draw, calling when you don't have favorable odds, failing to value bet a winning hand, calling with a losing hand, etc.. Sklansky uses Game Theory to propose ways in which you bet, bluff, call, and fold with the correct frequency to give your opponent the most opportunities to make mistakes and make as few mistakes as possible yourself.

Actually applying what Sklansky writes takes a lot of knowledge of the game. You have to be able to recognize betting patterns, calculate pot odds on the fly, accurately estimate your implied odds, put your opponents on ranges of hands, and many other things. All in real-time.

Some of those are things computers are good at. Many of them are not. :)