London Sunday Times takes a Look at Poker Bots
Poker bots are one of the scariest things to online poker players. These robot rounders are basically computer programs that can sit at an online table and take on their human counterparts. The only thing that these robots need to operate is some funds from their owner and an open seat at a table.
And the really scary thing about poker bots is that many of these programs are said to be far more successful than their human counterparts. In some cases, players are reporting that poker bots can play in several games at once and earn their owner $50,000 or more throughout a year. This is better than the vast majority of players do in the game today.
Of course allowing a poker bot to play the game for you is illegal in many rooms, but these rooms have little in the way of detection or defense against poker bots. In theory, it’s almost a situation where people are able to use these robots unchecked and make as much money as they want to. But the key word here is “almost”.
Many of the poker bots on the market today are less effective once the game gets bigger such as in 9 or 10 person games. Most of these bots have been programmed to do well in heads-up situations such as the one Phil Laak played and beat a couple of years ago, but they don’t work as well in bigger games.
And it may be a while before a poker bot is developed that can handle these full table games. That’s why I question reports where people say that poker bots are making them $50K a year while multi-tabling. If it was really a huge problem, I think that rooms would be doing much more to combat the situation.