My brother asked me about poker bots, which had me thinking about writing a quick article. Anyway I can’t be bothered so I’ll just post the chat:

(1:44:43 PM) ?: what’s your view on poker bots?
(1:44:51 PM) ?: is there any such thing as one that works
(1:47:01 PM) Oz: Yes they work
(1:47:08 PM) Oz: if you have a lot of them
(1:47:13 PM) Oz: and they play full ring limit
(1:47:26 PM) Oz: However the big rooms such as ftp (Full Tilt) and ps (Poker Stars)
(1:47:30 PM) Oz: Use something similar to captcha
(1:47:33 PM) Oz: you know captcha?
(1:47:36 PM) ?: no
(1:47:57 PM) Oz: Captcha is
(1:48:01 PM) Oz: that shit when you post
(1:48:03 PM) Oz: write this word
(1:48:06 PM) Oz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA
(1:48:21 PM) Oz: It runs a number of reports
(1:48:26 PM) Oz: Playing long hours
(1:48:35 PM) Oz: and betting patterns
(1:48:40 PM) Oz: if your betting almost perfectly
(1:48:51 PM) Oz: Which a human would find hard to do consistently
(1:49:04 PM) Oz: There are people on the forums that have been sent captcha messages at the table
(1:49:08 PM) Oz: if you don’t response they shut you down
(1:49:11 PM) Oz: ftp (Full Tilt Poker) and ps (Poker Stars)
(1:49:19 PM) Oz: have refunded people after they have caught groups of bots
(1:49:27 PM) Oz: bots on rake back as well
(1:49:41 PM) Oz: It’s going to get worse though
(1:49:49 PM) Oz: if a bot that can use central databases
(1:50:05 PM) Oz: databases that scour and scrape hand histories (datamine)
(1:50:11 PM) Oz: even though they aren’t playing
(1:50:14 PM) Oz: see www.tableratings.com
(1:50:24 PM) Oz: it’s not accurate but your account will be on there
(1:50:56 PM) Oz: So at this time, it’s not such a worry
(1:51:02 PM) Oz: but they can only get better
(1:51:12 PM) Oz: One solution which I’ve suggested and others
(1:51:37 PM) Oz: is annom (anonymous) poker
(1:51:40 PM) Oz: you login
(1:51:41 PM) Oz: no name
(1:51:45 PM) Oz: and you play with no names
(1:51:52 PM) Oz: just random people no notes
(1:52:03 PM) Oz: then people can’t data mine
(1:52:06 PM) Oz: That’s my view on it

*I work in the industry but not for Poker Stars or Full Tilt.