Before reading this article, let me define what the term
poker bot means. A poker bot is a
sophisticated card playing robot ("bot" for short) created
using a computer program that gives its controller an unfair
mathematical advantage during an online poker game.
It is not a secret nowadays that
online poker has experienced a nearly exponential growth
since 2003.
What was the single thing that triggered this worldwide
phenomenon and what's making it tick the way it does today?
Television! With its almighty grasp of viewers minds,
it is a reasonable suspect in having started the phenomenon
in the first place. Televised poker games (WSOP,
WPT live coverage) have turned the game into a miniature
adrenaline rush, and in the same time made a believer out of
every viewer. Success stories such as Chris Moneymaker's,
who became a millionaire out of a virtual nobody over night,
thanks to poker, have served to fuel the public's already
vivid imagination.
Yes sir, the age of online poker is upon us, but... is it
here to stay?
There'd only be one way to effectively put an end to the
worldwide hysteria surrounding online poker, and that would
be to cut its lifeline, its very supply of fresh blood, the
single biggest factor that makes it what it is today: the
seemingly endless supply of fish.
I'm not talking about the fish that live in the rivers and
oceans, (online poker would probably survive their complete
extinction without breaking a sweat) but rather, about the
kind of fish one can find around a poker table, in an online
poker room.
Most people who see the game on TV and then decide it might
be something for them, consider themselves experts from the
moment they learn the rules of the game. These people will
become the fish, and they will make up around 90% of all
Poker players online. The poker industry is not thriving
on the backs of the handful of sharks who play their game to
near-perfection and actually earn a living doing this, but
rather on these other guys, the silent majority who keep
donating for the cause day after day and who never stop
believing for a second that their big break is just around
the corner...
Make these guys disappear and online poker dies. Simple as
that.
What on earth could have such on impact on the public that
it would stop the flow of fish toward the online poker
tables? The answer: the very thing that made its world-wide
spread possible: the computer (more specifically Poker
Bots.
Many people (some of them online gambling security experts)
believe that the concept of a "fair online poker game" is
and has always been a dream stemmed from the wishful
thinking of millions of money-hungry players. They consider
that "fair online poker" is a contradiction in terms, since
there's no way for anybody to control what a player does
with the information he sees on his computer screen for the
following 10 or 30 seconds.
According to these experts, poker bots are an increasing
occurrence at online poker tables world over. Software
specifically programmed to calculate poker odds and
probabilities and take the right action in the right
circumstances is obviously more than a match for the fish as
well as for reasonably good players. Fish will flock to the
tables as long as they believe they get a fair game, however
that might change if botting ever gets out of control.
The fact that many experts consider botting a major threat
to the industry, doesn't necessarily mean that this is the
thing that will bleed online poker to death. According to
others, poker bots are still in their infancy, and they have
a lot of distance to cover before becoming anything close to
a real threat. I've even heard players say they'd like to
play a bot and take its money away.
Fortunately, online poker rooms will always have the
financial means to develop anti-botting systems capable of
busting the most advanced poker bots.
The basic human need to gamble will most likely prevail, and
as long as there's but a slim chance that they're not
cheated when playing online poker, rookies and long-time
fish alike will continue to crowd the tables.
