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A bot is an automated piece of software that reacts as it was programmed. You can program a bot to buy or sell in a stock exchange, play chess, or even play poker according to your parameters. Poker bots specifically play online poker by scanning casino software on your computer and playing your hands for you. It will run through the millions of scenarios involved in your hand, and decide whether the bet is worth calling or raising. This decision is based on the statistics according to the strength of the hand, betting position, the size of the pot, and the number of players contending it. Over the long term poker bots can make players money according to the claims of their writers. However, one has to consider the source of the claim, the person trying to sell you their poker bot program. Why would they tell you that you're spending money on making them richer and wasting your own time and money? Poker bots are back in the news again, and the more I read about them the less I believe they are an actual threat to poker rooms. First off, the average poker player plays for the entertainment value of playing. Professional players don't need a bot and having one would actually hurt their skills as it would take time from their practice. That would leave the few that are looking to make money, have absolutely no scruples, and don't care about the entertainment value of the game or their own ego on how good they are. Let's say this group is about twenty percent of the players out there (this is a "guestimate" with no basis in any type of scientific research or facts whatsoever; it's just my guess at what percentage of the world at large is at the heart dishonest.) Now out of the twenty percent that would do such a thing we have to wonder whether they would or not with the way poker bots are set up today. At the moment with the way poker bots work my guess would be no because there is too much work involved, the average person won't know the level of programming needed to get a bot working well, and it doesn't pay off very fast. This means you spend hours of programming to get your bot working, once it gets working it doesn't actually make you that much money a day, and if you get caught you lose all of your winnings anyhow. This means that the people who use poker bots are typically programmers with no scruples who are doing it to see if they can and, of course, to make money. What percentage of the population fits that description? No where near 20 percent that I can assure you. Let's take another stab at guessing and say one to two percent out there fit this description. Of the one to two percent of the people out there who have the time, lack of scruples, and the inclination to try creating or buying and programming a bot what can they expect? According to the latest "oh my, computers are taking over" article on thisismoney.com (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money-savers/article.html?in_article_id=405333&in_page_id=5) A person who knows how to program and knows the game could build their own bot and not need to buy an already built program. The rest of us will need to buy our own. From there we need to program the bot. (What? Program the bot? What's the point in buying the thing if it isn't already programmed!!??) The bot is programmed to go into the site and play for you, however there is no strategy entered into it. This you have to do, and it takes time. Ray Bornert II, the creator and owner of WinHoldEm, probably the most famous poker bot available today, admits that his product off the shelf will not win you many games. Instead he estimates that people have to put in about 2,500 hours of programming to turn a profit from it. Let's look closer at that number. People work on average about 200 hours a month if they are working full time. That means that once you plop down your money to buy WinHoldEm you have to spend another year approximately of working full time to get the program ready to win for you. Even then this is what is needed to "turn a small profit." What type of fool is going to spend their money, waste their time not to mention their energy for over a year if they aren't actually working – more if they are – to turn a small profit? Yes, you can keep a poker bot running non-stop. However, doing that would be stupid. Poker rooms are watching for bots, and one of the things I'm certain they are looking for is the reaction time of the players and the amount of time a person plays without stopping. The best way to get caught and lose your "small profit" would be to leave your bot on non-stop. Of course, without having your bot play there's no way to make a "small profit." True, the bot can play at multiple sites at once however that means different programming, and probably more computer equipment which cost more money. At the end of the day the type of money one would have to make from a poker bot in order to turn a profit would be huge. Otherwise the time and money spent will leave you at a loss. The most tell-tale sign in the article that WinHoldEm and other such bots aren't a real threat was the answer to "Will it make me money?" which was "That depends. Most people quit after a couple of weeks; those who persevere make around £3 per table per hour - which soon adds up..." It would have to add up, up to more than the money you lost programming the damn thing when you could have been working, up to more than the money you lost to buy the program to begin with, and up pretty quickly since most likely you'll get caught and kicked out of every poker room at lightening speed losing both your deposit and winnings for running an illegal program. For those of you who love poker rooms, keep playing. Bots aren't a real threat on your horizon. Yet. Related Links: Posted on: November 29, 2005
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