WinHold'Em is a commercially available poker blog.
The author's attitude is something like "poker bots for everyman." Instead of trying to deny they exist, or hide them in the shadows, he talks about them, sells one, even has a website where bot enthusiasts meet and greet, and discuss relevant issues.
So I register for the site, log in, and poke around a bit, and read about this guy named Jeff.
Jeff, or so it might read between the lines, seems to be a player in the bot world.
Using my credentials as a writer, I drop him a line. I send him to my website to convince him I'm a writer, and not a G-man or poker website security guy.
He replies. Tells me to email him some questions.
So now I'm trying to come up with some.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The PokerBots Story -- The Beginning
In sci-fi movies, humans use hand held lasers to kill and destroy aliens , and endless wars rage between humans and robots.
These days humans are more likely to use a hand-held laser to scan UPC codes at the grocery store battle software poker playing robots, or "poker bots" in online poker games.
The bots are real alright.
And just like the robots in the movies, they're constantly getting smarter and learning from their mistakes. Unlike humans, they NEVER make the same mistake twice. At least not after their programmer sees them getting their ass whipped by some human who learned to exploit some programming mistake.
As of 1/08, there are dozens of people selling poker bots on the web. Including WinHoldEm, the best know, almost a "shareware" bot.
Of course none come with guarantees or include the "decision tables" needed to actually make them work, and make good decisions.
You and I will probably never even hear about the teams, even ARMIES of programmers working on the bots that are actually in play on most online poker websites.
For awhile at least.
One pro player "busted" some bots on the Full Tilt Poker website. Busted, as in, identified them as robots, using statistics, and reported it on the web.
Full Tilt exonerated them. Whaaattt??
Robot versus human, and robots versus other robots, in the all-too-real world of online poker and real money promises to be the most exciting software story since Deep Blue beat Boris Spassky at chess in 1994.
This is that story.
These days humans are more likely to use a hand-held laser to scan UPC codes at the grocery store battle software poker playing robots, or "poker bots" in online poker games.
The bots are real alright.
And just like the robots in the movies, they're constantly getting smarter and learning from their mistakes. Unlike humans, they NEVER make the same mistake twice. At least not after their programmer sees them getting their ass whipped by some human who learned to exploit some programming mistake.
As of 1/08, there are dozens of people selling poker bots on the web. Including WinHoldEm, the best know, almost a "shareware" bot.
Of course none come with guarantees or include the "decision tables" needed to actually make them work, and make good decisions.
You and I will probably never even hear about the teams, even ARMIES of programmers working on the bots that are actually in play on most online poker websites.
For awhile at least.
One pro player "busted" some bots on the Full Tilt Poker website. Busted, as in, identified them as robots, using statistics, and reported it on the web.
Full Tilt exonerated them. Whaaattt??
Robot versus human, and robots versus other robots, in the all-too-real world of online poker and real money promises to be the most exciting software story since Deep Blue beat Boris Spassky at chess in 1994.
This is that story.
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