Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

Anyone else here read Wired? There's an article in the September 2005 issue about the growing prevalence of bots in online poker. It wasn't up on their website when I checked for it.

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

I saw it....(I somehow got a freebie subscription with my subscription to salon.com)

a lot of it focused on the Winholdem phenon. and people who trade "templates" trying to find the best poker opponent -

it makes for interesting reading - I'm sure it'll come up a bit more when the link is on the website -

RB

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68223,00.html

Probably not the article in question but intresting no the less.

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

I just read it, makes me sketch out a bit more.

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

I read it this evening, focused on WinHoldem, written by the guy who apparently wrote the Jon Finkel book that is about to come out.

He gets a A+ if he was trying to up the paranoia about bots to the general public. As for good writing and content he gets a the grade of F.

Total waste of paper, he did accomplish one thing, he lost my sale for his book. I'm sure he could careless, but he isn't getting a dime from me now.

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

Have you seen the WinHoldem web site? I'm not sure what to make of it. Is he evil or what? http://www.winholdem.net/ [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

[ QUOTE ]
Anyone else here read Wired? There's an article in the September 2005 issue about the growing prevalence of bots in online poker. It wasn't up on their website when I checked for it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Link

Written by David Kushner, who apparently has made a career out of writing appallingly bad biographies that are nevertheless readable because their subjects are so interesting (e.g. "Masters of Doom", about John Carmack, John Romero and the creation of id software, in which he actually says (paraphrasing) "It was the early 90's, and Romero was programming in a hot new language called 'C'." [C was created in the early 1970s])

Oh yeah, and the guy who writes WinHoldem can try to justify it any way he wants, but he's still an enormous douche who should have his own flesh fed to him. A few years from now, when we're all periodically answering Captchas or word problems or chatting with a live operator to make sure we're human while we play (and of course paying a higher rake because of it), we can all thank Ray Bornert.

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

From the WinHoldem Forum - The Wired Thread

Quote:
PartyPoker's Bhargava insists that the game is still fair. "There are people who spend all their waking hours dreaming about how to bring us down," he says. "They can dream about creating fantasy bots that will play for them or make them money while they sleep, but that's not going to happen."

[ QUOTE ]
Administrator's response --
<font color="white"> .
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</font>
this guy must be referring to somebody else - because as for us (the winholdem vendor) it is not in our best interest to "bring .. down" party - in what context does the seller of a pokerbot engine benefit by losing a large site where there is significant real money play 24/7? do these people not understand that we are in favor of them staying in business?

also consider his general attitude concerning a scenario where you the player actually profit from their site - they just cannot stand the idea that you're not at your keyboard - the turing test is evidence of this general sentiment in that they want to keep you the human chained to their site at all times.

do they not realize that when human players get too bored they logout? do they not realize that as much as 70% of playing time can be total idle time?

[/ QUOTE ]



I don't know what Ray Bornert is really thinking, but his statements deny the Obvious:

If Poker bots proliferate the Casual Players will simply QUIT ONLINE POKER

That's Inevitable. Virtually all that will be left of the Online sites will be people challeging bots with bots and a few superior pros that can still beat the bots. For Party Poker that Market is a Tiny fraction of it's Casual Live Player Market. There are billions of dollars at stake for the Party Poker Corporation and they will do whatever they can to prevent this. It remains to be seen what they actually can do, and whether the Cure will be as bad as the Disease.

PairTheBoard

Re: Poker Bot Article in Wired
 

[ QUOTE ]
From the WinHoldem Forum - The Wired Thread

Quote:
PartyPoker's Bhargava insists that the game is still fair. "There are people who spend all their waking hours dreaming about how to bring us down," he says. "They can dream about creating fantasy bots that will play for them or make them money while they sleep, but that's not going to happen."

[ QUOTE ]
Administrator's response --
<font color="white"> .
.
</font>
this guy must be referring to somebody else - because as for us (the winholdem vendor) it is not in our best interest to "bring .. down" party - in what context does the seller of a pokerbot engine benefit by losing a large site where there is significant real money play 24/7? do these people not understand that we are in favor of them staying in business?

also consider his general attitude concerning a scenario where you the player actually profit from their site - they just cannot stand the idea that you're not at your keyboard - the turing test is evidence of this general sentiment in that they want to keep you the human chained to their site at all times.

do they not realize that when human players get too bored they logout? do they not realize that as much as 70% of playing time can be total idle time?

[/ QUOTE ]



I don't know what Ray Bornert is really thinking, but his statements deny the Obvious:

If Poker bots proliferate the Casual Players will simply QUIT ONLINE POKER

That's Inevitable. Virtually all that will be left of the Online sites will be people challeging bots with bots and a few superior pros that can still beat the bots. For Party Poker that Market is a Tiny fraction of it's Casual Live Player Market. There are billions of dollars at stake for the Party Poker Corporation and they will do whatever they can to prevent this. It remains to be seen what they actually can do, and whether the Cure will be as bad as the Disease.

PairTheBoard

[/ QUOTE ]

what makes you think the Casual Player will quit once he realizes the majority of his opponents are bots? Why would he care? What's the difference inhis mind between a bot online or a video poker machine in a casino?