[brianmarc]

I think many of you are missing several key differences (and potential advantages) of an automated online poker player, or ‘bot’. At the root of this misunderstanding is not realizing that a bot essentially represents a paradigm shift in what constitutes an effective player.

One: The ability to calculate the odds of every situation with perfect accuracy and make other strategic adjustments as ring size and table texture change. Given the huge player turnover in online games, the speed of the games (40-100 games an hour) human tracking of these changes is near impossible for the vast majority of players.

Two: The ability to play 24/7/365 with no fatigue, steaming etc. i.e., without emotion.

Three: Since your win rate requirement can be much lower than when you are playing in person, the bot can play much more patiently than any human player ever could. Since all current poker theory is based on squeezing the maximum out of every situation (i.e., to be as efficient as possible), an approach not driven by this consideration, in effect, allows for the creation of a hitherto unknown style of expert player.

Four: The ‘soft’ skills the expert has built up over many years are irrelevant, since no-one ever sees your face, tics, expressions etc. (I, for one, have played tens of thousands of hands without ever once sitting down at a real table). Five: Anyone who can develop the technology to create a bot of this type could also design an automated opponent tracker. The tracker would sit in on tables gathering information on all the players. Over a period of a few days substantial statistical dossiers on the playing habits of the regulars would be available. This information ,would be updated in real-time during the games and coordinated with table texture stats.

Five, the bot would roam the online HE tables looking for soft games. (Visualize the snoop-and-attack drones in the Matrix!).

Six: Simple random behavior would be built in to vary response times and other electronic tells making the bot virtually indistinguishable from its human competitors. Given the tens of thousands of highly inexpert human online players, a few bots of this type would be able to survive indefinitely.

Now two challenges: One: Tell me what you think of the preceding argument. Two: How would YOU design the bot to take maximize its superhuman capabilities?