You never know who you're playing in online poker. -
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=440 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>Shawn P. Roarke / Special to FOXSports.com </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Is ninjalord — who just went all-in on the flop without a face card showing — a cutthroat poker mercenary? Is RU2Chicken, aggressively betting into each pot with junk cards, a pre-teen trying to emulate his heroes from the nightly televised poker shows? Is the Unabomber at your table really poker pro Phil Laak — who goes by that intimidating nickname on the pro poker tour?
No one knows the answers to these questions. And, since the advent of online poker, that's rarely been problematic.
The cloak of anonymity has been the acceptable tradeoff for cardsmiths elated with the ability to play poker at anytime from anywhere.
But that's quickly changing as a menace far more serious than an underwear-clad novice raising the pot before the flop with a 2-7 in his hand slowly creeps its way into many of these rooms. That threat is the poker bot, a computer program designed to play nearly statistically flawless poker.
"There are a lot of people out there that have seen the opportunity to make money out there and have built online poker bots and are being deceitful," says Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer, a professor of computer science at the University of Alberta.
And, Schaeffer should know. He has worked extensively in the past 14 years to develop just such a poker bot. However, unlike the opportunists out there, Schaeffer's work has been above-board and out in the open.
As the leader of The University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group, Schaeffer has helped develop two poker bots, dubbed "Vex Bot" and "Spar Bot." Capable of playing poker at a very high level, but only in head-to-head scenarios, the bots are used by researchers to test the limits of artificial intelligence.
Those two programs are also the framework of a poker tutorial program called Poki's Poker Academy.
But, despite the huge advances his team has made, there are still major deficiencies in their creation.
In 2003, Schaeffer's computer program went heads-to-head against a top poker professional. For the first 4,000 hands, the computer enjoyed the upper hand, but the human then regrouped, analyzed the computer's tendencies, changed his own game and dominated from there on out.
While it is reassuring that humans can still enjoy the upper hands against machines in the poker realm, many believe this is just a false sense of well-being.
After all, poker pros are not the clientele inhabiting most online poker rooms. Beginner and novice players flood these arenas, with most finding a home at the low-limit tables.
But the poker bots are still most capable of winning on a regular basis.
"When you look at the low-limit tables ($1-2, $2-4), I have no doubt that there are computer programs that can win at that level consistently," says Schaeffer. "And, don't forget that these programs can play all the time, without getting tired. And, they can play at multiple tables."
That means that the operator of these bots can essentially make money without investing much time or resources. While their human master sleeps or enjoys a nice dinner and a movie, the computer minions will be getting fat off the newbies that flock to online poker rooms with dreams of being the next Chris Moneymaker — an online player that went from low-limit cyber poker all the way to poker grand champion — winning the 2003 World Series of Poker.
Since their arrival on the poker scene, however, bots have remained — for the most part — a secret. Only artificial intelligence enthusiasts and computer programming hobbyists seemed interested in their development.
But, that's changing quickly. With the big money flooding into the online poker world, these bots have become big news. The presence of bots can erode the trust of the consumers who play at these sites and dump fistfuls of money into their online accounts — bringing obscene profits to the poker rooms. And now, with some of the larger online poker sites floating their companies on various stock exchanges, any news that suggests the integrity of online poker platforms has been compromised can likely mean huge fluctuations in the company's stock price. Most sites claim they are winning the battle against the bots, using both the latest technology and huge investments of manpower to identify and freeze out the menace.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=440 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>Shawn P. Roarke / Special to FOXSports.com </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Is ninjalord — who just went all-in on the flop without a face card showing — a cutthroat poker mercenary? Is RU2Chicken, aggressively betting into each pot with junk cards, a pre-teen trying to emulate his heroes from the nightly televised poker shows? Is the Unabomber at your table really poker pro Phil Laak — who goes by that intimidating nickname on the pro poker tour?
No one knows the answers to these questions. And, since the advent of online poker, that's rarely been problematic.
The cloak of anonymity has been the acceptable tradeoff for cardsmiths elated with the ability to play poker at anytime from anywhere.
But that's quickly changing as a menace far more serious than an underwear-clad novice raising the pot before the flop with a 2-7 in his hand slowly creeps its way into many of these rooms. That threat is the poker bot, a computer program designed to play nearly statistically flawless poker.
"There are a lot of people out there that have seen the opportunity to make money out there and have built online poker bots and are being deceitful," says Dr. Jonathan Schaeffer, a professor of computer science at the University of Alberta.
And, Schaeffer should know. He has worked extensively in the past 14 years to develop just such a poker bot. However, unlike the opportunists out there, Schaeffer's work has been above-board and out in the open.
As the leader of The University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group, Schaeffer has helped develop two poker bots, dubbed "Vex Bot" and "Spar Bot." Capable of playing poker at a very high level, but only in head-to-head scenarios, the bots are used by researchers to test the limits of artificial intelligence.
Those two programs are also the framework of a poker tutorial program called Poki's Poker Academy.
But, despite the huge advances his team has made, there are still major deficiencies in their creation.
In 2003, Schaeffer's computer program went heads-to-head against a top poker professional. For the first 4,000 hands, the computer enjoyed the upper hand, but the human then regrouped, analyzed the computer's tendencies, changed his own game and dominated from there on out.
While it is reassuring that humans can still enjoy the upper hands against machines in the poker realm, many believe this is just a false sense of well-being.
After all, poker pros are not the clientele inhabiting most online poker rooms. Beginner and novice players flood these arenas, with most finding a home at the low-limit tables.
But the poker bots are still most capable of winning on a regular basis.
"When you look at the low-limit tables ($1-2, $2-4), I have no doubt that there are computer programs that can win at that level consistently," says Schaeffer. "And, don't forget that these programs can play all the time, without getting tired. And, they can play at multiple tables."
That means that the operator of these bots can essentially make money without investing much time or resources. While their human master sleeps or enjoys a nice dinner and a movie, the computer minions will be getting fat off the newbies that flock to online poker rooms with dreams of being the next Chris Moneymaker — an online player that went from low-limit cyber poker all the way to poker grand champion — winning the 2003 World Series of Poker.
Since their arrival on the poker scene, however, bots have remained — for the most part — a secret. Only artificial intelligence enthusiasts and computer programming hobbyists seemed interested in their development.
But, that's changing quickly. With the big money flooding into the online poker world, these bots have become big news. The presence of bots can erode the trust of the consumers who play at these sites and dump fistfuls of money into their online accounts — bringing obscene profits to the poker rooms. And now, with some of the larger online poker sites floating their companies on various stock exchanges, any news that suggests the integrity of online poker platforms has been compromised can likely mean huge fluctuations in the company's stock price. Most sites claim they are winning the battle against the bots, using both the latest technology and huge investments of manpower to identify and freeze out the menace.
