Which Platforms Offer Advanced AI Poker Assistants for Competitive Play
Few tools and apps exist for players who want to train with a powerful poker AI or exploit how a tool bend the rules (softer). For legitimate tools, AI is used to learn how to play Game Theory Optimal (GTO) using things like GTO Wizard, PioSolver and PokerSnowie. These players represent the first generation of advanced AI poker assistants, and are gradually going beyond simple solvers. Others like Warbot Poker and Poker Bot AI+ are just cheating, providing real time aid or full automation on most poker sites.
Grey-Market Advanced AI Poker Assistants
The same technology that undergirds training solvers has grown a shadow industry around it. Do a search on google or some website like it for “poker bot AI” and you’ll see people offering to sell real time solvers along with completely automated bots. What they’re doing is sort of ingenious, but also against the ToS of the poker platforms.
One of the old hands is Warbot Poker and Shanky Bot which calls itself “your AI-powered poker assistant”. It works with most of the big poker clients like Pokerstars, iPoker and automatically plays hands for you according to a strategy you define. What you have there is a massive system that works within OpenHoldem (originally for well-intentioned simulation) and hacked and enhanced by coders and enthusiasts. Sellers claim “human-like mouse movements” that might keep you from detection, and tease the fantasy of a bot grinding for you while you are counting your crate of diamonds, because they don’t have feelings. These are not poker AI per say, and they use that word as hype.
Then came Poker Bot AI+, which advertises a luxury poker bot service that uses cloud-based poker AI in real time to make recommendations or to fully automate play and create poker farms. Their bot versions combine reinforcement learning and neural networks trained on millions of hands and guaranteed to “beat most human opponents without breaking a sweat.” These tools are advertised on Telegram channels and specialized websites that are most commonly hosted abroad.
There are other “Poker AI” automated solutions we recommend you choose carefully if you decide to make use of them and read some reviews because in 2023 there are NOT a lot of players in that market.
All those systems fall on the far end of the bell curve that online poker is calling real-time assistance (RTA) or bots — software with which you’re playing live that gives you a degree of decision help or automation. All major poker rooms — which is to say PokerStars, 888poker and WPT Global among others — specifically state in their terms of service that RTA/Bots aai a violation. PokerStars says “any tool or reference which is used to increase the possibility of winning money at the tables… (or) allows players to analyse hands, playing styles and overall form is prohibited.”
Poker AI Solutions For Multi-table Tournaments
We’ve come a long way in the world of automated play in competitive Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs); move well beyond the capabilities of primitive scripted systems. Older poker bots like Shanky or Warbot are useless in competitive play because of the generic nature of their play; as one source puts it: “These old tools run by rigid scripts, play fixed ranges and cannot adapt. They are predictable and easily exploitable.” Their inability to adjust to the complex and ever-changing nature of decision-making needed in MTTs where factors of Independent Chip Model (ICM) pressure etc. and table dynamics more broadly make them obsolete in the emerging poker economy today.
We therefore turn to suppler tools like Poker Bot AI+, which feature the latest AI developments such as Game Theory Optimal (GTO) algorithms and deep learning tools, and are able to evaluate odds, understand the complicated nature of table play as it evolves, and execute optimal plays in real time. Poker Bot AI+ “is a powerful AI agent designed to play autonomously or coach players in real time.” These are devices which have a more holistic sense of fundamental strategic issues. One blogger explains it like this: “An MTT poker bot is about the mathematical odds, but it takes in a lot of timing, understanding of table dynamics, knowing when to be pushing, knowing when to fold.” This transition of complexity, from rigid hard set rules to a dynamic adaptable model hitting GTO standards is a huge leap that permits the bots to handle complex situations and still not be exploitative in ultra different environments.
How Poker Sites Combat High-Level AI Poker Assistants
The poker world is not standing still. GGPoker, for example, publicly shamed its cheating protectors, and stated its “FairPlay” security significantly “permanently banned thousands of accounts due to using bots/RTAs”.
These sites do behavioral analysis – they check how fast bets are made (it can’t be too fast!) the size of the bets, mouse movements, etc.
Operators will seize the services of a bot that has been detected, along with its balance, and reimburse the affected players.
Nonetheless, the grey market adapts. Developers have made random exactly when decisions are made and has upped stakes on even having virtual mouse/keyboard/touchpad devices to use.
It’s a battle between bot experts / and firms that make detection software. “We build better bot, they build a better detector,” said one anonymous developer to Forbes. “It’s endless”.
The Legitimate AI Use – Learning not Cheating
It’s a paradox that poker AI is itself not the true enemy. It’s, in reality, one of the most effective authoritarian tools in current games. Problems arise when the very same algorithms are doing the deciding in real time as well, and they can’t go back and alter any mistakes.
For professionals, AI is a fact of life and a normal part of their training routine. A good chunk of their day is spent looking at what the solver has spit out, looking for ‘exploits’ in opponents’ play, and honing their own strategies accordingly. The difference between nasty and nice is not in the technology, but how and when you use it. Seen in that light, it seems Advanced AI Poker Assistants are best suited as allies in training rather than in game-play.
Even researchers agree. “AI should be used to study and understand complex games (like poker), but to win at poker is not the goal for AI,” explains Tuomas Sandholm of Carnegie Mellon who helped create Libratus. And that sentiment has fuelled the debate regarding responsible AI use in poker, or any field.
Mini-FAQ
What is an advanced AI poker assistant and how are they used?
An advanced AI poker assistant is a type of poker software that analyses poker from both game theory and machine-learning based methods to help improve a player’s decision making. Players use these against hand histories or for practice GTO play. Using them in real time during actual online play is banned at most poker sites.
Which AI poker tools are legitimate for training?
GTO Wizard, PioSolver and PokerSnowie are examples of legitimacy. Because they don’t help live play by advising or taking actions during live play they are considered acceptable for off-table study.
Why are RTAs and poker Bots cheating?
Real-Time Assistance (RTA) and poker bots act during the live play. Advising or taking actions while an online poker game is in-play. This action breaches the rules and terms at the major online poker rooms and can lead to a permanent ban and confiscation of funds.
In what ways do poker bots differ in competitive Tournaments?
Warbot and Shanky-type systems are ‘old school’ and operate on fixed scripts. Both as a consequence are especially easy to exploit. Poker Bot AI+ however, uses GTO and neural-network methods during play, adjusting in real time as the game progresses. The sophistication of newer bots is why sites prohibit their use in tournaments, to disqualify their players therefore and given their automated capabilities.
How can a poker player benefit safely from the AI poker tech?
Players can safely use AI tools for training off-table — for weapons against reviewing hands and for practicing ‘some’ scenarios. It will be valuable to improvement using tools like GTO Wizard, PioSolver, without breaking any site rules or threatening their account.