How do poker bots work?

To online poker enthusiasts who play regularly, poker bots have become a common menace. To the new players, these are just mysterious accounts that can beat them amazingly fast. However, many are baffled by how these computer programs work and how they manage to beat the human players.

Poker bots – the ghosts in the machine

Even the most seasoned poker players are often baffled by poker bots while playing online if they are unaware of how well these bots have evolved over the years. These bots are essentially just software that the players deploy to play on their behalf in the online poker rooms. However, they function much more effectively and flawlessly than human poker players. Just like any other bots, the poker bots are developed by the programmers. Hence, their playing strategies depend on the skills of the person building them.

How did poker bots come into being?

At first, there were only poker analysis software that people used to get better and more predictable results. The software could process the data and calculate the chances of success. However, it was a tiresome job to provide the software with the data, get it processed, extract the results and manually type them into the online portal where the game is being played. However, the coming of new bots with more sophisticated features eased it up greatly. Currently, a player does not have to be present near the computer from which the game is being played. One can simply set up the bot, deploy it and leave it to play on his/her behalf. Poker bots are essentially a by-product of the growing popularity of online poker games.

How do poker bots work?

The poker bots work just as an experienced player would, just more effectively. They not only make mathematical predictions to predict the probability of success, but also watch out for their opponents’ behaviour. A sophisticated poker bot can record every move made by their opponents, track them, work out a pattern and analyse their playing style. This allows the bot to counter the opponents with ease.

Bots in collusion – how does it work?

There are certain poker bots which can cheat and defeat even the expert poker players. These bots use a technique known as ‘collusion’. In this case, the owner of the bots uses deploys a set of bots as individual players in a room. However, they are connected to each other through a shared server. Through this server, the bots are able to share their hands and let each other know what cards they possess. By working together, the bots manage to defeat the human players very quickly.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a bot?

Using poker bots has several advantages. Although one section of the online poker community hates bots because of their high success rate against human players, a growing number of players are starting to use them.

• A poker bot can remember its opponents’ moves flawlessly as it is a machine. This gives it higher accuracy than a human player.
• The bots aren’t affected by the emotional changes such as the fear of losing money or an urge to go all-in due to excitement.
• A bot can keep playing for hours as it isn’t susceptible to any physical or mental stress.

The only disadvantages of using bots are:

• Bots that cheat through collusion are likely to get banned on the online portals.
• If the strategy developed by the programmer isn’t effective, the bot would fail. However, one can always check reviews before downloading a bot.

There are various types of players that use poker bots, ranging from experts to beginners who want to learn by watching a bot play.