Poker bots have invaded online games

Participating in an online poker game is very similar to playing a real game of poker. The table and cards look the same, but since players hide behind aliases, their opponents are often bots. Many of these bots come from the same place: Russia. Groups of young men, well-trained in probability statistics and gambling, run poker collectives from their homes. Without knowing it, the players participate in the games and keep losing to the software programs run by these students.

“It’s not really a fair fight,” said Kit Chellel, a Bloomberg reporter who investigated the bots. “The way poker bots play now is kind of inhumane. It’s beyond the level that even the very best professionals who have ever lived can play this game.”

Chellel spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal about his findings. An edited transcript of their conversation is below.

Kit Chellel: If you have ever played online poker in any form and at any stakes, you have probably played against a bot without knowing it.

Kai Ryssdal: I’m not a gambler, so I’ve never played online poker before, not even when I was preparing for this interview. But it seems to me that this is a bit of a challenge. Yes, the scale of things suggests there must be some bot involvement, but I would imagine it’s open to all sorts of mischief.

Chellel: Yes, I don’t think it’s fair to play against a human, especially modern bots. The way poker bots play these days is somehow inhumane. It is beyond the level that even the very best professionals who have ever lived can play this game. They play mathematically perfect poker and make no mistakes, so it’s not really a fair fight. And you know, they’ll probably take your money.

Ryssdal: Or in some cases they are programmed to lose a little. And you know, the first one is always free, right?

Chellel: Yes, one of the things I discovered while working on this story was that not all poker bots are intruders who are unwanted and have sneaked into the sites. Some sites definitely have bots that have been invited there to keep the tables busy and keep people playing longer, which is strange when you think about it.

Ryssdal: Tell me about this company. It’s called Deep Play, I believe.

Chellel: Yes, that is one of their names. They’ve actually gone through a number of developments over the years, but it’s the same group of people from Siberia in Russia who invented this very clever poker technology and used it in a variety of ways.

Ryssdal: Well, say more about it. I mean, how do we see this being used out there? If I sit down there in front of my virtual felt table, what will it look like when these bots play?

Chellell: I think when you play against a bot it almost feels like you’re playing against someone who’s cheating. You just seem to win and you don’t know how. And it’s happening slowly and it feels very hopeless. I’ve spoken to pros who have competed in these tournaments against bots developed by AI researchers, and they describe that hopeless feeling of just feeling like you never had a chance.

Ryssdal: What do the companies that run the online poker sites think about these bots, because I would imagine they need them somehow.

Chellell: Apparently, customers who play online poker do not like having bots in the system. It’s not fun. It kind of takes the fun out of it. You want to play another person. But the major poker websites and major online poker platforms don’t have much to say about botting. And you know, what they say is that they’re against the idea, but they’re not very transparent about how they keep bots out of their systems and how many bots there are out there. And one of the reasons for this is that there is simply no commercial incentive to exclude all bot accounts because they all make money. They all make money for the poker websites.

Ryssdal: But if I’m a newbie and want to get involved in poker and decide to play online to, you know, learn how things work and keep losing, I’m out, right? And that seems to me to be a business model problem.

Chellell: Yes, that is a problem. There is no easy solution to this. There is definitely data that shows that people who start playing poker online are quickly put off by the quality of the games they play, how often they lose, and how hopeless it feels . And that’s one of the reasons why people who know about poker botting, the people who actually know, will tell you that it poses an existential threat to the game. Chris Moneymaker told me – he’s probably the most famous poker player of modern times – he told me that the game may not exist in a few years if we don’t get this under control. And it’s a new problem. I don’t think the game has really adapted to the new reality.