I always love catching poker related threads on sites that have nothing to do with poker. It’s just so interesting to hear the amatuer player’s thought process or how they view the game. On Fark they had a thread concerning the Wired article on Poker Playing Bots. Here’s some of my favorites:
not that playing poker online is fun, it’s for suckers. 80% of poker is sizing up your human opponent.
I’d steer very clear of casinos and card rooms unless you really know what you’re doing. They’re crawling with pros just waiting for the greenhorns to roll in, drop their $200, roll out, and have a story to tell their buddies back in Ohio.
unless the bot bluffs, i don’t see how this is a problem. making the fundamentally correct play every time doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win, especially against aggressive players.
These bots suck. Part of the fun of playing poker is bluffing, and I doubt these bots are programmed to bluff.
The bot presence will reward players aggressive enough to give the bot terrible pot odds on every play. Writing a bot which accounts for this will necessarily mean it’s giving itself up to trapping slowplay, which even newbies know how to do. The only way bots can survive and prosper is for them to be a fringe element, not the primary presence at the table. The pro will win big, the newbies will lose big, and the bot… will turn a small profit. And that’s all it has to do.
winholdem is a notoriously bad bot. The guy behind it is a sleazeball and sites (like PartyPoker) will instantly seize all your money if they catch you using it. There’s no appealing their decision – they’re offshore. Do a search of Rec.Gambling.Poker for more info.
Just remember, the only true winners are the casino’s.
This is why I stick to real-world gambling, and never the slots or Poker. Blackjack all the way. I’ve been gambling since I turned 21 five years ago and in that time I’ve never once lost my start money at a Blackjack table. There’s only one rule that I follow when playing: learn how the dealers play and play it the way they play it (no splits, no double downs, never hit on 16 or above, etc). The last time I hit the tables I started with $20 in my pocket and a $2 buy in. After an hour of playing I walked out with over $400.
[UPDATE] Slashdot has picked up the Wired poker bot story and the contrast in the types of responses is pretty darn interesting. Worth checking out.
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Hi, my name is Bill Rini and this is my poker blog. I've been blogging about poker and the poker industry since around 2003-ish. Like most people I started out playing poker as entertainment in home games whenever we wanted to sit around and smoke cigars, drink beer, and eat pizza, and needed a good excuse. I started playing online shortly after the first online card rooms opened and it wasn't long before I was playing 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week or more. One day I received a phone call about a program manager position at Tiltware which was the company that consulted to Full Tilt Poker on software development and marketing. After Tiltware I spent about 2.5 years working at Party Poker where I was the poker room manager.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
What a joke…then he whips out this jewel…
“I’ve been gambling since I turned 21 five years ago and in that time I’ve never once lost my start money at a Blackjack table.”
I call bullshit. That’s like a poker player saying they make $200 everytime they play.
hilarious, as i read the same thread. i love how octo starts arguing with the nitwits.
You gotta love how people without a clue make pronouncements like they’ve spoken to an oracle. You see a lot of this on political blogs too, it doesn’t matter if all you know on a subject is something you read in Time six weeks ago while waiting to get your teeth cleaned–you’re the expert now. Additional thought or research is a waste of time.
I win $200 everytime I play poker (heavy internet sarcasm is in use).
The “80% sizing up humans” comment WAS mirrored by my friends… until they sat down to play online for more then 5 minutes.
Wow.. I wish I could get my hands on the strategy book that guys uses at the BJ table.
No splits, doubles, or hitting on >16…?
Why haven’t I been playing like that??? I could win every time if I just followed his advice.