[J.A.Sucker]

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What about the 100% pokertracker database guy who doesn't make any decisions. Is this cheating?

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In theory, no. However....

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Suppose I hired a minimum wage worker to push the buttons according to what my data-analysis program says to do. Is this cheating?

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Almost certainly your program will contravene the terms and conditions of the site on which you are playing. Poker Tracker doesn't compare the expected value of rival lines. If it did, it would be banned.

So in practice, yes this will be against the terms and conditions. And therefore yes, it would be cheating.

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There are lots of players who basically play this way after awhile. Are they cheats?
Just curious.

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This is a sneaky argument, but it relies on a false premiss. Players who "basically" play this way are NOT "actually" playing this way. They know which lines they want to take in generic situations because they have spent time analysing away from the tables. But they do not sit with software in front of them which is number crunching the computer estimated EV of alternative lines while playing.

So these players aren't cheating. But it would in practice be impossible to design software which gave your workers enough information to play on auto pilot, but which didn't contravene the playing conditions of thew major sites.

On a separate note, when the the use of bots is widespread and out of control, sites will eventually just allow their use, and good players will have a selection of 'analysis engines' running in the background. Analysis engines are only as good as the assumptions they are fed, and the role of the good players will be to digest and use the information to best exploit their semi-human semi-android opponents.

There will be a new breed of android fish swimming in poker space, and more than likely they will be launched from Russia and play high stakes no limit at Party Poker.

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When I say 100% pokertracker guy, I mean they have sat down and figured out a strategy based on statistics to make a decision. This is very difficult, but people do work on this and many do pretty well. My bot would be programmed the same way and do the same thing. How is this any different?

There have been lots of threads about people helping others when they play. This is no different than what I just wrote down with my minimum wage worker. In fact, it's no different than my pokertracker guy using a database to make decisions. I don't think a program that tells you what to do violates the site T & C. People use twodimes and probably pokerstove to make tourney decisions all the time.

When I brought up the players playing by rote, "basically" was probably a poor choice of words. Suppose they did. Some probably do for all I know. Are they cheats? I think not.

Even if they sometimes made their own decisions, suppose my bot did the same and sent me a text message to tell it what to do at certain times. Maybe I sit there and surf porno while they play and only make difficult decisions. I'm playing at times, but my bot plays the straightforward ones. Other than who pushes the buttons, how is this different than these by rote players? I don't think it is.

I'm sure there are short-stacking bots that play PLO and NL already. There are probably SNG bots, too. Those would be the easiest to build and implement since the math is first-level only. However, it's a matter of time before things escalate, and I don't think it's cheating.