War Against the Bots

[Wahoo73]

Indeed, if FTP, PS and others are either incapable of detecting and enforcing their own rules against bots, or they just choose not to detect and enforce for their own greedy reasons, then it really is incumbent upon other players to take action of their own.

Obviously, one action that has already been mentioned targets FTP: boycott the site. However, I believe this will only be marginally effective in the short-term, and totally ineffective in the long-run.

Instead, I would encourage players who find themselves at the same table(s) with any of these bots to simply not play with them, i.e., shun them and spread the word to others at the table(s) to shun them. This can effectively hurt the bot owners/operators where it hurts the most...in their wallets.

[DWarrior]

boycotting is pointless because it'll just increase the bb/100 of the bots.

[Grasshopp3r]

Why not send in the ninja bot killers? That was not a joke.

Actually, another strategy is to just sit at all of their tables and not play. That is more of a ghandi approach. Once the bot call is made, we all swing into action.

[LeapFrog]

[ QUOTE ]

And as to "shotgun" attacks, if they had the desired effect, they're better than the current situation.


[/ QUOTE ]

Even if say a DOS attack on a server running a bot website causes said server to 'crash' and negatively impacts the small business owner (and everyone else) who has his website hosted on it?

[MasterLJ]

I believe the best defense is to keep a comprehensive list along with their tendencies in order to exploit them hell out of them. Are we as a poker community really that afraid of mediocre players?

[BluffTHIS!]

Post deleted by Mike Haven by agreement with BluffTHIS.

Please don't give the bot sites any publicity, whatsoever.

Thanks.

[MasterLJ]

ZOMG.... I'm marking November 11th on my calendar. Domain Snatch ftw.

[LeapFrog]

[ QUOTE ]
ZOMG.... I'm marking November 11th on my calendar. Domain Snatch ftw.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is amusing and reminds me of a Sarah Silverman bit.

[SweetPea]

If you start throwing around DOS attacks, trojans, and virii you will go to jail.

Don't be stupid. There's nothing illegal about running a pokerbot, but these so called "guerilla tactics" are HIGHLY illegal.

I'm amazed at the reaction, really. If people would have paid any attention to the undercurrents of the bot world, they'd know that bots are going way above $200NL and $1/$2FL. They've been there for months at the very least.

What is it, exactly, that everyone believes to be so magical inside their heads that can't be duplicated by a computer that has access to more stats than any HUD?

Lemme guess, you can find the bot's patterns and exploit them, right? Get a clue, man. The good bots are profiling you at the same time. They are looking at your longterm stats over tens of thousands of hands...they are looking at your short term history to detect tilt or your general mood at the table...they are also profiling your actions against them only. For most 2+2 members, their bot competitors know them better than they know themselves. Don't think you are going to fool a decent bot in the way the OP did. You won't detect the professional bot farms like he did either.

If you believe that the knowledge gleaned from these forums can turn a fish into a winner at $X buy-in, you must accept the fact that a bot can (and is) doing the same. You must also accept the fact that they are not going away as long as online poker lives in the form we see today. There is simply too much money in the blackhat side of poker to stop them. What can you do? Turing tests a'la Party and Stars? Do you really think that will stop a bot that's pulling in $100k+ a year? There are already bot farms that hire employees to monitor the tables for Turings and chat. I've read of others that have rigged up VNC-esque interfaces between their bots and their PDA's. Bot detects a Turing or its name in chat and sends the screen grab to the PDA. Bot owner then enters the Turing answer into his PDA that simulates the key presses in the casino client. Turings might be interupting his dinner, but that's the extent of his worries.

You see, and fear, the newbs with too much money, a bad bot, and a script-kiddie mentality. You should really be fearing the bot farms that you'll never notice, but are running dozens and dozens of tables 24/7.

[BluffTHIS!]

Sweet Pea,

Are you a bot? You look like a bot.