War Against the Bots

[BluffTHIS!]

Even before the latest thread about bots on FT, it has been clear for a long time that the sites have a problem with bots, and as well that they are unwilling to expend much time with pro-active measures. Some of this is of course because it is often difficult to detect, especially with supervised botting where the botter takes over manually and even chats for periods of time. But it is still clear nonetheless, that they can and should do more. It is also clear that maybe it is time for players to take additional measures besides just complaining to the sites. So FWIW, here are the things I thought of, and maybe others can add to or revise same.


1) Complain and keep complaining to the sites to take the following *pro-active measures among others:

a) surreptitously (via VPN to hide IP) buy bot software and join bot forums and monitor the technology of botting and how it is applied to their site;
b) regularly test their hand history database for patterns indicative of botting, including which ones play from the same IP, and the clincher being which accounts which meet other criteria also never sitting with each other;
c) target potential bot accounts for frequent pop-ups;
d) randomly test users for bot apps running in background.

2) Guerilla warfare against bot sites [note: some of the things below may be illegal under the laws of various countries or states and I am not recommending those things if that's the case]:

a) complain to the web hosting providers for bot sites that those sites are engaged in the business of facilitating online gaming which might be illegal (use the IUGEA against them if US based e.g.);
b) DOS attacks on their domains & zero day trojans to all their email accounts;
c) sign their email accounts up at sites known to spam;
d) [insert other measures]

3) Take it to the media.

Obviously this is a two-edged sword and could scare the fish away. But if the fish are getting eaten up by botters, then less is lost to 2+2'ers. However the sites are the ones who will really feel the pain and maybe this is the only way to get *effective* action from them.

[cardcounter0]

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c) [insert other measures]

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Driving to Pittsburgh and breaking some knee caps and thumbs?

[KotOD]

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c) [insert other measures]

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Driving to Pittsburgh and breaking some knee caps and thumbs?

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Hey, hey. He's all the way out in Cambria County. Leave Pittsburgh out of this.

[Grasshopp3r]

You should not publish the names of the bot sites so that they don't get any publicity out of this.

[orange]

[BluffTHIS!]

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You should not publish the names of the bot sites so that they don't get any publicity out of this.

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Obviously many posters here already know. However it only takes a handful to cause those sites a lot of grief with my suggested "guerilla warfare" measures. I think the spam especially has a lot of promise, as even with spam filters they could easily get clogged with 1000 porn & "enhancement" emails every day.

[Ron Burgundy]

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3) Take it to the media.

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Oh [censored] brilliant idea! I can just imagine the headlines now:

ILLEGAL ONLINE POKER SITES OVERRUN WITH "BOTS," CHEATING, MONEY LAUNDERING

That'll bring in the fish! And convince the politicians to legalize it too! [censored] brilliant!

[1p0kerboy]

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Driving to Pittsburgh and breaking some knee caps and thumbs?

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Haha 'one for the thumb'

[UATrewqaz]

And I hate to be a chicken little voice, but this is not a stagnant situation.

This will ONLY GET WORSE.

Technology, software, computing power, AI and opponent modeling techniques are only advancing forward.

Bots will get better and better at more and more forms of poker, especially considering they have access to vast amounts of data (hand history databases, etc.)

Sites must get serious about combating the problem.

[TiltSeeker_]

Game Over.