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This Techie Take: Cheating in online gaming's got everybody's knickers in a twist. Oh, you know, the usual suspects – collusion, bots, and good old cheat sheets. And these cheaters? They're cunning little blighters, constantly upping their game. So, how do we put a stop to this mess?
Guru John A:First things first, buddy. Back in the day, when PokerStars was the undisputed champ of security, it was a breeze. Contextual detection – monitoring mouse clicks and the client's running programs during play – was enough to catch those pesky bots. But thanks to the jaw-dropping Bloomberg expose on Siberian bots in online poker, we realized the game has changed. Entire corporations are now in the bot-making business, churning out better and better bots. It's a never-ending game of cat and mouse between them and the room's security squad.
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These bot creators invest a pretty penny not only in bypassing security systems but also in improving their bots' gameplay strategies. Many still believe that GTO bots pose the biggest threat, but they're wrong.
Thanh the Wise:The thing is, poker's a mind-boggler, with an infinite variety of situations. It's impossible to create an AI that always plays like a champion. So, current bots still rely heavily on human input. But in the last decade, they've come a long way – helped by massive funding. We've analyzed different bots, and their gameplay's far from GTO.
John A:The goal of a solver is to solve the Nash equation, but bots focus on making big bucks under the given conditions. They concentrate more on exploiting the field than being GTO.
The main threat to poker aren't RTA users (you'll cross paths with them less frequently) – they're the fully automated bots. They suck the life out of the game, exploiting the field and winning way more than regular players.
Thanh the Wise:That's the cold hard truth. Many online poker rooms are overrun with bot armies. All we see on the forums these days is the truth.
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Players are outraged, ACR management's up to some funny business, and bots continue to thrive.
Joe the Questioner: What's the plan?
Thanh the Wise:Fighting bots's tricky because many operators just don't give a hoot. Smaller rooms only care about quick profits, not the future. Larger networks are interested in combating bots but it's not their top priority. They focus more on attracting players and client convenience. They don't collect data or think about building infrastructure for machine learning, which is essential for battling bots. That's where we come in. To answer your question, how do we protect players? Our main objective is to convince operators it's in their best interests.
From a tech standpoint, it's all about data collection. Apart from contextual bot detection, there's a method based on analyzing their gameplay. We believe in combining these methods. Our aim is to effectively differentiate bots from humans. To do this, we need a deep dive into the nuances of their strategy. The more information we have, the simpler it becomes.
John A:Contextual detection's a popular tool used by game developers to combat cheaters, but in poker, bots have already found ways to counter it. They don't run external software on the computer where the client's installed. Gameplay, on the other hand, can't be hidden, so it's our main concern. As Thanh mentioned, we analyze gargantuan databases to understand human play patterns. We collect information about regs and recreational players, build algorithms to help the security team identify when someone's using software or a cheat sheet.
Joe the Questioner: Okay, you find something funny about a player's actions. What's next?
John A:Just like in any investigation, evidence collection begins. Sometimes it's a cast iron case, with cheaters being so obvious that there's not much to do. But some rooms ignore cases like that.
Thanh the Wise:Some people don't give a hoot about bots at all. Some rooms use contextual detection to identify RTA or VPN use, but almost none engage in gameplay analysis, as it's too complicated and requires expert help. We've developed our own solvers, use AI support, and created algorithms to find bot, GTO, or exploitative play patterns. It's a tech challenge, for sure.
Joe the Questioner: Can you fill me in on exploitative bots? What are they?
Thanh the Wise:As we mentioned, these are the most frequent culprits. Poker players are deeply involved in their creation. GTO is always the foundation, but to maximize winnings, one must deviate from ideal play. Both players and bots make adjustments, but there are certain patterns that remain consistent.
Currently, there's a similar issue – distinguishing human-made content from AI. Serious research is being conducted in this area. Experts acknowledge it's a difficult but solvable problem. In simple terms, AI actions have less randomness, while humans are more unpredictable. To differentiate human exploits from bots, we compare several technical indicators, including stability and impulsiveness.
Joe the Questioner: If bots sometimes make losing moves intentionally, will that complicate things?
Thanh the Wise:If only it were that simple. If you want to be detected, just play like a bumbling fool. But if you're not winning, no one'll take notice. The more random a bot's actions, the worse its results. To be profitable, it needs to play consistent patterns. These patterns have technical characteristics that differ significantly from those of humans.
John A: If a bot intentionally makes mistakes but still wins significantly more than regs, that's not the smartest way to avoid detection.
Joe the Questioner: Google's just introduced an AI bot that reads stuff from your screen and provides real-time advice. How's that gonna affect poker?
Thanh the Wise:Saaaay what? AI advancements have little to do with poker bots. Poker bot and solver creators use entirely different methods that have no connection to mainstream bots like ChatGPT.
John A:Agreed. It's unlikely these advancements will help cheaters improve their software. But it doesn't mean they won't cause us extra headaches. For instance, AI could help them sidestep contextual detection, fake documents during verification, or mimic human behavior with mouse clicks. I foresee potential issues in this area in the future.
Joe the Questioner: Chamath Palihapitiya recently predicted the imminent demise of online poker due to AI development. Are you worried about that?
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Thanh the Wise:What he's saying is part of progress. If you wanna stay ahead of the game, you'll need to adapt to AI's integration into life soon, regardless of your profession – doctor or poker player. But this primarily refers to AI-assisted learning, not practical application. AI makes life easier, so you'll simply lose out to those who master new technologies first.
Who knows, maybe it'll also help us, and someday, AI could boost online poker security or diversify formats to attract new players.
Joe the Questioner: Another big issue is false cheating accusations. How can we protect players from that?
John A:There should always be a right to appeal. Some rooms ask players to submit session recordings with explanations of their actions. Sometimes, asking a player a few simple questions – like about their open-raising range – is enough.
John A:On our part, we can only promise full transparency in our cooperation with rooms. Almost only snippets of information reach the general public. This is also the norm in the computer gaming industry, where fighting cheaters isn't often discussed. I think poker rooms could benefit from transparency too. I personally know high-stakes players who stopped playing online due to a lack of trust in the rooms.
I think it's clear to everyone now that rooms can't ensure the game 100%. But when cheaters are caught, it should be reported – who, for what, how much money was recovered, who got compensated, etc. This would increase trust levels.
- What are the current bots in online poker constantly upping their game to evade detection?
- In the last decade, bots have received significant funding to improve their gameplay strategies and exploit the field.
- To protect the business of online data-and-cloud-computing, finance, sports, sports-betting, and cybersecurity, there is a need to collect information and build infrastructure for machine learning.
- The main threat to online poker aren't RTA users but the fully automated bots that thrive in many online poker rooms.
- To answer the question on how to protect players, the main objective is to convince operators that it's in their best interests.
- AI advancements in areas like chatbots are unlikely to aid poker bot and solver creators in improving their software, but could still cause trouble in the future with potential issues like bypassing contextual detection and mimicking human behavior.
