What is a Bot in Poker?
Bots are computer programs designed to play poker without human oversight. Bots are illegal and ⚾️ unethical to use.
Unlike their human counterparts, bots never succumb to tilt, they never misplay a hand, and they never get ⚾️ tired of playing. Bots can play on and on indefinitely, making money over the long run.
A sufficiently widespread and sophisticated ⚾️ poker bot infestation could mean the end of online poker.
Our question for this article, then, is ‘how can you spot ⚾️ a poker bot?’ We’ll discuss four legitimate signs that a player is a bot. After that, we’ll go over four ⚾️ signs that might make you think a player is a bot, but are not reliable.
Note: Want to upgrade your poker ⚾️ skills? Get free preflop charts here and start playing like a pro before the flop. Download now!
4 Ways to Spot ⚾️ a Poker Bot
1. The player takes about the same amount of time to act every hand.
Suppose you’re playing heads-up against ⚾️ an opponent, Mr. Pokeroboto, and the action consistently goes something like this:
You limp, Mr. Pokeroboto tanks for a few seconds, ⚾️ and then raises.
You call, and take a flop.
You check, Mr. Pokeroboto tanks for a few seconds, and then checks back.
On ⚾️ the turn, you bet, Mr. Pokeroboto tanks again for a few seconds, and then folds.
This is the most reliable (and ⚾️ most obvious) sign that you might be playing against a bot. For each decision, the bot needs a few seconds ⚾️ to process what’s going on; enough time to analyze the hand and arrive at the best decision based on its ⚾️ programing.
There is simply no alternative explanation for why Mr. Pokeroboto takes the same amount of time for every decision, at ⚾️ least not over an extended period of time.
Not every bot tanks for a noticeable amount of time, however. Some botters ⚾️ have worked to fix this most obvious ‘tell’. Fortunately, most botters fail to disguise it, and get caught as a ⚾️ result.
2. The player doesn’t answer to moderator in the chat or to an alert.
Suppose that you’re playing Mr. Pokeroboto in ⚾️ a tournament and it’s down to 3 players. You and the other player agree to cut a deal, but Mr. ⚾️ Pokeroboto won’t answer in the chat. A moderator is called, who alerts Mr. Pokeroboto, but nothing happens. This is strange. ⚾️ A deal can’t be made, of course, so instead you continue playing. But then the unresponsive Mr. Pokeroboto is there ⚾️ to play his hands. What’s going on here?
This situation is very different from a player not answering in the chat. ⚾️ On many sites, when a moderator sends a message directly to a player an inescapable pop-up appears on the player’s ⚾️ screen. Non-response from that player is a red flag that the player is a bot.
There are a few bots on ⚾️ the market capable of casually chatting to avoid suspicion, so it’s conceivable that a bot could chat with a moderator. ⚾️ However, their communication would likely come across as suspicious in more complicated situations like the one described here. (Sites could ⚾️ also use a captcha to verify that the player is human.)
Notably, a potential bot situation did play out in a ⚾️ TCOOP Event, but the case was dismissed by PokerStars. Neither PokerStars nor the exonerated player disclosed what prevented him/her from ⚾️ answering the moderator at the final table.
3. The player plays for unreasonable amounts of time.
Suppose at the start of your ⚾️ session you spot our silent friend, Mr. Pokeroboto, playing on a few tables.
Just as you’re about to close your laptop ⚾️ after a long, successful session, you notice Mr. Pokeroboto still grinding away, and so you railbird him for a little ⚾️ while. As far as you can tell, he’s playing as well as ever. That methodical, Mr. Pokeroboto style—so consistent! He ⚾️ looks to be playing just as well as someone at the beginning of their session. After a while, you go ⚾️ to sleep. Mr. Pokeroboto continues playing.
Suppose the same thing happens the next day, and the one after that. Where does ⚾️ Mr. Pokeroboto get his stamina? Answer: from his RAM upgrade. Mr. Pokeroboto’s unreasonable amount of play means he is almost ⚾️ certainly a bot.
The fact is most poker bots are not great at poker. Yes, they’re winning players, but just barely. ⚾️ A bot’s real value comes from the volume of poker it can play. But that volume can easily go unnoticed. ⚾️ While many people, including security personnel, might notice someone who regularly plays in 20 tables, they might not notice a ⚾️ degen regularly playing just a few tables for crazy long sessions.
Many botters get greedy, though, and overdo it. A player ⚾️ grinding for 12+ hours daily is bound to raise a few eyebrows.
4. The player plays an unreasonable amount of tables.
Suppose ⚾️ you open your favorite poker client and search for your sparring partner, Mr. Pokeroboto, who usually plays long sessions at ⚾️ just a few tables. So you were surprised to find Mr. Pokeroboto playing not 1 or 4 but 25 tables ⚾️ at once!
As mentioned above, most poker bots aren’t that great at poker. So, again, to maximize value they need volume ⚾️ of play. Playing as many tables as possible is just another way of accumulating volume.
However, contrary to popular belief, botters ⚾️ don’t just set poker bots to run and then forget about them. Bots need constant maintenance. Besides the occasional bug ⚾️ or software update, bots need a human to comb their hand histories to look for leaks. Most—if not all—botters who ⚾️ run an unreasonable amount of tables at once don’t do this, so many bots are easily exploited by human players. ⚾️ If you play a bot for long enough you will notice rigid and easily predictable patterns. This is especially true ⚾️ for heads-up play.
Before we get to the last section of this piece, let’s take a look at a video produced ⚾️ by Joey Ingram. This video features his take on bots and other forms of cheating he suspected was happening in ⚾️ 2024 and early 2024:
Note: Want to upgrade your poker skills? Get free preflop charts here and start playing like a ⚾️ pro before the flop. Download now!
What to Do If You Suspect a Player is a Bot
Suppose you’ve read this article ⚾️ and come to suspect a player is a bot. You should not voice your suspicion publicly. Why? Because you’ll be ⚾️ putting the accused player’s reputation and your own at risk.
Consider that, even if you’re wrong and the player is not ⚾️ a bot, the player could lose all of her action as the result of your accusation, and she may never ⚾️ recover even if exonerated later on. If, on the other hand, the poker community doesn’t believe you and your suspicion ⚾️ turns out to be wrong, then it’s your reputation that is destroyed.
You’ll be seen as the boy who cried ‘rigged!’, ⚾️ even though you initially had good reasons for doing so.
Most major poker sites have detection protocols to prevent bot play, ⚾️ but some of the more sophisticated bots are able operate undetected, and some poker sites simply don’t care about bots ⚾️ since their play produces rake (though, they will ban a bot if they catch it, or if it’s reported). Unfortunately, ⚾️ when it comes to detecting and banning bots some sites are more passive than others.
If you suspect that a player ⚾️ is a bot, it is best to immediately contact a moderator or the site’s security team to prompt an investigation. ⚾️ This way, your identity and that of the accused player is protected until the investigation produces a conclusion.
Even if the ⚾️ player in question is not a bot, you’ll have done right by the poker community in reporting your suspicion, and ⚾️ done your part to protect the integrity of the game.
When a Poker Player is Probably Not a Bot
Here are four ⚾️ signs that might seem to indicate a player is a bot, but are not reliable.
1. The player doesn’t respond in ⚾️ the chat.
It’s a known fact that most bots don’t respond in the chat, so this is a popular reason to ⚾️ suspect a winning player is a bot. However, a more likely explanation that a player isn’t responding is that he ⚾️ simply doesn’t like using the chat. The player may not have even noticed that you said anything.
2. The player always ⚾️ leaves the table, or sits out depending on the number of players at the table.
For simplicity, bots are usually programmed ⚾️ with either a long-handed or short-handed set of ranges—but not both. So, a bot programmed with a long-handed range will ⚾️ sit out when there are less players at the table rather than adjust to the change in number of opponents, ⚾️ and vice versa.
However, many human players also learn either long-handed or short-handed ranges, and sit in or out for the ⚾️ sake of simplicity. Thus, a player sitting in or out when there are more or less players is not a ⚾️ reliable sign that the player is a bot.
3. The player always bets the same size in the same spots.
Also for ⚾️ simplicity, some bots will have preset bet sizing. But, again, this is something human players also do; recreational players and ⚾️ professionals alike often implement static bet sizing, either for strategic reasons or because they use hot keys.
Note, though, that some ⚾️ bot developers add a random number generator,which bets a random number within an acceptable range. For example, instead of always ⚾️ c-bettingR$2.00, a bot might bet an amount betweenR$2.00 andR$2.50. Or, instead of betting 3x the big blind, the bot will ⚾️ bet a just slightly more or less 3x the big blind. This is only true of the more sophisticated bots, ⚾️ however. Most bots maintain static bet sizes.
4. The player always joins the table you’re on, and sits next to you.
This ⚾️ is likely explained by the use of sitting scripts—software that automatically sits a player with certain other players, or at ⚾️ tables with certain players with certain stats. While bots are likely to come bundled with this kind of software, human ⚾️ players also use it. To be sure, the use of such software is controversial in its own right, but it’s ⚾️ not a reliable indicator that a player is a bot.
It’s important to note that, while these are not reliable signs ⚾️ that a player is a bot, they are based on common poker bot behavior. A bot is unlikely to chat ⚾️ like a human, vary its bet sizing, have an understanding of short and long range adjustments, and fail to use ⚾️ some kind of seating script. (There are poker bots built to better simulate human behavior, but they very rare.)
Have You ⚾️ Ever Suspected Your Opponent is a Bot?
What happened? Let us know in the comments below.
Until next time!
