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How to Know When You’re Playing Against a Poker Bot

Once you’ve been playing online poker for a while, then you’re going to come across the term “poker bot.” This is a piece of software that is designed to play jackpot poker without any human interaction. Because poker bots are designed to play the game to its optimum, then it never misses as it plays its hands, never goes full-tilt and is able to keep playing literally forever. Unfortunately, these bots have become an inescapable reality when it comes to playing online poker. There may be times you are playing in a poker tournament without realising you are actually in competition with the perfect player, nothing less than a cold and heartless poker bot.

How Does A Poker Bots Work?

If you want to know how to spot a poker bot, then it’s important that you have an understanding of how these programs function. The first point to keep in mind is that these programs will be collecting data on their opponents. As such it will remember every move that you have made along with those of your fellow players. It will then crunch this data in order to analyse the statistical probability of your future actions, based on your previous gameplay. A person who is making use of a poker pot will open a poker account at an online casino and then let the poker bot do its work. It will instantly start to analyse the other players around the poker table.

For the person who’s running the bot, this makes for great jackpot winning strategies. But from a player’s perspective, a poker bot is a terrible opponent. Because they lack human emotion, they have no understanding of the financial rewards and penalties. As such they have no fear of losing. So the normal behaviour that drives a poker player into making certain decisions is totally missing. This makes the game a cold and clinical experience, as opposed to one where emotions and feelings are more important. In many ways, the poker bot maintains the ultimate poker face.

Consistent Time Before Each Action

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The most obvious way to spot a poker bot is that it will take exactly the same amount of time to calculate each and every move. For example, you enter the pot by calling rather than raising. The bot will take a few seconds to ponder the move and raise. So you instantly call and make a continuation bet on the flop and then check. What you’ll notice is that when you bet on the turn, your poker opponent will take exactly the same time in order to fold. This is instantly suspicious.

A human opponent would tank almost instantly, as there’s no point in continuing playing a hand that has obviously lost. So if you notice a pattern of similar pauses before every action, it’s because the bot needs a little time in order to analyse the hand and reach its decision. Obviously, human reaction time is going to vary depending on the playing circumstances.

The Poker Bot Don’t Chat Or Interact

Now if you happen to be taking part in a tournament, and the game is down to 3 players, you may want to cut a deal. So imagine that Player X agrees but Player Y doesn’t even answer your request. And the strangest thing of all is that you are all on chat. In this situation, you would normally ask the moderator to contact Player Y with a direct message. But as Player Y is actually a bot, then it will not respond to any form of communication. What’s weird is that Player Y continues playing. In this situation, we would suggest that Player Y is a bot. Having said that, it is difficult to jump to conclusions simply because they don’t use the chat feature. In truth, there are some poker players who prefer to play in absolute silence.

The Poker Bot Has Machine-Like Endurance

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Let’s imagine that you’ve been playing against a player for some time. As a result, you start to notice that they are absolutely consistent in their playing style. And that they never need to take a break.  Now that your bankroll is used up, and your session is over, maybe you decide to carry on watching this player before logging out. You’ll begin to notice his ridiculously consistent and methodical playing style. And though that may not in itself indicate the player is a bot, if you log in periodically over the next few days you may find that player has never taken a break. Obviously, a regular person would need to eat, sleep and go to the toilet. Of course, a computer program needs none of these things.

That’s why we recommend that you play at 32Red Poker. They actively monitor for bots, with those players found using them being instantly banned. On the upside, they also offer all new players a great welcome bonus of 200% Up to €1000!

Playing At Many Tables With Different Game Variants

Now you have a better idea about how poker bots function, and what to look for, you may start to spot them at many online games and tournaments. Especially when you go to online casinos to win the jackpot. A good example would be if you come across an opponent, Player Z, who can play for long periods of time, with totally consistent and equal pauses between playing each hand. Just imagine how much more interesting things get when you see that Player Z is playing at 10 tables at the same time! 

Many people running a poker bot need to play a large number of tables at the same time. This in order to to use the volume of play to maximise that value profits. You may even notice that Player Z is playing different poker variances at the same time. In reality, there are going to be very few players who can play Omaha, 7 Card Stud and Texas Hold’Em all at the same time.

How Should You Deal With A Poker Bot

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OK, so let’s suppose that you’ve spotted a bot. Now, what should you do? The first thing we suggest is that you lower your bets in order to minimise potential losses. At Jackpotfinder.com, we would go further and strongly suggest that you simply move to another table. The problem with dealing with online poker bots is that you can never be 100% that they are simply a computer program and not another player. Although it seems like you are doing the online casino a favour by pointing out a suspicious player, such action could end up with a real human player being banned.

Another point is that, though in truth there are many poker bots in action at any one time, no one likes a tattletale. We suggest that you get in contact with a moderator anonymously. This way you are able to protect yourself and the reputation of the suspected player.

Negate The Poker Bot With Live Dealer Games

Probably the only way to be certain there are no bots present when you’re playing online is to play live dealer poker. Head over to 32Red Poker. They have a massive selection of poker variants with very attractive dealers as an added bonus! In this scenario, you will not be facing various players’ avatars in a two-dimensional poker room. You’ll be actually up against a real-life dealer. One who you can see dealing the cards from a real deck, onto a real poker table. You can be certain that the other players are human, as poke bots cannot read real cards.

Having said that, we are sure that somewhere there are programmers working hard through the night in order to use scanning technology. This will allow their poker bots to be even better trained and much harder to detect. In the end, making it much harder for you to win the jackpot online.