The Rise of the Poker Bots

Moving forward – One of the reasons I started this blog was – I am an avid on line poker player and I heard a rumor [ Urban Myth ] that the poker tables were being infiltrated by Machine Learning ‘Poker Bots’ . Poker Bots who were playing against ‘Humans’ and taking their money. Well, I became intrigued, for two reasons: Could machines [ Neural Networks ] learn poker, and could they outplay ‘humans’ ? – I need to find out if this is possible. If it is then, just imagine, if you had control of a swarm of intelligent ‘Poker Bots’ all under your control – all taking money out of the pockets of ‘Humans’ – wouldn’t that be something. So I have embarked on a quest to find out…. Follow me as I investigate Neural Networks and machine learning — Watch this space for the Rise of the Poker Bots.

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55 Replies to “The Rise of the Poker Bots”

  1. A neural network (NN) is an AI technique that intelligently maps input values to output values. Huh? you say? Here s the idea for poker: You give a NN data from previous hands you played (position, card values, hand rank, etc) and the decision you made in those situations (call, raise, fold, bet, check) and the NN will learn how to mimic those decisions. For a poker bot, this is a pretty appealing idea: you find the hand history of a winning, high stakes player, train the NN, and then set you poker bot loose to win a boat load of money.

    1. hi Алла many thanks for your comment – I agree with all you say – this is strategic learning – after this you could get a computer to deal and play many many random hands and let the NN figure out for itself ( under supervised learning ) what is a winning hand and the best strategy for winning – then if all works, duplicate the bots and let them all loose. I don’t know yet whether it would all work but it will be fun trying to find out. Thanks again Liz

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    1. Hi ucretsiz you can easily become a subscriber by joining the site on the register page – ( this gives you access to the Forum where you can add topics and ask stuff ) – I don’t really have a mailing list however if you become a subscriber through registration and then click on the Blog tab then click on “Entries / Comments” Feed you can see the updated pages feed as they arrive. You can even subscribe there through your own RSS feed reader and see all the new updates on this site straight through to your own RSS reader instantly. PLUS you can always subscribe to ‘feedly’ – an online RSS reader which can be found by Clicking Here Then just type in http://www.lizziegray.net – Many Thanks Liz.

  7. While systems like neural networking do allow some bots to “learn” new strategies based on how other players are reacting to f8 them, the truth is even the most advanced bot essentially plays in a pre-defined manner. Once identified, it can easily be outmanoeuvred by a good opponent. Bots can also be caught out by programming the poker client to monitor certain user activities. However, given that this is tantamount to embedding spyware in the software, this practice is highly controversial among operators.

    1. Thank you state service – a most interesting comment – while it is true that ‘Humans’ can sort of out think many bots currently in existence at the moment:- Take a few minutes to look at the Games page on this site and see if you can beat the Site Bots Click Here. Good luck on that:- However, the ‘Next Gen’ bots that are about to be released onto the world are very competent and they are learning all the time. I have not had time yet to introduce the next level of A.I. to this site but it is rather scary. In regards to embedding bots onto a poker site -yes it is controversial and probably against all the rules of play but here we are not only taking about cheating but we are talking about money, money, money – its a rich bots world – Thanks Liz.

  8. Bot developed contrary to what one can not imagine using the SAGE system based on the balance of Nash and commonly recognized as valid in the low stakes, but an EV based system and other logic conditions developed by Mazur. In October 2008 his PokerStars account has been locked, Matt received an email from the room warned him that his account was blocked for using a poker bot, but Matt took it philosophically and unlike any other, has also gave some advice to the technical room for improving the system of defense against Bot:  Matt has shown what he believes points to work on to improve the research techniques of bots on the network (You can see the correspondence he had with the Pokerstars link below ).

    1. Hi Vavada, many thanks for your post – you are referring to the article posted by Matt Mazur a poker bot developer – his article can be seen by Clicking HereIt is well worth a read – most informative – However, I do wonder how the site realized he was using a poker bot ? Most intriguing – Many, many thanks for spotting this original article – Liz.

  9. Processing these data sets and training AIs with them is a power-hungry task, but processing power has roughly doubled every two years since the 19 meaning modern supercomputers are up to the task. However, neural networks can’t do everything. A neural network trained to do one thing is next to useless at doing something else. For example, ask Libratus, an AI that is the world’s best heads up no-limit Texas hold em poker player, which country Las Vegas is in and it wouldn’t even be able to process the question.

    1. Hi Casino nice hearing from you, I agree that Neural Networks are limited by the tasks they are trained to do, which is partially what this blog alludes to, However – looking further onward to a very near future – there is a case where A.I.’s not only design but they train other A.I.’s which will mean, that we may no longer have control over what an A.I can do. At which point Liberatus would be able to answer your question. Indeed Liberatus could even write this blog. (And yes, I have been asked to try out an A.I. blog writer too – I declined the offer), Many thanks for your input – Liz.

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