First, I’ll explain what a poker bot is for those who’ve never encountered one.  A poker bot is simply a computer program designed to play poker against human opponents.  They aren’t in themselves evil things.  After all, a poker bot can be used for practice or even just to play poker games.  I actually enjoy a little poker-themed game called “Governor of Poker” which is essentially a kids game where I play poker against characters in a Western town.  Of course, in the case of “Governor of Poker” I know I’m playing a computer game and no real money is at stake. 

But what PokerStars is looking into is the possibility that 10 online player accounts were really poker bots and not human players.  A poker star player noticed that certain accounts were logging on and off at the same time, making a lot of the same plays (bot don’t react to the game but play as programmed), and changing stakes back and forth in the micro stakes table.  After studying the ten mysterious players, the human player reported them to the site. 

PokerStars is investigating and has decided that the play of the mystery accounts does match that of poker bots.  But what worries players is that these bots were winning.  Poker bots are supposed to loose when playing against human opponents.  But perhaps PokerStars hasn’t checked out the computer game market lately.  Because the play in “Governor of Poker” may not be World Series of Poker quality, but computer games have come a long way.   PokerStars hasn’t decided what to do about the potential bot play yet. They are still investigating and may redistribute some of the bot’s winnings back to players.

If you play at PokerStars the names of the suspected bots are:

§   7emenov bakabar

§  craizer

§  mvra

§  nakseon

§  kozzin

§  demidou

§  koldan

§  Daergy

§  feidmanis