RoboPoker - New Blog Describes Using Bots at Online Poker Sites

There's a new poker blog in town: RoboPoker: My Life as an Online Poker Robot.

RoboPoker has been posting frequently since he started last Tuesday. Here's his first post:

Who I am.

I am a professional poker player. Over time, I will reveal as many details as I can in regards to the limits I play and the income I make, but suffice it to say that I make a very comfortable living via online poker. Yes, I run a "war room" of online poker-bots that do not tilt, sleep, or anguish over the tough calls.

I will not:

• Help you make your own bot.
  
• Sell you mine.
  
• Reveal any information that I think will endanger my income as a professional 'bot player.
  

I will:

• Offer an honest perspective of online poker from my unusual point of view.
  
• Post news items of interest to poker players of all types.
  
• Offer poker topics for discussion of interest to the bot coder/game theorist/mathmatical player
  

Now, I realize that I will be hated by most that would bother to respond to, or even read this blog. All I ask is that you give me a bit of time. As you learn the truth behind the paranoia, you'll find you have very little to fear.

I am not as afraid of poker bots as some people are. They are against the rules of essentially all online poker sites, so they are certainly "cheating," at least technically. Naive players seem to be terribly afraid of bots, thinking that they will be fleeced by these machines. I often wonder why they don't feel the same way about skilled flesh-and-blood players.

From the skilled player's point of view, especially from the professional player's point of view, bots are a bad idea primarily because of their unlimited potential to multiply. If a substantial fraction of the players online are well-programmed bots, then competition for the easy money of the bad players becomes tougher. It is in the flesh-and-blood pros' interests to keep the number of bots down.

It is in the interest of the poker sites' owners to keep the number of bots down to the extent that players perceive bots as a threat.

Personally, I welcome the RoboPoker blog and the player behind it. Whatever you think of the ethics of automated poker play online, sunlight is better than shadow. I would much rather have RoboPoker posting openly than only sharing the secrets of poker bots among a secret cabal, or remaining silent. People who care about online poker should read this blog, and learn.