Hello all,

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but I think its worth bringing to your attention. Over the past few days I have noticed some suspicious activity in the limit hold'em games of Partypoker. I think there are bots playing at the tables.

All of the suspected players are said to be from Russian Federation, they all have roughly an 8-character name of randomized letters, they buy-in for the same amount with the format ($XX.01), they take the same amount of time between decisions, and when someone enters the table they all leave at the same time.

Now to be fair most of Partypoker's players are from Europe and actually do have screen names that seem to be randomized letters to the average Canadian like myself, but I wouldn't be posting this thread if I didn't think there was enough cause.

So far it doesn't seem like they're cheating players, perhaps just the site, maybe grinding the gladiator promo. But I doubt it because they come in so sporadically. I honestly do not know, but something fishy is going on. I fired an e-mail to Partypoker and am waiting for a reply. So just a word of caution. I will try to snag a screenshot of one of their tables.

edit:

ppl always speculate about these euro sites being bot infested,...update when you receive email from partypoker support

I don't get it. Isn't Party Poker's minimum buyin for limit 10 big blinds, or $20 at this table? (Never played there.) I'll admit five people with exactly $10.01 stacks is odd, but maybe someone had $9.99 at the table and everyone got all in with him, but bet nothing into a side pot?

Yea, this looks VERY fishy

You do know that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, right? 5 people getting all in vs. a single opponent with 9.99 and then having an empty side pot seems a lot less likely (to me) then something fishy going on with having five players at the table all with exactly $10.01, especially if OP has seen it happen multiple times.

Weird amount to put on the table, tho. Something smells shady.

chipdumping by betting 10$ then all fold on flop to one player who gets all that cash. maybe hacked (you can change screennames on pp) or fake accounts with hacked or stolen credit card deposits?

My thoughts...

PartyPoker has its own bots to get tables started.

You even mention that they leave when other ppl sit down.

I remember way back when full tilt was down for like 5 hours worldwide. Within minutes of being able to log back in it was miraculous to see all these tables running with one "player" at each. Bots.

That picture you showed, had 4 players with .01 left. Someone is probably going to bet .01 and the rest fold maybe? Or they really are checking it down on the river. That would be shady to fold for .01 but checking is also shady with .01. Either way it looks really weird.

Makes no sense that a ring of bots would leave when a player sits at the table. How do they make $?

Certainly looks like money laundering/stolen credit cards.

Some other info:

-I have seen them with 1 regular player at the table and then immediately leave.

-As soon as I open the table to spectate, they leave

-10.01 was just this particular screened amount. I have seen 25.01 and 50.01.

-I have been able to observe some betting, where it goes bet, c,c,c,c,c on turn then bet, f,f,f,f,f. And then they leave. (they are all involved in the same pot)

The screen names seem generated to me.

I think your on to something here. Keep up the good work

Looks well dodgy. I'll be interested to PP's reply.

If someone was smart enough to set up the bots I doubt they would be silly enough to put up a red flag by having them all buyin in for exactly xx.01

Although saying that it is very strange

It would indeed be a dumb thing to do, but I think the odds far outweigh the odds of five Russian players all with random eight-character names all buying in for exactly $10.01, playing in one pot all together, and then leaving. I'm going to echo what was said earlier in the thread and say this is almost certainly some kind of money-laundering.

Given the description above, I would say that they are partypoker bots for the purpose of generating traffic as seen on sites like pokerscout...

But then again, maybe I am wrong (I really only saw the descriptions made above).

Definitely CC fraud, no diggity. Bots wouldnt make sense, especially for grinding promos because they are playing each other and losing rake.