Quote:
Originally Posted by French_Kido
so where do people get bots from to begin with then? Surely you can't just buy them off the net? Do people make them or what? I'm new to all this talk of bots so pardon my ignorance....
OK, I will write this down. Not sure if it will survive the mods crew, but looking at some of the above posts - I hope yes, and this is going to be the best advice you're going to get on this topic.
Coding the Wheel
The best source of how to start with pokerbots for complete newbies is codingthewheel.com. This is a series of many articles, writen by James Devlin, software developer from North Caroline. You need to know programming (C++) so that this is of use to you.
PokerAI
PokerAI.org (portal, wiki - pokerai.org/wiki, and forums - pokerai.org/pf3) is the number one in academic discussions (you will find research discussions that go beyond Alberta's reasearch); it's the #1 organized community for pokerbotting for real money, and it's the number one in pokerbotting with style. The site is not associated with any particular bot or framework.
OpenHoldem
openholdem.org, or maxinmontreal.com - This is opensource (thus free) pokerbotting framework, compatible (and a derivate, and today - already better) of winholdem. The openholdem forum is the largest in terms of traffic (while the winholdem forum is nowadays pretty much dead).
University of Alberta research
poker.cs.ualberta.ca - This is university of alberta computer poker research group. They organize annual pokerbotting contest, and publish a lot of papers on the topic, more than any other university out there. Alberta's papers are purely academical, but they can be very inspirational. These (I would recomend Michael Johanson Master thesis) can also be great introductions to the game theory of poker and poker botting. The people of UofA also produced the software PokerAcademy, and PokerAcademy Prospector. This is really great software, but unfortunately their business isn't doing so well, so the development of these tools currently stale.
Personal Websites
There are many personal websites where you can find some goodies. E.g. the one of Ian Fellows (INOTbot), Teppo Salonen (BluffBot), Alex Selby (Optimal preflop heads up solution), Aaron Davidson (Poki), and many more, check out this page (
http://pokerai.org/wiki/index.php/Ca...r_Poker_People)
Others
Pretty much every site, and every bot (with very few exceptions, which are too inferior to mention them), except the ones above, is either dead, or a scam. Everyone that sells you a bot is 99% scamming you. Keep this in mind, people discover the hot water daily by buying bots and then busting good amount of money.
Learn C#, C++ or Java
Is what you will need to get started. Period. There are pokerbotters that manage it without that - but it's pretty much pain in the ass. If you don't know programming, you need to do it full time, and you have some chance to succeed but not big. If you are age 14-27 then learning programming can worth it anyway, it can be a lifechanging experience for you. And if you're older (but not very old) it may still worth it, independant of pokerbotting. If you are completely new to programming, be prepared for at least a year time learning curve (learnign "by the way" I mean, not full time) and that is if you're not stupid.
Can I make money while I sleep?
If you're are stupid and suck - you will not succeed with pokerbotting, similarly to how you are failing to succeed with anything else in your life. It is definetely
not the silver bullet that will make you money while you sleep. It can be a great hobby, a lot of fun, and for some poeple - even make you money along that, but don't start it for (or relying) on the money part. Keep in mind that 80+, or even I can say 90+% of all people running pokerbots are losing money. And this is
excluding all people using prepackaged bots (or bots for sale) - which all of them lose money, cause these are EV-.
Is developing pokerbots legal?
Yes, without doubt. Large universities does it.
Is using pokerbots for real money OK?
It is
not cheating from game theory point of view, and from that standpoint other things (like using hug or exchanging hand histories) hold unfair advantage, while pokebotting does not.
It is also justified and even encouraged in other environments, e.g. in stocks trading.
Using pokerbots in conjuction with specific poker site depends on their specific end user license agreements (EULA) that you agree to. Unfortunately, most poker EULAs forbids using bots. The EULAs, however, are writen in such a way, that almost every player breaks them, in one way or another. There is no common legal basis or consequences defined of what happens if you violate the casinos EULA. Most poker sites will either first warn you, or directly close your account and eventually seize all of your account money.
Last edited by indianaV8; 09-12-2008 at 05:42 AM.