Hello xxx,

Thank you for your report regarding 'rs03rs03'. We do not tolerate automated players (bots) on PokerStars. We have an extensive arsenal of detection tools in order to ensure that each player is a human being.

We have been monitoring and examining this player using those tools for quite some time, and the player has always shown very human characteristics, and an ability to pass various tests, including CAPTCHA and many others. Despite this, we, too, have been concerned with the seemingly astonishing volume of play exhibited by this player, especially in early 2010 as his volume increased dramatically.

As such, we froze his account and asked the player for a controlled demonstration, and the player agreed. We dispatched a PokerStars representative to the player's home to observe several hours of play on June 1st, 2010. That observation convinced us that the player is not using a bot.

We cannot violate the player's privacy -- the player has asked to remain anonymous, and not to discuss their strategy. However, among our observations:

1) The player uses a set of self-written hotkeys similar to many
commercially available suites (TableNinja.com comes to mind).

- The hotkeys manage automatically joining tables without regard to
opponent selection
- The hotkeys close unnecessary popups like "It is free to check",
automatically
- The hotkeys require the player to enter every bet, raise, check, or
fold manually

2) Both in prior play, and during our in-person observation, we
witnessed many "mistakes", such as pre-flop folds of AA and KK.

3) The player was able to verbally chat with our representative during
play, while continuing to play.

4) We took video of the play at various times, and conducted tests at
various times during the observation (such as unexpectedly asking
the player to remove their hands from their keyboard, to observe
whether play stopped... and it did).

We observed well over 3 hours of play, and then compared the play we observed to historical records of past play. We cannot divulge exactly what we compared, though we can say that it did include comparing his hand selection, action timing, and many other aspects. The resulting comparison very strongly indicates that the prior play is statistically identical to the observed play.

In short, our bot detection tools have borne themselves out here very nicely. The tools always indicated that the player appeared human despite ever-increasing hours of play and concurrent tables. Now, through our observations, we've independently confirmed those findings.

PokerStars remains vigilant in proactively hunting for bots. We will continue to review players of concern with our tools, and continue to enhance those tools to ensure that PokerStars remains as free of bots as possible. When we find bots, we remove them from our games. We are pleased to report, however, that 'rs03rs03' is human.

Good luck in your games, and thank you for playing on PokerStars.

Regards,

Quentin
PokerStars Support Team