The subject of my blog today is not just about Bots but cheating in poker and especially online. The reason why I am talking about this now is because of the recent publicity surrounding ABSOLUTE POKER and FULL TILT.
Firstly as with most things, whenever there is any news that is either positive or negative then we get over reaction, it is the natural knee jerk human response and we in England have witnessed this recently with Northern Rock and people falling over each other to get their money out.
Incidentally to overseas viewers, Northern Rock is a financial institution in England and not an online gaming site 
But when people hear about cheating in poker many go way too far and perceive that all poker games and sites are crooked. This is blatantly wrong and it must be stressed that just because a certain site has detected cheating going off or Bots or both, does not mean that the site itself is crooked or so weak that it becomes a target for cheats.
I cannot speak for ABSOLUTE POKER but the security measures on FULL TILT are very intensive as I believe. Although I have hardly played on that site, I do know many people who have or who do including many people whose opinions I trust who all say that Full Tilt Poker is very strong in terms of internal security.
But over reaction can also stem from people who are naive enough to think that all poker games are straight and are shocked to discover that they are not. As with all things the truth lies somewhere in between. It is common knowledge within the industry which sites are targeted the most because of a weakness in their internal security.
But even then, the amount of cheating when compared to the total action is very small. BUT……as I said in an earlier thread….the danger is that players either are scared away, play for vastly reduced stakes or they decide to cheat themselves because they percieve that it is the only way to get ahead. Then we have a domino like herd effect.
Betting Bots have been around now for quite some time and are beginning to infest certain sites and especially in games like limit hold’em. Although even the latest ones have serious weaknesses but their strength is that they play emotionless mathematical poker for as long as the operator wishes and this is why limit is such a target for users of Bots.
But the way to beat the Bots is to become better than the Bots or to steer around them. Poker has never been straight and the people who play the game have never been ideal role models on average, and many of them would not be the type that you would like to see your daughter get hitched to.
So really, nothing has changed….we are still getting crooks in poker only this time they are operating in a more technical way. But dont be shocked by the reports and don’t be scared away because online poker is still very lucrative for those with sufficient skills.
See ya soon
The Dean
