Party Poker Blog

I'm not seeing much buzz about the Full Tilt Poker "poker bot" scandal. That kind of worries me because these are some pretty damn important issues in the world of online poker. And why did it take some random guy to discover this and not FT itself?

My buddy, Haley, covered it pretty well, though. So for those of you who don't want to read thru the massive thread at 2+2, here's an excellent synopsis of the situation: The 'Not-Bot' Controversy --- Script Kiddies in a 1/2 NL 'Sweatshop' at Full Tilt?

And just superb analysis here by Short-Stacked Shamus:

Night of the Living Bots

For the most part, the narrative trajectory of the post reads like one of those Invasion of the Body Snatchers/The Thing from Another World paranoia-fueled sci-fi thrillers.

Again, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence, but I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor. There's something rotten in Denmark here. But also, I think these guys were smart enough to fall in line with Full Tilt's TOS.

But I still call shenanigans. Where is the line in the sand?

Here's a good analysis of the situation after a defender of the team came on and posted.

Question and answer:


---------------------

Someone explain to me how these stats would prove they are bots anyway. Wouldn't it just prove they all know the system equally well and follow it exactly?

Yes, that's what it would prove.

nlnut's contention is:

At some point they sat down with a pen and paper and wrote down a system, then spent a week memorizing it and threw away their notes. Then 3 people, through the power of sitting next to each other, managed to execute this strategy PERFECTLY, with so little deviation, that their stats matched exactly over, what, half a million hands and half a year.

They also discussed tough decisions, but these decisions did not create any perturbation in the stats (on the river no less). These discussions didn't create any deviance from the system, not even a beneficial one. They also made changes to the strategy and communicated them to all players instantly and with 100% compliance.

Also, at one point one of the team members left, and a new team member was brought in. Without the use of ANY written or electronic aids this person was taught the system so that they instantly and without a learning curve could generate the same stats.

My contention is:

Does not compute.

---