Pokerstars takes action after smart players pick up on Bots

Thursday June 11,2015 :  POKER FORUM SLEUTHS OUTSMART RUSSIAN BOTS
 
Pokerstars takes action after smart players pick up on playing styles.
 
Many a crook has discovered to his cost that the expert players and industry people who frequent the 2+2 poker forum are hard to fool, and a group of allegedly Russian bot operators are the latest to experience this truth.
 
Members of the forum quickly picked up on a number of players who they claim were using bots to prosper at the expense of other players on the Pot Limit Omaha $0.50-$1 and $1-$2 Six Max cash tables. Expertly analysing their play, the internet sleuths established grounds for banning and reported 26 accounts to Pokerstars.
 
After verification checks a number of the accounts were closed and banned, and the company followed its usual practice of distributing the money in the bot accounts – to players who had been prejudiced in action against them.
 
Players continue to grumble, however, pointing out that in some cases they are out thousands, whilst (by some player estimates) Pokerstars has profited in rake to the tune of $2.5 million overall.
 
Forum members who have previously demonstrated technical, poker and intellectual smarts used a variety of techniques to analyse the play of the bots and zero in on the offending accounts; without revealing too many of their tools, analysis of timing, decisions and playing style was among these, drawing comparisons with established human norms.