WPN Declares War Against Online Poker Bots

It’s war! The Winning Poker Network (WPN) has had enough of being called out for not doing enough to combat the use of bots on their network, so they have come out fighting. This comes shortly after being embarrassed when a poker cheat posting as “themadbotter” on the 2+2 poker forum declared they had won $30,000 by using a bot on the WPN, having programmed the bot to sit out every couple of hours and act randomly, winning lots of money from other players as it continued to escape detection.

Using a computer program, known as a “bot”, is against all poker rooms' terms of use because it should be you, as the account holder who plays the hand, not a third party, whether human or otherwise. It is even against the rules for you to let a friend use your account. If you are caught, you will be banned from the site and potentially have all funds in your accounts seized.

The programmers of the bot that played on the WPN had gone to incredible lengths to ensure it would not be detected. The bot would never play for more than six hours at a time and frequently swapped tables, mimicking human behaviour. Even the odd mis-click and typed comments in the chat box were included to make it appear more human. I doubt I would have noticed anything amiss and it’s clear the WPN did not either.

The bot’s programmers enjoyed their moment in calling out the WPN. Posting a provocative post clearly designed to wind up the poker world, “themadbotter” even went as far as saying bots were welcomed on the websites, because, he said,

If it was the posters intention to cause a reaction, it certainly worked as they intended if you consider the reaction from WPN’s CEO Phil Nagy, who sent a strongly worded message to anyone wishing to play with bots on his network. He was quick to refute the claim that bots were welcome on the WPN and he stated unequivocally for the record that he would not tolerate any further abuse of his poker network and vowed to protect the players who enjoy playing there. He appeared on a twitch stream hosted by Zachary “Thrash370” Koerper and said that he would make “the WPN the most bot-unfriendly place online.”

Clearly wounded by the negative exposure “themadbotter” brought to the network, the outspoken Nagy also admitted that his crusade against bots could have an impact on real players who might get caught up in his now proactive approach to ridding the WPN from bots. He said:

This led to an expression of concern by many people who, whilst they want to be rid of poker bots, they are concerned that in order to do so “real” players must be inconvenienced or accused of wrongdoing. They do not believe it is acceptable to accuse a poker player of cheating, which in effect means they would have their account suspended whilst security investigations took place. One comment I read from a poster calling themselves Johnny, responded to Nagy’s statement by saying: “To say this is what people want and say but we will screw over some innocent people but its ok its what the people want. Lol. What a farce.”

Exactly how WPN will be making the network an unfriendly place for bots was not disclosed. In years gone by, bots have had to become more sophisticated in order to avoid detection and, as such, it is not known, exactly, how bad the problem is. It is not thought to be such a problem that all online poker games are besieged by computer programs playing on behalf of their account holder, but it is accepted that poker bots are out there.

Bot detection used to be as easy as the poker room identifying that the program was clicking on the same pixel of the bet, raise, or fold button, something that a human would find impossible. The bot programmers took action and altered their program to randomise click positions. The bots would also play for days at a time as computers don’t get tired, so bots now take breaks like a human would. Things like the timing of the bets used to be predictable, but that is now randomised too.

The programmers are becoming savvy and careful so it won’t be easy for WPN to become an industry leader in bot detection, but it seems their CEO is determined to make a splash in this area to ensure their games are not spoiled by bots. I agree with him, but would certainly feel aggrieved if my account was suspended because they thought I was a bot.

To some degree it is Catch-22 for the WPN and other poker rooms in fighting bots, however, I’d rather see them do something rather than nothing to try in the ongoing challenge of maintaining the integrity of online poker games.