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Real-Time Assistants Are Now A Huge Problem For Online Poker

With the combination of poker now being played over the internet online, and the ever-increasing size of the prizes being offered, then it's absolutely no surprise that players are all looking for an edge. This has led to the rise of poker bots, designed to calculate the optimal moves and gameplay in a matter of seconds. Of course, if you know your crafty opponent is using one, then you have no choice but to use a bot yourself. In the end, it'll just be poker bots playing against each other.

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Real-Time Assistants Threaten Online Poker

Online gambling has certainly become very popular thanks to advances in technology over the last couple of decades. But along with these advancements, there are some darker elements at play. Today we thought we’d have a look into the use of real-time assistants, otherwise known as poker bots. As well as the types of software that can help the average gambler beat any skilled opponent playing online. it’s quickly becoming one of the best ways to win the jackpot online.

When it comes to the creation of poker software, then the professional poker player Phil Laak summed it up perfectly. He said that the natural evolution of information was unavoidable and inevitable. Poker bots are part and parcel of the onwards march of new technology. So what if there’s a dream machine that could tell him the best thing to do with regard to any poker hand. And all within just 15 seconds. In other words, for Phil, this is the future. And it’s unavoidable. In fact, a quick Google search for poker bots will bring up a huge number of results.

If we look through the history of online poker, we can see the use of more and more programs. These are to enable the average players to appear as professionals. Right now you can put your playing hand into an assistant bot. It will more or less instantly analyze the output. Some would say this is very postmodern. But there’s a problem with the steady advancement of these services. It’s that now you’re able to utilize Game Theory Optimal Solutions (GTOS) in an instant. This means to say that our poker bots can instruct on the correct way to play within a matter of a few seconds. Not only that but also with a high degree of certainty.

Real-Time Assistants Are Here To Stay

That the above scenario might sound like the way Decker might play cards in Blade Runner, these bot playing assistants are working as we’re writing this article. In fact, a simple Google search will show you that many of the world’s elite players use what is known as “push-button bots.” This helps to optimize the decision making, particularly when they’re in high-stakes online jackpot games. Probably what’s even more disturbing is that some of these players are probably the best in the world.

If you head over to some of the poker groups on Discord, you’ll see that the platform is flooded with a huge number of real-time assistance (RTA) ads. Many players now recognize that this software puts an existential threat to online poker.

Online Casinos Are Trying To Catch Up

Online poker, in particular online package tournaments, can involve huge sums of money. So it’s easy to recognize that online poker has a serious weakness. The problem is the fundamental integrity of the games themselves that are at risk. Every website like 22Bet Casino states that “one person-one hand” is not enforceable. After all, there’s no way that a poker website can see who’s actually sitting behind the computer. As you can imagine, all jackpot poker games are now vulnerable to “ghosting.”

As a result, all online casinos are playing a game of catch-up. They are frantically writing software that they claim can show them when third-party software is open. As a result, they have been banning players right, left and centre. But the problem is that online casinos are always on the back foot. The ghosters constantly come up with new methods by which they can win in an unsportsman-like manner.

The same tools that can detect bad actors in the poker space can also help to stop other unsocial behaviour. For example, recently some online casinos have banned head-up displays. But it’s difficult for these programs to prevent players from running software that gathers statistical data from their opponents. Nevertheless, it’s still a positive effort to stem the tide of underhand players looking to buy real-time assistance.

What Are Real-Time Assistants?

Simply put, we can say that real-time assistance is anything that helps a player make their decisions whilst playing online cash games. Obviously, an Advanced Game Theory Optimal Solution, if running on a supercomputer, is able to process literally millions of hands in microseconds. This means players can find the best optimal results before the hand playing time limit expires. Obviously, programs like this mean that the top players are not using any of their own skills. In fact, there’s no more need to know any jackpot winning strategies. In the end, it’ll be just one computer bot program playing another. Even with live dealer poker games.

New Rules From Poker Websites

When it comes to online poker though, there is any number of aids that fall under the heading of “external help.” Some of these are perfectly fine. While others are illegal. After all, there’s a whole spectrum of RTAs. These include such things as a list of pre-solved opening ranges, an arranging calculator, an ICM analysis and push-fold charts. Though some of these may be considered reasonable, for the poker player sitting at the tournament online, it’s now up to the different poker websites site to decide where to draw the line.

GGPoker, a massive poker playing site, that recently made headlines by firing the idiot Dan Bilzerian, has decided that they would ban anything more than a basic pre-flop chart. The idea here is that any reading material present should not contain such things as relative positions stack sizes or any other defined decisions. Unsurprisingly, many professional and experienced poker players argue that these rules are far too strict.

A High-Profile Real-Time Assistant Case

A couple of years ago in 2020, a German online gamer called Fedor Kruse made headlines for all the wrong reasons. After falling out with his flatmates, they blew the whistle on his use of a “dream machine.” They said that Kruse was using two computers. Together these were able to fool the poker website’s mouse tracking system. Kruse would stay on one computer while using the other computer to run assisted programs that could then return “perfect play” results within a matter of seconds. After being outed, Kruse claimed that he was small fry. For example, he points out that they are a huge number of Russian bot farms. They all operate sit and go pools for online poker tournaments. In fact, it’s just a paltry $5 for a buy-in.

More And More Bannings

Unfortunately for Kruse, who had enjoyed a metaphoric rise in under 12 months, the use of a real-time assistant at poker tournaments landed him in hot water. As a result, GGPoker banned him completely and confiscated $250,000. Other betting sites returned his account deposits and then locked him out of his accounts. After doing some deeper due diligence, GGPoker banned more than 40 accounts for RTA usage. All in all, the operator confiscated over $1.2 million from the 13 band accounts. Ouch!

GGPoker put out a statement saying, “Massive increases in data analysis are a big part of our new process. Our team deeply analyzes poker hands based on our proprietary algorithms with the assistance of some of the brightest poker minds. Their insights and contributions continually improve our algorithms. Through this process, we can quickly establish whether GTO poker play has occurred. Once we have made this determination, we look at a variety of other factors to determine whether said GTO play involved the use of RTA.”

Real-Time Assistants Aren’t Going Away

It’s been over 18 months since the Kruse scandal. And though he may have been halted, technology certainly hasn’t stood still. The setups of RTA are constantly being optimized and refined. Right now there are ways to be a sort of high stakes player, one who is engaged in a sort of one-upmanship to see who’s bought is best. What beggars belief though, is the fact that the manufacturers and programmers making these RTA bots shamelessly advertise openly on Poker Discord groups. This means that it becomes easier and cheaper for players to obtain an RTA. With online big money poker games being played, you can’t expect players not to take advantage of technological achievement. As such, all online casinos to win the jackpot, like 22Bet Casino, will now be in a game of technological cat and mouse.