Bluffing Chadbots

This one is for Chad, who last I heard was slowly bankrupting himself through his addiction to online poker. Enjoy!

Online Poker and Unenforceable Rules

Most online casinos ban bots, but there is really no way to enforce such a rule. Already, many online players use electronic assistants that help them calculate odds, something that world-class players are adept at doing in their heads. Pokerbot technology will only advance, so that even if bots don’t outplay people now, they will eventually. (The claim, sometimes heard, that computers cannot understand bluffing in poker, is incorrect. Game theory can predict and explain bluffing behavior. A good pokerbot will bluff sometimes.)

(via BoingBoing)

The same kind of thing is obviously true for the online Chess Clubs like ICC and FICS. Of course, the difference is that most games on those (with the exceptions of some tournaments) have no real world stakes attached to them, so for the most part the honor system of identifying when a computer is involved works. This is less true when there is real money at stake.

I imagine that over time, almost all online competitive gaming venues where players interact with each other rather than just with the game will hit this problem to one degree or another.

Hmmm… no interest in the online poker, but this reminds me I haven’t been on ICC or FICS in a long time. Time to get online and play some chess! Maybe this weekend. We’ll see.