Online Poker Played by Bots?

I have only read one of the most fascinating stories I've read for some time. Concern is growing in online chat rooms and news groups devoted to poker that sophisticated card-playing robots - known as"bots" in the nomenclature of the Web - are being used on commercial gambling sites to fleece newcomers, the strategy-impaired and possibly even above-average players.

A bot capable of playing against the best people definitely already exists. The University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group has developed an artificially intelligent automaton called"Vex Bot," capable of playing poker in the master degree, though as yet it can only apply its gambling genius to two-player games. Vex Bot has been used by researchers to check the frontiers of artificial intelligence - and as the foundation for a commercial poker tutorial program, Poki's Poker Academy -- but some fear it could become a blueprint for developers with more sinister motives.

Given that games such as Hold'em are quite easy enough (along with the players bad enough), it is logical to me that a rather simple bot could have a human player who can not work out the probability of winning every hand properly, to the cleaners.

As online gambling increases will we see more of this? Will people start downloading apps to run on their laptops to inform them what to do with every hand? I think it will kind of take the fun from playing online if it becomes a test of'my bot from the bot' instead of'skill'.

Skeptics - and there are many - claim the intricacies of the game and the shifting strategies ensure that creation of a program that can"read" opponents' cards using display scanning methods and react in real time is years away at best.

The author runs a site after developments in the internet and mobile internet sectors. With over ten years experience in strategy consulting and business development, and has seen and lived through the highs, and the lows of the business.