Billings Discounts Bots' Presence

August 26, 2008

Dr. Darse Billings has released a statement to the effect that poker bots aren’t anything that online poker players need to be concerned with. The comment was in response to a blog that said that bots were the end of civilization as we know it – or at least fair poker playing.

Andrew Smith posted a blog for the Dallas News on Friday entitled “Will Computer Programs Destroy Online Poker? Probably.” He talked about a poker bot that recently beat several Stoxpoker.com pros in a head to head match up. The poker bot was created by the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group.

However, Billings, who was one of the original developers of Polaris, took issue with the blog, and said that it was not possible. His quote was: "That is a ridiculous conclusion - this is not a catastrophe for online poker. First, Ian's program only plays heads-up Limit Hold'em, which is not a popular variant. Modern programs are not strong at No-Limit or multi-player games.

"Secondly, it is not difficult to identify a known program. If you use the Fritz chess program to play chess on an online server, it will be obvious to everyone. The same applies for poker. Since using programs is against the poker site's terms of use, if you do it you will have your account closed permanently. I started the research into poker A.I. in 1992, and we have had a very large team of excellent researchers working on the problem for many years. We have made a lot of progress over the past 16 years, but I can assure you, the sky is not falling."

Many were surprised by the comments, figuring that Billings would agree with Smith. However, some experts pointed to the fact that Phil Laak had just beat a poker bot a year ago after a three hour match up. They say that this was not just an isolated incident, that it was possible to beat them on a regular basis. Others agreed with Smith, stating that more than one poker player had been taken by a bot, and it wouldn’t be the last time.