The rumors are true. PokerStarsconfirmed to PokerNewsthat it’s investigating an alleged bot ring permeating mid-stakes PLO tables. PokerStars explained in an email posted on PokerNews, “We are indeed aware of the online discussions alleging a group of accounts to be operating poker bots.”

According to Part Time Poker, the bots in question can be found at “$0.50/$1 and $1/$2 Six-Max cash tables and have collective profits of about $1.4 million.”

The charges came to light in a thread on Two Plus Two, with the original poster in NVG saying, “There seems to be/have been a bunch of accounts crushing MSPLO on PokerStars that are either bots or programs playing but with player inputs into the client.”

Comparisons among the alleged bot accounts showed very similar play, but when the alleged bots were compared against humans, their play differed dramatically (see chart below).

As explained on Part Time Poker, the poker sleuths (to paraphrase “60 Minutes”) “found that any two human players will usually have a difference value of around 600 to 1,200, while the presumed bots all differ from one another by only a few dozen points.” Whether the alleged bot accounts can see each other’s hole cards remains to be seen.

According to the PokerStars team, “We can confirm that a number of these accounts have indeed been closed for violations of our Terms of Service… Due to our strict privacy policy, we are unable to disclose user IDs in the context of fraud.”

While PokerStars admitted that accounts having similar playing statistics could be indicative of fraud, it was by no means proof. Therefore, the site added, “Our investigation includes, but is not limited to, reviewing their software and playing environments, how they interact with the PokerStars client, as well as analyzing their activity in real-time and conducting Turing tests.”

Posters on Two Plus Two questioned whether bot usage would be more effective in MTTs instead of mid-stakes PLO. As one poster put it, “Bots are built to be as close to GTO as possible, and that works disgustingly well in cash and SNGs with their static and repetitive format, but except during the earliest stages of a tournament, GTO means nothing. It’s all about exploiting the table, the opponents, and their styles, making use of different stack sizes.”

In the email posted on PokerNews from PokerStars, the site’s security team asked that players contact them directly instead of posting on poker forums “to avoid tipping off potential offenders” and to avoid undue slander. PokerStars added in a separate email that it had already refunded certain players who were affected.

Last month, you might recall that PocketFives published an article about a heads-up sit and go aid created by Skier_5that allegedly helped automate decisions. While the aid doesn’t click buttons, it appears that it guides players based on what it believes is the best action to take. As David Bakes Baker put it at the time, “If you don’t have Sharkystrator or skier’s program, you basically have no shot at HUSNGs.”

We’ll keep you posted on the latest.

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