The Russian Bot Army That Conquered Online Poker
September 21, 2024 at 04:22AMSeveral years ago, people warned that artificial intelligence would be an existential threat to online poker; today, bots are everywhere. So is the virtual game doomed, or can it be saved? For Bloomberg Businessweek, Kit Chellel writes a fascinating piece on the Russian operation behind the most advanced poker-playing software, and how the very people who deployed bots across the world’s poker websites could potentially change the game—for the better.
The Omsk students borrowed money from their parents and began staking other friends in return for a cut of their profits. They trained using pieces of dried pasta as chips. The winner got a meal; losers went hungry. A university lecturer came in to give off-books lessons in probability theory; others taught game theory. By a year or two in, about 50 students were coming to the dorm each evening to work the night shift.
The poker sites worked much like they do now. Players registered, deposited funds and joined a digitally rendered green felt table. The software shuffled and dealt. Participants could see their opponents’ decisions—raise, call, fold—but not their cards. Anything from a few dollars to hundreds or thousands could be at stake, depending on the site and whether a tournament was running. Crucially, everyone was identified by only a first name or pseudonym, and normally by a cartoon avatar. That meant hapless Americans logging on after work had no idea they were playing against Russian kids trained in the mathematical dark arts.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/09/20/the-russian-bot-army-that-conquered-online-poker/
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