Texas Holdem Poker

One of the largest online poker rooms has shifted legal gears. PokerStars, thinking in smaller terms than the US Federal UIGEA, is hoping to convince Nevada lawmakers to allow them to be the first online poker room for the residents of their state. In making the push, PokerStars will be presenting lawmakers with tax numbers and job predictions this week.

The online poker giant has agreed that they will hand over 6.75% on the rake from the revenue generate within the state plus an additional 4% on the global profits. Since PokerStars stands as one of the two largest online poker rooms in the world, that 4 percent could become quite a substantial boon for the Nevada economy. Additionally, moving a PokerStars office into the state will create numerous jobs and increase the local revenue significantly. The forecasted numbers will be reflected when representatives of PokerStars speak to state legislators this week.

Should Nevada become the first state to legalize and operate online gambling facilities, they will lay the foundation for an intrastate challenge. This foundation may grow and Nevada and PokerStars may find themselves in a position to address this on the federal level. The global poker community will be watching the small state of Nevada very closely.

In recent years we have seen a rise in the quality of the online poker bots. In previous years, poker bots have been online robots that are little to no challenge for an online poker player. In the last couple of years things have begun to change, thanks to AI integration and a new approach by the designers. This is proving more difficult for poker rooms to identify the bots and eliminate them swiftly.
Last year a major poker room was forced to suspend thousands of dollars in money from player’s accounts due to poker bots. By July they had purged their system completely of this online poker menaces. Today this poker room keeps a team of people diligently watching for more bot activity. This diligence proves their unyielding focus to maintain the integrity of their site and games.
Even as the major poker rooms work hard to combat the prolific invasions of online poker bots, they are still openly available for sale online. One company, Shanky Technologies, sells licenses for a Texas Holdem Poker Bot at 129 USD annually. A co-founder of the company has indicated that more than 400 of his customers have been banned from the major online poker rooms. With each banned customer’s totals adding up quickly, the poker giants have seized more than 50 thousand USD. The Shanky founders believe that the revenue their bots could potentially generate for the online poker sites would easily top the 70 thousand USD mark each month. A Shanky co-founder has stated his surprise over the choice to put the bots out of the online gaming systems.
Brian Jetter, the more outspoken of the Shanky co-founders, has indicated there are no formal relations with any online poker room but that many of the online poker sites are ‘looking the other way’ when their bots compete on their online poker sites. One poker website, PokerScout.com, indicates they have more than 600 online and active poker rooms for people to play in. With those numbers and potentially thousands of accounts on each of the 600 online poker rooms, it would be difficult to track each online poker bot down and ban it. Such a staggering situation lends credence to Mr. Jetter’s statements.
One of the speculative reasons online poker rooms and similar sites do not crack down on the robots is that the science is still infantile. Generally speaking, poker bots are not the best players at the game. Often they aren’t even a challenge to a typical poker player. According to Darse Billings, a consultant for Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker and former chief data analyst at Full Tilt, “The large majority of bots are very bad. More than 90 percent are losing money.” With new technology and information, the online poker bot is getting smarter. Thanks to new advances in the computer sciences field, developments have proven beneficial to the way software can be programmed to play games.
By comparison, it is easier to develop a live chess computer than it is a poker bot. Chess is an information based game that can be anticipated and predicted by the location of pieces on the board. This can be read, anticipated and played before the game has moved the first piece. Poker is quite a different animal. Every possible and plausible scenario can change with the draw of one card. There are also some very imperfect human elements to the game; examples would include how often a given player tends to bluff, or what card opponents have.
A poker bot must do the vast majority of its work prior to the match, running millions of simulations prior to the cards being dealt. Unfortunately for the online poker bot, computing every possible simulation or situation is implausible.
Currently, the best poker bots in the world are located the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group and with Professor Tuomas W Sandholm’s Poker Research Group at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. This friendly rivaly has been ongoing since 2006 when the first Annual computer Poker Competition drew more interest to poker playing computers. With these exceptional computers, Professor Sandholm believes they can rival good players but not approach the skill of the best. Given the focus and resources available to these two groups, that’s only a matter of time. Obviously, the poker playing robots created and enhanced by these two groups are not available online or to the general population.
The most common online poker bots are the result of a personal hobby or programmers experiment. Some have developed bots to watch and record games, while others will purchase a bot like those sold by Shanky to provide themselves an intellectual exercise and a consistent competitor for improving their own game. Mr. Jetter, “Using a poker bot is in fact a natural extension of the game of online poker. Creating your own playing profile is a fun challenge that many players enjoy.” He indicated that buyers of his company’s poker bot can customize the playing style, decision making strategies, and other details. This makes the bots more attractive to buyers who are looking to improve their game against various potential situations.
The major poker rooms disagree with Mr. Jetter’s assessment of the situation. All of the major online poker rooms are striving to maintain the integrity of the game and preventing the use of online poker bots. Will we find this is truly an extension of the online poker room as Shanky believes? Or are online poker bots truly the abomination that competitive online poker players perceive them to be? Time will tell.

Darvin Moon and Heartland Poker Tour
In the years since the Heartland Poker Tour’s inception, the tour has not sponsored a player. In the time since Darvin Moon became the runner up in the World Series of Poker Main Event (WSOP), he’s not accepted a single sponsorship offer. Together they are forging an attention catching team.
Darvin Moon was deemed by many as unable to be signed, because he refused sponsorship as a member of the November Nine. With his home town feel and attitude, Moon was quoted as saying, “I don’t want a boss. I’ve come this far on my own; I don’t want to answer to anybody now.” He called the shots that brought him all the way to the final table and had no plans to change that at the final table.
Since that time, Darvin has found a comfortable match among the people of the Heartland Poker Tour. He believes they represent the perfect fit for his lifestyle. No one doubts that Darvin Moon is one of the hardest working names in poker today. This, of course, refers to outside of the poker industry as a whole. This long time Maryland logger ran his own business for many years before competing in the 2009 WSOP main event. His general disposition has not changed from that of the hardworking American man, competing for the pleasure of the game and the win.
Todd Anderson, president of the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT), believes Darvin is the right kind of guy to represent their brand. In the eyes of Mr. Anderson, Darvin is the hardworking man who now lives the dream many people seek when playing the game of Texas Holdem.
In the years to come, Darvin Moon will wear the HPT brand and play in their live events. He will become the face of the Heartland Poker Tour. This is something both parties are looking forward to.