The wife is younger than me and more energy:)
I doubt you would. It’s not that the regulations can really prevent people using bots on these sites, but why would anyone hit these sites when they can target bigger sites with less security? You have way more recourse if bots were discovered too, unlike the unregulated sites where they can just ignore it (or challenge the public to build a bot that can go undetected, then have to walk that back when someone writes one from scratch proves it works within 38hrs)
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When i use to play YEARS ago before our government cracked down ( i think it might of been a black Friday thing as last hand was called etc. ) i remember MANY bots and cheating on sites as non-regulated and from all over the world—Kind of got used to it lol but only played very small tournaments then with very big fields…
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Online poker is rampant with cheating. Sure, the “decent” online sites do have some anti-cheat software. Overall, their software is atrocious and roughly 15 years behind the curve in terms of information security, KYC, and AML laws.
Even the best online poker sites will not be able to detect a sophisticated VPN – there goes the theory about frequently joining tables together. Higher than average win rates – a sophisticated cheater will not make their win rate blatantly obvious. Precisely table select online – what? That’s exactly what you can do in online cash. Obviously much harder to do in a tournament with random seat draws.
I work in software development. I have spoken to some of the top white hat hackers in the world. Online poker is compromised, and no one should play on any site if they value their money (unless you’re a cheater, in which case have fun!)
Who can cheat best? Its not rocket science. Duh.
None of what you say is incorrect, but I don’t agree with your conclusion.
You’ll be hard pressed to find any situation where money is changing hands that isn’t compromised. It’s the level of risk that matters, and for most people on most sites, the level of risk is actually fairly low.
For a start, collusion just doesn’t really scale, so this is mostly only going to be a problem at fairly high stakes. Table selection is not possible on some sites, others do have decent KYC, and some just block anyone who’s winning too much.
The question isn’t really if you’ll get cheated, at some stage you will, it’s just whether the games are good enough to justify the risk. For most people, I think they’re probably not, but that’s more to do with them not having the bankroll management or a big enough advantage to overcome the variance and rake. Those are definitely higher for online cash vs Replay, but the competition isn’t any better from what I’ve seen, even if there is more cheating.
Cheating that is accepted - Tracking software and HUDs
There’s nothing inherently wrong with tracking software. I’ve used it myself for over a million hands of online poker. But there are unethical ways some people use it. Tracking software such as PokerTracker 4 or Holdem Manager collects data about hands you play and allows you to access the database in all kinds of useful ways. You can go back through your own stats, as I often do with my students, to look for leaks in your game. It also allows you to see that same data on your opponents, which makes it a powerful tool.
With a HUD (Heads-Up Display), you can have important stats on your opponents displayed right next to their avatar on the table. Wouldn’t it be nice to know that seat four is tight and only check-raises on the turn when he has the nuts? Or that seat six is super loose and calls down way too light? With tracking software that includes a HUD, you can get all that information. And when it’s used on a site that allows it — as most major sites do — it’s perfectly legal.
HUDs and tracking software are often criticized because they allow a pro to play lots of tables and fleece lots of bad players quickly, which can be bad for the poker ecosystem. And many recreational players have no idea that HUDs even exist. The poker sites usually don’t talk much about them, so the recreational player, already at a disadvantage to the pro, is in big trouble if they don’t know the pro has access to every hand they’ve ever played.
But HUDs can be much worse than that, as they’re often used in ways that are completely unethical. For starters, the major poker sites only allow you to use hands in your database that you actually played. This rule only punishes the honest players, however, because it’s unenforceable and is frequently broken with no penalty for violating it.
Unscrupulous players can buy hand histories in bulk from data-mining companies, too. Imagine starting a new game — one where no one knows anything about you — and starting with a few million hands of history on all the regular players. The advantage is huge, and it costs little. You just order a few million hands, spend a hundred bucks or so, and now you have a ton of history on your opponents displayed right on your screen — with pop-ups for more information, if you need it.
This isn’t just a minor problem. It’s common among working cash game pros who multi-table. In fact, it’s tough to make a living by grinding No-Limit cash games on a large site at any reasonable limits without buying hand histories.
Working pros obviously all have huge databases on each other. But what if they could get a new account with a new screen name? They would still have all of the info on their opponents, and the other players would start off with no information on them — which incentivizes players to play on other accounts. It isn’t much trouble to get a girlfriend, family member, or old college pal to sign up for an account and give you access to it, especially if you bribe them with a small portion of your winnings.
Some people will read this and decide to play on sites where HUDs aren’t allowed. Ignition, for example, claims they don’t allow any HUDs, but there’s always a workaround. We know HUD sites that work on Ignition, and some privately made HUDs that work on other sites that have banned them. So, even when you’re playing on a site that doesn’t allow HUDs, you can still be targeted by them. And, when you’re playing on a site that does allow them, you may be dealing with opponents who have every hand you have ever played on the site in their database, even if you’ve never played a single hand with them.
From the start of the same article:
And, let me add, I don’t think most online games are filled with cheats. In fact, I still make a portion of my living playing online.
If you’re trying to make a living from playing online, you need to be very aware of all the ways people are trying to cheat you. If you’re just want to try your hand at real money poker, it’s very unlikely any of the cheating will affect you significantly.