Poker bots: good or bad?

Personally, the jury is still out for me on whether poker bots are a good development or not for the online poker industry.

In case you’re not familiar with the term, online poker bots are computer programs that help poker players to win based on the statistical data that is fed to them. It’s obviously argued by many that those players who rely on poker bots receive an unfair advantage over the others players at the table as they can dramatically increase your chances of winning. I agree to some extent. Why should I continue to play online when I’m probably playing against artificial intelligence? Not all online poker rooms allow the use of bots understandably so I tend to stick to these ones but it is very hard to detect the use of bots and enforce. On other hand, you could argue that bots aren’t perfect anyway and are only as good as the programmer who built them. There is a lot more to poker than just statistics and odds such as bluffing. Poker is an extreme complex game and it will be a long time until anyone can build a 100% effect bot. In any event, if you are planning on using a bot, you should read through the T & C’s carefully beforehand.