Even een update. Komt uit de 2+2 draad: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28.../#post20334657



Hello Again,

I have some additional clarification to make on this case, and some comments regarding the current and future state of our bot detection tools.

First, here is a timeline of this case:


Quote:
April:
April 26 01:37 A post about these players opened on Intellipoker
April 27 02:49 Last post in this Intellipoker thread.

May:
May 3 17:06 Another thread on Intellipoker discussing these players started
May 19 13:08 Final post in second Intellipoker thread.

July:
Tue 13th 04:50 2+2 poster �malloc� opens this thread
Tue 13th 06:00 �PSMichaelJ� posts in the 2+2 thread encouraging �malloc� to email us
Tue 13th 06:14 �malloc� emails us
Tue 13th 06:17 Case file opened in our collusion tools, but not our bot tools
Tue 13th 20:56 Collusion review completed, no collusion found, �malloc� informed
Wed 14th 01:14 �PSMichaelJ� forwards the case to our bot team
Wed 14th 01:55 Cases opened for review in the bot tools. PokerStars bot staff reviews data relating to these players, looking for suspicious data and any other related players. Review continues on 14th and 15th July.
Fri 16th 03:59 Internal email thread opened, identifying ten suspects
Fri 16th PokerStars continues looking for any additional suspects
Fri 16th 17:56 PTR posts their findings
Sat 17th 11:27 Conclusion of this investigation stage: all 10 accounts are shut down. Emails to suspects sent according to our procedure. But we continue to research further.
Sat 17th 13:39 Post to 2+2 updating them of the facts
Mon 19th Two additional accounts were found to likely be using the same program. These accounts were not detected by hand history analysis or user comparison, as their playing statistics differed from the first ten. These additional accounts are now shut down as well. These accounts are not �Millionsuns� and �deerbox�, mentioned in this forum Monday morning.

All times listed above are in PokerStars server time (EST).

Let us now answer a series of further questions raised here:

Q. Why didn�t you ban the first 3 accounts when malloc emailed you and why you didn�t ban all 10 accounts on July 16 after you discovered them?

A. Our bot review procedure is to spend sufficient time to identify all accounts involved in a �bot group� and to reach a level of certainty regarding both whether the accounts are bots, and whether they are part of the same �bot group�. This typically takes 3-4 days, but can take longer in difficult cases. If we ban some members of a group before the conclusion of our review, any other undiscovered bots may stop playing, which deprives us of valuable additional evidence which may be needed to prove the case against them, and they will also cashout.

We did close the first 10 accounts on July 17, and the further two accounts on July 19.


Q. Why didn�t you do anything when the bots were discussed in the Intellipoker forum thread?

A. The Intellipoker thread did not raise suspicion that these players (they named 9 of them) were bots or colluders. There were also no emails to PokerStars support about them from players. The discussion centered on how to possibly exploit their shortstacking play. The threads can be found at:

Thread on Intellipoker

Google Translate's English version here.

Intellipoker thread

Google Translate�s English version here.


Q. How come these bots were not discovered over the course of playing millions of hands combined?

A. The main focus of our current bot detection tools is on individual bot behaviour tracking, identifying abnormal non-poker behaviour that is distinct from regular human behaviour. We do not track events such as drops in stakes, and we don�t track comparisons of players for very similar play. There are many players who do play almost identically without being bots or even being related.

These bots passed these detection tests and that is why we called them sophisticated � the sophistication has nothing to do with their poker skills, but instead is in human behaviour modelling and detection evasion.


Q. So how did you discover all 10 bots, since you claim you did it before PTR published their findings?

A. When we are aware of one confirmed bot (and in this case we had 3 suspects thanks to malloc) we have tools to search for more bots in the same group. The techniques used are completely different from the PTR technique, and are unrelated to poker playing decisions.


Q. Are you confident that there are no more bots in the same group?

A. We have completed our standard review, but we are running further searches using additional criteria in the next few days, and as mentioned above, we did discover two more bots from the same group.


Q. How do you know that there are no other bot groups playing on PokerStars right now? Can PokerStars guarantee safe environment to its players?

A. No poker room - either online or offline - is able to issue a guarantee that cheaters do not play in their room. There are new bots appearing in our games and some bots do escape detection for a time period as happened in this case. We do work hard every day to discover and shutdown bots, and with each bot discovery, we learn more about how to better detect them. We use this knowledge to constantly improve our software detection tools, with new updates released every month.


Q. Do you ever discover bots by yourselves without reports from players?

A. The vast majority of bots we remove are discovered without player input. In the past 4 months alone, we have proactively reviewed over 8,000 potential suspects, and detected and removed 258 bots from PokerStars (without any player reports). In a large majority of the cases we remove bots quickly after they start playing, thanks to the proactive tools.


Q. Do you plan to improve your security procedures, personnel, and introduce tools that track multiple players� behaviours?

A. Whenever we encounter new bots that evade our tools, we use that information to improve our tools for future detections. This has happened many times in the past and will certainly be the case here. We are fast-tracking the addition of poker-statistics evaluation into our bot tools to better aid us in detecting those multi-copy bots that can evade the existing tools. We are also hiring additional personnel at all seniority levels. In addition, we don�t just react to bot discoveries -- we constantly add tools to detect bots based on our own initiatives.


Q. Do you think that bots developers can adjust to being detected by multiplayer game statistics comparisons?

A. Yes, they will, and such tools won�t detect bot developers who limit their bot to running on a single account. Nevertheless, we will continue to extend our repertoire of tools, and will continue to largely stay ahead of bot developers� adaptations.


Q. So if you have sophisticated tools why do players continue to discover bots on their own as in this case?

A. Software detection tools and players human observations complement each other. There are many attributes of bot play that players will never notice, and on the other hand humans can observe characteristics that tools developers never thought about, like dropping the stakes simultaneously in this case.


Q. Do you intentionally letting bots play because they generate rake?

A. Absolutely not.


Q. Do you plan to change the buy-in structures before February 2011?

A. We discover bots in all structures, although indeed more in the short stacking games, so just a change of a structure won�t solve this problem. But as the question has been asked several times, the answer is that we may introduce changes before February 2011. Note that on our recently opened French-licensed site PokerStars.FR we have only one buy-in structure for all NL/PL games � 35BB-100BB, and we are watching the feedback.


Q. How much money did these bots win and how much did you confiscate?

A. All 12 bots cashed out a combined $223,150. Of this, $74,439 was profit from ring game play, $6,305 was from VIP Freeroll tournament winnings, and $142,406 was from various bonuses such VIP Stellar Rewards Milestones and VIP Store purchased bonuses. We confiscated $2084 in cash and $4446 in unspent FPP value from the group.


Q. What compensation do you plan to provide to players in these games?

A. We have not yet discussed this. We don�t consider the case closed as yet. Our current focus is on continuing investigating the situation.


If you have any additional questions, please email gamesecurity@pokerstars.com any time.

Sincerely,

Jeff
PokerStars Game Security

Ah!!! de FoldAllBot, meest makkelijke bot om te implementeren qua pokerlogica

Daar gaan mijn neveninkomsten...

lol

Nee, die speelt een stuk tighter.

Schijnt dat de originele bot waar deze van afgeleid zijn nog steeds actief is, ene Jerinho1

Shit, ik wilde ze net op hogere limieten loslaten.

Edit 1: Is er iemand die goed is in het verzinnen van namen?
Edit 2: Wel "komisch" dat PTR nu PS helpt met vangen van bots.