Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling

[Andy Nguyen]

With the biggest players down, there is windows of opening. I'm sure someone out there can figure out how to get around this.
As for the admin of those sites, if they make daily snapshot backup of the sites, they can get it back up in no time. But with FBI after them and their assets frozen, I don't know if they still have the will do this anymore.

 

[AlexandreH]

On the front page of these site, there is a huge seal and notice by FBI and DoJ of the shutdowns.
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/
http://www.pokerstars.com/

I tried to open the sites (from an international location), one opened the other didn't. Assuming the servers are not in the US, how could the FBI close the site to international locations? That's weird!!!

 

[Spurious]

The sites are not closed, the money is more or less safe, the BOJ has no power over the sites.
Pokerstars and FullTiltPoker will have harder time getting a license in a regulated environment, which sucks because especially Pokerstars provides by far the best product on the market.

For any non-US player the situation is unchanged, I can still play without a problem. You have to download a new FullTilt version, but that's it.

But it's interesting how non-poker players look at the situation.

 

[Scooot]

I can't play.

My accounts (and therefore funds) are frozen on both Stars and FTP.

I can't play, transfer or cash out.

I'd still be interested in building PLO programs to analyze the game more accurately. I already have a wish list of tools, I just need them transferred to code. Doesn't have to be pretty, just accurate and fast. This will give me something to do now that I can't play.

 

[Scooot]

Also, if anyone is interested in watching some TOP (like 5 of the best 10 BEST players in the world) PLO players play a live big stakes cash game check out poker after dark on nbc.

You can watch the past episodes online:

$100k PLO Cash game Match 1 Monday

Its a continuous game chopped up into segments for the TV show for the week. There is a very intersting bet proposed by two of the players that the quantnet community might be intested in.

Tom "durrrr" Dwan gives Phil Ivey $40k for the option to take accept a bet for the next 365 days. The bet:

Tom and Phil play 100,000 hands of heads up (one vs one) HORSE (or mixture of 5-10 poker games)
If Tom is down after 100,000 hands, then Phil Ivey pays back 96% of Dwans losses
There were buyout clauses if the bet was accepted $2MM for Dwan and $10MM for Ivey. (rumored)
The stakes: $50,000/$100,000 (Average pot size would be ~$500,000 or so...for 100,000 hands, hello variance)

 

[Andy Nguyen]

Wide ripple effect can be seen in this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/us/politics/19lobby.html

As evidence of the industry’s shifting fortunes, major gambling operators like Wynn Resorts are already distancing themselves from the three Internet gambling companies, canceling planned business alliances. ESPN has removed poker-related content from its own Internet site.

 

[iHateVariance]

wonder when DOJ will go after internet gambling company Etrade.

 

[Andy Nguyen]

The 52-page indictment
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53107543/Indictment-DOJ-vs-Scheinberg-Bitar-Tom-et-al

The civil complaint against the 3 poker websites
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53170382/3bb-Civil-Complaint-DOJ-vs-PokerStars-Full-Tilt-UB-AP-et-al