Are World Poker Tour pro players secretly using Poker bot AI?

Often seen as the pinnacle of poker as a sport, the World Poker Tour is where the best professional poker players battle it out for often massive pots, some winning millions during a tournament. As the very visible face of the game, the idea that they use poker AI is especially interesting, but the reality is, that as a physical, in person game, it would be impossible to use AI in a game at WPT.

However, AI has advanced so far that it can be used in other ways and may be beneficial even for professional players. So, while the games themselves are free of AI, could players still be using machine learning tools to help them?

The rise of Poker bot AI

Poker bots have existed even before online poker, but those early days were just theoretical experiments in trying to understand what was possible. Up until the mid-2010s, poker bots were unable to win against human opponents with any sort of reliability, and experienced players could easily exploit their obvious weaknesses.

But as the AI algorithms became more sophisticated, they began to offer something more. First, they became capable of holding their own against a single human player. Not winning, but not losing. The adoption of game optimal theory, or GTO, provided a platform for AI algorithms to learn player responses and find weaknesses to exploit.

It wasn’t long until AI bots were offering a genuine challenge to experienced players and could beat inexperienced players pretty consistently. Suddenly, an AI poker bot because something viable to use in cash games, and the world of poker changed.

But it was in 2017 that a new era of poker bot AI appeared. Called Pluribus, this bot could not only beat a human player, but it also took on 5 professional players simultaneously in no-limit Texas Hold’em and won. Suddenly AI Poker Bots were not just for everyone else, they could challenge even the best players.

Could the World Poker Tour be secretly using Ai to play poker?

The World Poker Tour, or WPT, is the most watched, most popular tournament in poker, involving professional players who are widely regarded as the best in the world. But, with AI now able to take on and beat tournament professionals, even multiple pros at once, is the WPT all it seems?

Could there be use of AI assistants or bots in these games? Not really.

Bots certainly could play the game well enough, even in this company, but the players are too close together, under too many cameras, and with too many officials around them to realistically be able to sneakily use any technology at all.

The Vulnerability of Offline Poker to cheats in 2024

While traditional offline poker has had its cheat threats over the years, from card palming and marking to sleight-of-hand dealing, it was always thought to be immune to the threats of technology-based cheats such as a poker bot.

But today, would it be possible to use them? In the WPT there is simply too much oversight, and even in a casino or other environment, there is no tech available today that you could use while sitting next to another player that they would be unable to see, so the game’s integrity remains intact for now.

In the future though, with wearable technology, the ability to have subdermal chip implants and more, there is the potential for a player to receive input from an AI poker system in a live game, even if that system is running on hardware outside of the tournament location.

Imagining the potential of poker AI bots in Live Poker

But how might such a system work?

Players frequently wear glasses at the table, and discreet smart glasses can be made that are almost indetectable. They could be used to display analysis or data to help the player, with game data collected via cameras in the glasses or by spectators in the room.

Using a secure VPN system the data is collected, transferred to the external AI system and then solutions broadcast back to the glasses, in real time. A subdermal chip could do similar, but instead of detailed analysis via glasses, it would use simple feedback responses to signify fold, check or go all in, for instance.

These are examples that we may see, and with AI and other tech evolving fast, the future will offer even more ways to gain an unfair advantage. That is why organizers need to be vigilant and seek to create evolving security measures designed to counter such strategies.

So how could a player secretly use AI poker tech for profit in WPT?

While the focus is on bots to play the game, AI development has impacted poker in a number of ways. The most obvious application for WPT players is in training and education. AI driven tools can provide custom training programs to play against, focusing on one aspect of the game they may think needs improving. Given AI has proven it can beat multiple professional players simultaneously, it can certainly be capable of providing a challenging training tool for them too.

That is not all, here’s where the analytical capabilities of AI and poker can also be so useful. Using AI tools to go over the previous played hands, spotting errors or missed opportunities is itself a learning process, and this can help these top players fix any weakness in their game.

While we have no way of knowing if WPT stars are using these AI tools to train and improve their game, if they are using AI, this is where it will be.

Ethical Implications and Future Directions

The use of AI represents a certain ethical dilemma though, after all, the WPT earns a lot of money from sponsorships and a viewing audience. If there was even a hint that the game had become corrupt from cheating using AI or other methods, then its reputation would be damaged beyond repair.

While today there is no route to using AI systems in a monitored, live, in person game, as we discussed, future technology may be undetectable even in the heavily controlled WPT environment.

While AI itself is not a negative to the game, its use in a game would be disastrous. However, its ability as a training aid has been a real breakthrough. Not just helping current professional players, but in accessibility, allowing players to gain the skills they need to compete at tournament level in a way that has never been available before.

As technology progresses, this is only going to get worse, and so it is crucial that offline poker organizers make a commitment to fairness and implement appropriate measures to stay ahead of technology as it evolves.

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