PLO Bot Ring Under Investigation

PLO Bot Ring Under Investigation

Thursday, 11 June 2015

A number of accounts on PokerStars are currently under investigation after suspicions were raised about a possible PLO bot ring.

The alarm was first raised back in March after two players noticed some alarmingly similar moves between at least 16 accounts. Using a Russian tracking site, "Oink" and "Grethe", two PLO regulars, discovered that the stats connected a number of accounts playing PLO $0.25/$0.50 and PLO $0.50/$1 had some inexplicable similarities.

Flagging up the issue on 2+2, the community then began to speculate that the implicated accounts may be using automated decision software to assist their play. However, earlier this week it was revealed that PokerStars has already closed down a number of suspicious accounts and is conducting an investigation into the matter.

Between the community and PokerStars' investigations, it looks likely that the accounts are being controlled by bots and, if estimates are correct, then these bots may have made as much as $1.5 million.

"Please rest assured that we do not tolerate automated players (bots) on PokerStars. We have an extensive arsenal of detection tools in order to ensure that each player is a human being. We are currently conducting an investigation of this issue. This may take several days to complete and we appreciate your patience during this period," read a statement from PokerStars on 2+2.

Moreover, it's also been posited that the ring of bots could also be active on Full Tilt and 888Poker, which means that many thousands of players may have hoodwinked by the illegal software. As yet, however, the investigations are still ongoing, but the community will now be monitoring the PLO action at the major online sites a lot more closely.



Tags: PokerStars, bots, PLO