Is online poker still beatable in the UK in 2024 or have the bots taken over?
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Been grinding online poker for about 8 years now and I'm starting to wonder if the game is even worth playing anymore. Used to make decent money on PokerStars and 888, but lately it feels like every table is full of players making impossibly perfect decisions.
Anyone else noticed this? The timing tells are gone, everyone plays optimal ranges, and the fish seem to have vanished. I know online gambling is legal in UK and all the best online poker sites uk are properly licensed, but are they doing enough to stop bots?
Maybe I'm just running bad but £2,800 downswing over 6 weeks has me questioning everything. Thoughts?
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Mate, I've been saying this for months. The game has definitely changed but I don't think it's all bots. The level of education available now is insane - every fish has watched a YouTube video about GTO solver play.
That said, there are definitely some suspicious players out there. Had one guy at £2/£4 who played 47,000 hands with exactly 24.3% VPIP. Who plays that consistently?
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@poker_pete_uk What stakes are you playing? I've found the micro-stakes are actually easier now because recreational players gravitate there. £0.10/£0.20 still has plenty of weak spots.
But anything above £1/£2 is basically a shark tank. Even tried some of the smaller online poker sites uk thinking they'd be softer, but it's tough everywhere.
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Look, I hate to break it to you but the maths don't lie. If we assume a bot has perfect information processing and can calculate pot odds instantaneously, the expected value formula becomes:
EV = Σ(Pi × Ri) - C
Where Pi = probability of each possible outcome, Ri = return for outcome i, and C = cost of the action. A bot running Monte Carlo simulations can process this calculation across millions of scenarios in milliseconds, giving it an edge human players simply can't match through intuition alone.
The real question isn't whether bots exist - it's whether human creativity and psychology can still overcome raw computational power.
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Different perspective here - maybe we're all just getting older and the young guns are better trained? Kids today are learning poker theory before they can legally drink.
I've been profitable every year since 2019 playing £0.50/£1.00 cash games. The key is table selection and avoiding the obvious regs. When someone has a name like "GTO_Crusher2024" maybe don't sit with them?
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@betting_pro Your maths is sound but you're missing the human element. Poker isn't just about optimal play - it's about exploiting suboptimal play. Even if bots play perfectly, they might not be maximally exploitative.
I've actually started doing better against these "perfect" players because they're predictable in their perfection. Sounds backwards but it works.
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Has anyone actually reported suspected bots to the sites? I submitted hand histories to 888 last month of a player who literally never deviated from solver recommendations. They said they'd investigate but I never heard back.
Meanwhile I'm still getting emails about "Responsible Gaming Week" - how about "Responsible Bot Detection Week"?
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@casino_dan I was playing £1/£2 mostly, some £2/£4 when I felt confident. Maybe that's the problem. Might drop down to £0.50/£1.00 and rebuild the bankroll.
@ukgambler99 You might be onto something about the generational shift. These kids have access to training that cost thousands when we were learning.
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Plot twist: what if the "bots" are just really good multitablers using HUDs and tracking software? I know a guy who plays 16 tables simultaneously with colour-coded stats for every decision.
To an outside observer, his play would look impossibly robotic. But it's just hyper-optimized human play with software assistance.
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Honestly, this is why I switched to live dealer casino games. At least with Evolution Gaming blackjack, I know there's a real human dealing the cards. Sure, the house edge is higher than poker, but at least I'm not wondering if I'm playing against SkyNet.
Poker used to be about reading people. Now it's about memorizing charts.
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@sarah_g The sites have zero incentive to crack down hard on bots. They're generating rake regardless of who's playing. It's the dirty secret nobody wants to talk about.
I've heard Paddy Power Poker actually has better detection than some of the bigger names, but their player pool is tiny.
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Here's my comparison of what I've observed across different sites:
Site Bot Likelihood Player Pool Size Detection Quality Rake PokerStars High Large Decent 5% 888 Poker Medium Medium Poor 5% Unibet Low Small Good 6.67% William Hill Low Small Unknown 5% Bet365 Medium Medium Decent 5% Take it with a grain of salt, but this is based on 18 months of observation across different stakes.
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@mike_bet Fair point about exploitation. The irony is that as players become more "optimal," they actually become more exploitable in certain ways. It's like they're playing poker by committee instead of adapting to specific opponents.
Still think we're fighting an uphill battle against the machines though.
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New to poker (been playing 6 months) and this thread is terrifying. Should I even bother learning if the games are dying? Was considering putting £500 into a poker bankroll but maybe I should stick to the slots...
At least with Book of Dead I know I'm just fighting RNG, not some AI that's read every poker book ever written.
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@newbie_casino Don't let us old-timers scare you off! The games are still beatable if you put in the work. Start at £0.05/£0.10, learn proper bankroll management, and focus on fundamentals before worrying about bots.
Besides, if you're losing to bots, at least you're losing to superior play rather than variance!
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Update from the trenches: played 12 hours this weekend across various online poker sites uk and actually came out £340 ahead. Maybe the doom and gloom is overblown?
Or maybe I just ran good. Hard to tell the difference anymore.
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The mobile apps seem to have softer games. My theory is recreational players prefer their phones and the serious grinders stick to desktop with all their tracking software.
Been crushing £0.25/£0.50 on the 888 app for three weeks straight. Small sample size but promising.
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Well, took everyone's advice and dropped down to £0.50/£1.00. Three sessions, up £180 total. Could be variance but the players definitely seem more human.
Found a guy who limped pocket aces. When's the last time you saw a bot do that?
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Late to the party but wanted to share some insider knowledge. I know someone who works for one of the major sites (can't say which) and they've told me bot detection is way better than we think.
The issue isn't bots - it's that human players have genuinely gotten much, much better. The skill gap between pros and recreationals has shrunk dramatically.
Also, remember that variance in poker follows a complex distribution where standard deviation σ = √(variance per hand × number of hands). Over 10,000 hands, even a 5bb/100 winner can experience swings of ±40 buy-ins within 2σ confidence intervals. What feels like bots might just be the cruel mathematics of variance combined with tougher opposition.
Don't underestimate how much the game has evolved in just the past two years.
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@vip_player_uk Interesting if true, but I remain skeptical. The timing tells alone should be enough to spot most bots, yet I see players who take exactly 2.3 seconds for every decision regardless of complexity.
Maybe the bots have gotten better at mimicking human timing patterns too?