Does PokerStars Have Bots? Here are the Facts [2024]

PokerStars Bots
People often ask me if there are bots on PokerStars. And believe me I get it, there are a lot of tight players these days who seem to play a very robotic style of game.

It is definitely a legitimate concern that some of these players might be non-human bots. A poker bot by definition is a non-human poker player.

So in this article I am going to break it all down for you. Does PokerStars really have bots?


What is a Poker Bot?


Before I even begin though let's talk about what a poker bot even is. As mentioned, a poker bot is simply a non-human computer program that will play poker for you.

Essentially you program the bot (or have somebody program it for you) to follow a set of rules for what poker plays to make in every situation.

Now for very, very obvious reasons pretty much every online poker site in history has banned these programs outright. In most cases the penalties are very harsh if you are caught using one.

And the reason why is simple. Using a poker bot is simply cheating. Poker is a game that is meant to be played between human beings, not computerized programs.

So if you are caught using a poker bot, then the poker site will probably ban you for life, confiscate all your money and you will get blacklisted in the poker community as well.

And rightfully so!

Because as a poker community we do not want you. You are a parasite on this beautiful game that millions of people around the world love to play in an honest way.


PokerStars Bots - How Many Bots Are on PokerStars?


However, let's be real. We live in a world where not everybody subscribes to the same moral code. Some people out there (and not just in poker), will always look to find a way to cheat for their financial gain.

It's just kind of a fact of life. You need look no further than the stock market to see clear evidence of this all the time!

Online poker continues to be a very profitable income source for many people. For me personally I have played poker professionally for over 10 years now. And most of my hands have been played on PokerStars.

Pokerstars bots

I have played millions and millions of hands of poker on PokerStars. Do I think there are bots on PokerStars though?

For me personally, I would say yes there might be, but probably not very many. PokerStars has one of the best bot and collusion security prevention teams in the industry. They take this very seriously.

But of course whenever there is money involved in anything in life, people will try and cheat. So it doesn't stop people from trying to run a bot on PokerStars.

And while I believe most of them get caught (or will eventually get caught), you would have to be pretty naive to believe that the PokerStars security team catches them all.

I can say that I myself have been accused of being a bot on PokerStars many times because I tend to play the table maximum (24 tables) and I play long hours. I also don't use chat.

But I do this because online poker is my job. I am not there to chat and have fun like all the other amateurs. I am there to take your money and win!

And because of this PokerStars has watched my account very closely over the years. In fact, they would often freeze my tables and force me to solve a CAPTCHA while playing in order to prove that I was a real human being playing.

As somebody who has always played the game in an honest and fair manner, I am happy to deal with all this if it helps prevent other people from cheating.


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Does PokerStars Take Bots Seriously?


So I know first hand that PokerStars does indeed take poker bots very seriously. In fact, if you are caught using a bot they will immediately ban your account for life AND confiscate your bankroll.

So the penalties are extremely harsh for those who still try and circumvent the rules by running a bot on PokerStars.

Now how would PokerStars actually know know if you are using a bot you might be asking?

Several ways. When you use PokerStars software their security team is able to detect what other running processes are in use on your computer.

Therefore, if you think you are just going to download some bot (yes, people are pathetic enough to sell these on the internet) and use it on PokerStars, you will be caught, 100%.

The other way that the PokerStars security team detects poker bots is by anomalies in your play. What I mean by this is repetitive non human actions and the total absence of tilt or fatigue mistakes.

Humans tilt when they get frustrated and they make mistakes when they are tired. A bot doesn't do these things. So this is one of the easiest ways for PokerStars to tell if you are using a bot or not.

By the way, there actually are plenty of poker software tools which are fully legal to use while playing online poker.

For the complete list of all the poker software tools that I personally use as a poker pro, click here.


PokerStars Bots and PokerStars Complaints


So how many complaints does PokerStars get about bots? Honestly, god only knows. I am sure it is a metric sh*t ton though.

Because you see here's the thing.

PokerStars is the #1 online poker site in the world by a very wide margin. And the other thing is that most people lose at poker in the end.

The thing about poker though is that everybody thinks they are good at it (most actually aren't). So therefore, since most people will inevitably lose, they need something to blame it on.

Instead of studying and improving their poker game it is much easier to blame their lack of success in poker on the site being "rigged" or the use of "bots."

There is nothing you can do about this. So the complaints about PokerStars having bots, being rigged for action and so on will never stop.

As somebody who has made more money than perhaps anyone in history in the low stakes cash games on PokerStars I have seen the bad play myself for many, many years.

This is actually one of the main reasons why I initially chose to write Crushing the Microstakes.

And then created the subsequent video series that I released alongside the book showing me crushing 6max, Zoom and full ring all on PokerStars.

Does PokerStars Have Bots?

Because the lowest stakes games like 1c/2c and 2c/5c in particular are so unbelievably easy to beat in my opinion. I have made tens of thousands of dollars just in these two games alone on PokerStars.

So the only conclusion I am left with is if there really are bots on PokerStars, they sure do play bad!


Final Thoughts


So does PokerStars have bots on their site?

Well, I think you would have to be pretty naive to believe there aren't at least a few. But at the end of the day, PokerStars has one of the best security teams in the business.

They use a lot of sophisticated methods for bot detection and they have a clear incentive to keep them off their site as well, PokerStars is a highly profitable business!

Also, in my experience people will simply accuse you of being a bot if you play a lot and don't talk. I have personally been accused of being a bot on PokerStars countless times, which is just hilarious.

Lastly, most people lose at poker in the end. These are just the cold hard facts.

And most people also think they are pretty good at poker (which isn't true). So when they inevitably lose due to their own bad play, they will need something to blame it on.

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People love to claim that PokerStars is rigged or it's overrun by bots in order to explain why they can't win at poker. The reason they don't win is actually bad play and tilt.

As a professional poker player, I spend a lot of time studying away from the tables to improve my poker game and get better at my tilt control.

If you really want to win at poker over the long run, I would suggest you focus more on the things that you actually do control at the tables such as consistently making better quality poker decisions.

Lastly, if you want to know how to start consistently making $1000 per month in low stakes poker games, make sure you grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.


Let me know in the comments below if you think there are bots on PokerStars? Do you personally have any experience with poker bots?

Pokerstars bots

14 comments:

  1. Having played around 400.000 hands on PokerStars over the last year, I have to say, in my opinion there are very few bots in the micros. I am using a HUD, and in my most commonly played games I now have more than 10.000 hands on some of the regs. And they each have individual trade marks and small flaws in their stats, which to me indicate human action.

    I have seen only one single account, which I suspected might be a bot. This was used in a time limited game called "Showtime", where all cards were folded face up. Using a bot in this particular game would make a lot of sense, since its easier for a computer than a human to make use of information about dead cards in real time.

    So yeah for me this is not a real concern, and also not on 888 poker, where I mainly play at the moment. As you say, most people will always be losing in poker due to the simple fact, its a zero sum game, and there is rake. But most people overestimate their skill, and underestimate the magnitude of variance. So whenever they lose, in their mind there has to be some kind of faul play.

    Recently someone posted in a large forum, that he was sure, a certain poker site was rigged. His rationale? Well after cashing in two tournaments there, during the next two tournaments, he played a total of 230 hands, and he did not get dealth QQ, KK or AA even once. Now if you do the math, this is about as "unlikely" as someone hitting a 2-outer on the river, and yet he still saw this as clear evidence :-)

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    1. Thanks for your thoughts Lars! There are always lots of crazy theories especially on poker forums haha. Usually not much in the way of real evidence though.

      What always cracks me up though is the people who complain that a certain poker site is rigged or overrun by bots and yet they STILL keep playing there!

      As I always say, if you think that something is amiss with a certain poker site, vote with your feet and hit them where it hurts. Withdraw all of your funds and never play there again.

      Stunningly simple :)

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    2. To be fair this guy also posted, that he was done with said site, and now he was going to a local casino to play for 100$. And sure online poker is not for everyone, and if you would rather play live, and can afford the much higher minimum buyin, cool. Nothing wrong with that.

      But why do you think, anyone else is interested in your opinion about a certain poker site, where you have played an incredibly small amount of hands like 4 tournaments?

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  2. Hi, a simple question for you.
    If you were only given chance to only play a SINGLE table, what kind of table would you choose to play on?
    (a) bunch of regs with up to with each of them bought in 200- 500bbs
    (b) bunch of passive regs who buy in less than 100bbs

    also, playing against fishes or tight regs, which one has more variance.

    im learning to select better table now because im playing on pppoker, thanks.

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    1. Hey Tom,

      I wouldn't play on either table to be honest. Table selection is extremely important for me and therefore I never play on a table full of regs. There always has to be at least one fish.

      Playing against fish will always have higher variance than playing against tight regs but far more long term profitability. That's all that matters to me.

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  3. Hi, I dont fully agree with you. The problem is Pokerstars makes a lot of money in rake from bots. Pokerstars did nothing about the big Omaha botring. After several complaints from players pointing out the botring it still took Pokerstars over a year to stop it.
    While I believe competent pros can beat/exploit the GTO bots who do not collude. Most recreational players will lose big.
    Pokerstars has the best security in the market, but there are just to many ways to cheat undetected.

    But a note to complement your point. The skill level of the average online poker player is pretty high. This makes it a lot harder to beat the rake and look for excuses like bots. Pokerstars is the only site I play poker, because of their security and I hardly feel like I'm playing against bots in the huge player pool. But logging in to a random other poker site it feels like a bot fest.

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    1. Considering how detrimental cheating is to the reputation of a poker site, I dont think, any serious site deliberately let bots or colluders play there just to earn rake.

      As for sites being slow to react to player complaints, we have to remember, that they receive a lot of false complaints as well. And we would hardly want them to ban our own account just based on some false report made by a bad loser.

      Not saying Stars handled the 2015 Omaha bot scandal well. I was not playing at that time, so I have only read about it. Just asking for a bit of balance. Also its 4 years ago, and maybe they did actually learn something from it.

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  4. well, the real answer is if pokerstars have his own bots to take the money for themselves, as u know the company who bougth @ps (Amaya) before that buy was dedicated to slot machines industry where we all know is manipulated the machines to get the profit to house side...

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    1. PokerStars have a license to operate in the EU, and like other sites it is also an online casino and sports betting site. This mean, there is independent audition of all the games offered, and if the site was found to be cheating its players, it would lose its license and go out of business.

      Sure you can say, that you dont trust in the audition, and that is up to you. People can believe, what they want. There are also people, who believe, elections in developed countries are rigged, or that the attacks on 9/11 was carried out by the CIA. But without evidence all such theories are just speculation.

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  5. i think they have bots in the free games --remember they sell coins - $9.99 for 3 million . helping players lose their chips may encourage chip sales. plus bots help fill the rooms.

    its a shame cause how are we supposed to get better if the games are fixed. and yes... they do help the bots win. i've seen too many double belly busters to believe a human would go in with such crap cards - eg. 3,5.

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  6. I have definitely seen bots in the free play money areas. They are easy to exploit and patterns develop especially in no limit. You can find the logic where you can exploit the bot for chips.

    They always have a similar betting pattern and speed that are easy tells if you know what to look for.

    I've reported this to Pokerstars but they just ignore me. I won't put money in their pay site if they allow any botting. I don't care if its play money or not.

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  7. Pokerstars does not allow bots on the site either real money or play money. It has implemented highly sophisticated algorithms that catches bots after less than 50 hands and this is the best in the business. Anyone who thinks that there are lots of bots in the game is just not a great poker player.

    Someone commented that players losing chips increases play chip sales. This is incorrect - no one likes losing all their chips and it doesn't make the game fun. This is why Pokerstars invests an insanely large amount of money into security measures to prevent it.
    Bad players will always try to blame someone else for their lack of skill - this is why there are lots of complaints.

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  8. Can't beat the games :(((

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    1. I am sorry to hear that :(

      Have you read my free poker "cheat sheet"? It's basically a step by step guide on how to beat the low limit games online.

      You can find it here:

      https://www.blackrain79.com/p/free-guide.html

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