Bot Allegations Against DoingPoker

PokerScout.com, the online cash game traffic resource, made strong allegations against poker room DoingPoker.com, surmising that the site very well may be using bots to fill seats at its almost barren tables.

PokerScout does say that it has not observed any collusion or otherwise shady play by the supposed bots, nor does it believe that its observations are 100 percent conclusive.  It does make some interesting observations, however, which when looked at together do lead one to believe that not every player at DoingPoker.com is alive.

The following are the pieces of evidence supplied by PokerScout:

• Traffic at DoingPoker is always the same, no matter the time of day.  Cash game player count was always in the low 90’s during the days PokerScout was collecting its information, and in the mid-80’s when its findings were published, due to some re-arranging of tables.
• At rooms with such low traffic, you almost never see games other than Hold’em going.  At DoingPoker, there was at least one active table in five different poker variations.
• One Omaha High-Low table is always active, with two out of eight seats open.  The six players are always the same, yet they switch seats.  These players’ names also share strong similarities that must be beyond coincidence.
• The play at the observed Hold’em tables is unexplainable.  Limit players bet and raise with almost anything on threatening boards and fold to one more bet in huge pots.  No-limit players only minimum bet and minimum raise and often fold to one more bet after long strings of raises.
• Players leave the table and return after one minute, for seemingly no reason.

DoingPoker denied that it uses bots, saying that it has been employing testers, and that these players’ styles may be explained by the simple fact that they don’t really know what they are doing.