This chapter explores the fierce competition between two poker players and a controversial online match that questioned the game's integrity amidst the rise of poker bots. It discusses the evolution of online poker, pivotal moments in its history, and the technological advancements that have reshaped competitive play.
Computers have outplayed humans in chess and Go for decades. But poker was long considered unhackable. The game requires not just crunching numbers, but creativity and complex strategy. That only started to change about 10 years ago, when a new generation of unbeatable poker bots began to appear online.
The makers of the technology remained in the shadows, so Bloomberg’s Kit Chellel set out to find them. On today’s Big Take podcast, he joins David Gura to share the story of how a group of Russian students invented the world’s best online poker bots and what that means for the multi-billion-dollar industry.
Read more: The Russian Bot Army That Conquered Online Poker
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