Betting Pool

A betting pool, sports lottery, sweep or office pool if done at work, is a form of gambling, specifically a variant of parimutuel betting influenced by lotteries, where gamblers pay a fixed price into a pool from which taxes and a house take or vig are removed, and then make a selection on some outcome, usually related to sport. In an informal game, the vig is usually quite small or non-existent. The pool is evenly divided between those that have made the correct selection. There are no odds involved; each winner's payoff depends simply on the number of gamblers and the number of winners. True parimutuel betting, which was historically referred to as pool betting, involves both odds calculations and variable wager amounts.

Contestants predict the outcome of sporting events that take place at a later time. The concept was introduced in 1923 by Littlewoods Pools where it was known as totoclarification needed and based on football soccer matches. Today in England, sports lotteries are more commonly referred to as football pools. American sports lotteries often do not require contestants to purchase a lottery ticket or make an initial wager. Hockey pools are common in North America, and footy tipping in Australia.

Computer poker players are computer programs designed to play the game of poker against human opponents or other computer opponents. They are commonly referred to as pokerbots or just simply bots.

These bots or computer programs are used often in online poker situations as either legitimate opponents for humans players or a form of cheating. Whether or not the use of bot constitutes cheating is typically defined by the poker room that hosts the actual poker games. Most if not all card rooms forbid the use of bots although the level of enforcement from site operators varies considerably.

Player bots

The subject of player bots and computer assistance, while playing online poker, is very controversial. Player opinion is quite varied when it comes to deciding which types of computer software fall into the category unfair advantage. One of the primary factors in defining a bot is whether or not the computer program can interface with the poker client in other words, play by itself without the help of its human operator. Computer programs with this ability are said to have or be an auto player and are universally defined to be in the category of bots regardless of how well they play poker.

The issue of unfair advantage has much to do with what types of information and artificial intelligence are available to the computer program. In addition, bots can play for many hours at a time without human weaknesses such as fatigue and can endure the natural variances of the game without being influenced by human emotion or tilt. On the other hand, bots have some significant disadvantages - for example, it is very difficult for a bot to accurately read a bluff or adjust to the strategy of opponents the way humans can. In addition, bot operators have to beat the rake in addition to their opponents. For this reason, many bots can only be reasonably expected to generate a reliable profit at the lowest stakes.

House enforcement

While the terms and conditions of poker sites generally forbid the use of bots, the level of enforcement depends on the site operator. Some will aggressively seek out and ban bot users through the utilization of a variety of software tools. The poker client can be programmed to detect bots although this is controversial in its own right as it might be seen as tantamount to embedding spyware in the client software. Another method is to use CAPTCHAs at random intervals during play.

House bots

The subject of house bots is even more controversial due to the conflict of interest it potentially poses. By the strictest definition, a house bot is an automated player operated by the online poker room itself, although some would define more indirect examples for example, a player operating bots with the knowledge and consent of the operator as house bots as well. These type of bots would be the equivalent of brick and mortar shills.

In a brick and mortar casino a house player does not subvert the fairness of the game being offered as long as the house is dealing honestly. In an online setting, the same is also true. By definition, an honest online poker room, that chooses to operate house bots, would guarantee that the house bots did not have access to any information not also available to any other player in the hand the same would apply to any human shill as well. The problem is that in an online setting the house has no way to prove their bots are not receiving sensitive information from the card server. This is further exacerbated by the ease with which this can be accomplished in a digital environment without being detected. For the house to even prove they are not using any house players to begin with is essentially impossible - probably the only real way that could be done would be to disclose the confidential personal information of every player and that obviously cannot be done due to privacy considerations.

Poker Jacks Back

Draw Poker Jacks Back

Draw Poker Jacks Back is played with a standard 52-card deck and one Joker. The Joker may be used as an Ace or as any card that completes a straight, flush, or a straight flush. All players place their ante in the pot.

Players are dealt five cards face down, one at a time, in rotation. A round of betting begins (check, bet, call, raise, or fold). If no player has a pair of Jacks or better (higher) after the initial deal, the game converts to the game of Lowball, i.e., California or Kansas City Lowball.

If a player has a pair of Jacks or better after the initial deal, the remaining players may discard any number of their original cards and have the same number of cards replaced by the dealer. Another round of betting occurs. The player with the highest ranking five-card poker hand wins. Five Aces is the best possible hand (four Aces and the Joker). In the event of a tie, the pot is split equally.