Pythonic poker client

[Paul Rubin]

hardieca at hotmail.com writes:
> I'm assuming that I need to figure out the port it uses, find the
> server, analyze the packets for commands, and then build an app that
> masquerades as the real client.
> 
> Anyone have any experience with this?

If you mean you want to write your own real-money poker client
(e.g. PartyPoker), I wouldn't advise it unless you really know what
you're doing, since those sites go nuts detecting bots and banning
their users.  The bot authors in turn use fancier and fancier methods
to escape detection, etc.

I don't play online poker or use these products myself, but as a
security geek I have some technical interest in this.  (Also some
friends of mine play online poker all the time, so I hear about it).

Take a look at http://www.winholdem.net for one of the bots currently
involved in such an arms race.  The winholdem folks also run their own
online poker room where bots of all persuasions are welcome, but
nobody is supposed to play for real money there.  That might be a good
place to develop and test your client.

I see now that Winholdem now has a "Team edition" which sounds like
it's now supporting outright collusion between (perhaps virtual)
players, rather than just being a bot attempting to play well.  I
suppose this is inevitable since that kind of thing has been happening
between live players for years.  It's currently still possible for
good players to win money steadily at these sites (since there are so
many weak players) but I wonder how long that situation will last.