Not bots

This is interesting. Some guy thinks he's found bots on Stars.

But there's a more interesting story here, I think. Check out the analysis pages of some of the players involved:
http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-analysis/manyee/0.1-0.25-NL-9-Hold%27em
http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-analysis/tanny100/0.1-0.25-NL-9-Hold%27em
http://www.pokertableratings.com/stars-player-analysis/wen_jun589/0.1-0.25-NL-9-Hold%27em

They are all megatight, all off the scale for passivity, and all take everything they play to showdown. These are not bots. They are Chinamen in a sweatroom with a list of hands. When they get one of the hands on their list, they call and then check/call them down. They don't need to know any poker. They just need to click buttons really really fast. They could play in shifts and their playing pattern wouldn't change. They'd certainly look like bots and they couldn't chat, because they likely don't speak a word of English.

They get paid buttons and the guy who's running the shop gets all the rakeback. They could conceivably be a group of friends, but the funding they'd need is beyond most Chinese.

Also, they're going to have to be banking on making Supernova and playing higher, because it's easy to see that they're losing money.

You suck

Livestrong44 [observer]: you suck
FR Vessant: yes
FR Vessant: I'm just a fish
Dealer: FR Vessant, it's your turn. You have 14 seconds to act
Livestrong44 [observer]: obviously
Dealer: Game #52457667285: FR Vessant wins pot (500)
FR Vessant: just mashing buttons more or less at random

http://www.holdemmanager.net
NL Holdem $200(BB) Poker Stars Game#52457647051

w00d45 ($3,850)
elvis41863 ($2,005)
el_anuncio ($1,681)
Il_Nistra ($2,624)
FR Vessant ($2,385)
Livestrong44 ($955)

w00d45 posts (SB) $100
elvis41863 posts (BB) $200

Dealt to FR Vessant 7d Qh
fold, fold,
FR Vessant raises to $450
Livestrong44 raises to $955 (AI)
fold, fold,
FR Vessant calls $505
FLOP ($2,210) Jc 8c 7h
TURN ($2,210) Jc 8c 7h Qd
RIVER ($2,210) Jc 8c 7h Qd Kh
FR Vessant shows 7d Qh
(Pre 31%, Flop 75.8%, Turn 90.9%)

Livestrong44 shows Ah Kd
(Pre 69%, Flop 24.2%, Turn 9.1%)

FR Vessant wins $2,210

Can't win them all

Here's my day in a nutshell. Fish is raising pretty much everything.

PokerStars Game #52092913379: Tournament #327617603, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2010/11/03 15:02:14 AEST [2010/11/03 0:02:14 ET]
Table '327617603 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 2: PokeHer2308 (2204 in chips)
Seat 3: ligertrainer (5135 in chips)
Seat 6: TigerInn89 (3360 in chips)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (1983 in chips)
Seat 9: Handler666 (818 in chips)
FR Vessant: posts small blind 75
Handler666: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to FR Vessant [Ks Qd]
PokeHer2308: raises 150 to 300
ligertrainer: folds
TigerInn89: folds
FR Vessant: raises 1683 to 1983 and is all-in
Handler666: folds
PokeHer2308: calls 1683
*** FLOP *** [Qs Kc 9s]
*** TURN *** [Qs Kc 9s] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [Qs Kc 9s 9h] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FR Vessant: shows [Ks Qd] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
PokeHer2308: shows [Qc 9c] (a full house, Nines full of Queens)
PokeHer2308 collected 4116 from pot
FR Vessant finished the tournament in 5th place
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4116 | Rake 0
Board [Qs Kc 9s 9h Th]
Seat 2: PokeHer2308 showed [Qc 9c] and won (4116) with a full house, Nines full of Queens
Seat 3: ligertrainer folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: TigerInn89 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: FR Vessant (small blind) showed [Ks Qd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 9: Handler666 (big blind) folded before Flop

Calling a threebet

So yesterday, I raise A7s from the button and the big blind shoves a decent stack. I snapcalled and beat his QJ. He berated me for some time afterwards, to my great amusement. Surely he was right though? Raisecalling A7s must be bad, right?

The thing is, a lot of regs think that they can get a wide raiser to fold most of their range by shoving over and they do it extremely wide themselves. I've seen all sorts: some do it with any two. So I had noted that this guy was a nit, and he had done the same move twice before. After the first time, I'm already thinking about calling the next.

These guys play fairly predictably. If they had a big hand, they'd threebet to something at least callable, so you shouldn't be crushed. They may have something like AT/A9s and that's bad for my hand, but very often I'm going to be facing something I'm ahead of. The added benefit is that I will play this guy a lot and stealing his blinds will be a lot easier. Disciplining regs into playing straightforwardly is particularly important in regular speeds, where there is a lot of blindstealing at middle blinds.

It's a different matter if he's in the small blind. That tends to make restealers more honest.