Here it is almost 2019. Wow. Do you realize we here at Shanky Technologies have been selling our poker bot software for almost 12 years? A lot has happened on the online poker landscape since March of 2007, when we started selling our Holdem Bot. Good times have come and gone, huge poker site scandals have scarred the news headlines, and individual countries have enacted various national laws to attempt to control the trade. Through it all, we are still here. Many of our original members still frequent our forum.
I have had several phone conversations with the owner of RaketheRake over the years. Nice guy. He likes us, though he must maintain an official position of pretending he doesn’t. One of our more memorable conversations occurred several years after the fallout from the USA legal fiasco, when most of the big operators were scared away from the country. I mentioned that our business had been cut by 2/3 from the glory days, upon which he assured me we were doing well to “hang on to that one-third,” as his business was operating at 10% of its peak. In my last conversation with him, several years later, they were still grinding away, same as us, hoping for some progress in individual state sanctioning of online poker (while lamenting that it will probably take another decade to become significant enough to explode the industry again).
Public awareness of poker bots has increased. Most players know about them nowadays. Heck, 888 Poker even published an article about playing against poker bots. In the last twelve years, we here at Shanky have watched inferior competitors come and go. The result of all this is an overall acceptance of bots as part of the landscape, and even a growing acceptance of them as a legitimate type of opponent. You just don’t see the angry rants about them any longer on the big poker bulletin boards. One day soon we may even see a “bots welcome” sign hanging on the front page of a poker site.
Shanky Technologies certainly has no plans on going anywhere. Not after developing the best commercial poker bot ever conceived, and expending so much effort maintaining and increasing site support. We love this business, and this hobby. When you become part of the Shanky family, you join a lasting legacy. Ask any of our old school members.
I can probably guess your next question: What’s the best way to use the bot in 2019? The answer is, of course, however you want to! That said, it is generally agreed among botters that MTTs are the easiest form of online poker to profitably bot. Especially freeze-outs, and especially large fields of 200+. Throw in a large-stack format and you have the perfect environment for a bot. Remember, a bot’s advantages play to situations that require patience and longevity. Unfortunately, large field, large-stack freeze-outs don’t exactly stuff the daily event lists. That’s okay.
You can profitably bot rebuy events, too. But in these you need a consistent method of managing the number of rebuys you purchase. Rebuying too many times will kill your overall results. The way I play rebuy events is as follows: I buy in, sit out, let the blinds go by, then rebuy once right away. Then I keep sitting out until the first hour is over, whereupon I make the add-on rebuy at the break. This puts me in the elimination stage with a slightly lower than average stack, but it is more than made up for by the fact 20% of the field is usually already eliminated. Another decent way to approach rebuy events is to simply never rebuy at all, and just let the bot play from the beginning. That way is more of a grind, but costs considerably less. It’s all about a consistent philosophy which gives you an edge over the field long-term investment wise. Take me seriously on this. Start managing your rebuys with a consistent philosophy and watch your bankroll grow.
The MTT profile that comes in the bot is excellent for tournaments of all sizes and buy-ins. If you haven’t used our bot in a while, be sure to download the latest version. We publish 2-3 updates per month on average. If you need a license, there’s a link for buying one on the bot itself. Have fun at the tables in 2019 and we’ll see you or your bot at the final table soon.
