Posted on by Ricky Davies

Russian Poker Bot Farm BFC Exposed in Investigation

A Bloomberg exposé has shined a light on a group known as the Bot Farm Corporation (BFC), which has been developing advanced poker bots since approximately 2004.

These bots are capable of making complex mathematical decisions and retaining historical data on opponents in a way no human ever could. And worse, there are accusations that some poker rooms have even been complicit in allowing these bots to run on their sites.

What is the BFC?

The BFC is an organization that develops sophisticated software which can be used at online poker rooms to create an unfair advantage.

It was started by a small group of students from Siberia around the beginning of the poker boom in 2003. Most of them studied math, physics and economics, and they also ran off-the-books game theory classes in the evenings.

Their poker bots were already winning when they joined up with rival factions to expand their operation. Interest spread, and the BFC were able to recruit professors and poker pros, like 2006 PartyPoker St. Petersburg Open champion Petr Vlasenko, according to the report.

Kit Chellel, who wrote about the BFC for Bloomberg, was able to meet with the founders, where he learnt more about their reach and intentions. One of the most worrying things to come out of the investigation was that some poker rooms reportedly embrace the liquidity that bots bring. Chellel stopped shy of naming names, but Jonathan Raab didn’t in his piece for PokerPro.

Even now, you can take a look at the BFC’s website, deeplay.io, and see them openly advertise their “robot animators for card games like poker.”

Poker bots beating pros

The discovery of poker bots is nothing new. In 2019, Meta (then known as Facebook) showed off their own Texas Hold’em poker bot, which averaged $1,000 profit per hour whilst up against five pros.

There are processes in place to prevent poker bots as much as possible. Most online poker sites will ban you for using prohibited software.

The best sites also have people dedicated to analyzing players’ behavior, watching out for trends and unusual activity. You may have even been on the receiving end of an investigation yourself if you’ve ever switched up your style in a dramatic way or hit a big win out of the blue.

However, a lot of bot accusations you’ll read on poker forums can come across like sour grapes. With no way to prove it, players often resort to calling a game rigged or bot-infested when things don’t go their way.

It turns out, some of those players were right.

But the nature of online poker makes it tough to prove. When you’re tucked away behind a screen, who’s to say whether you’re using a bot, having a professional whisper tips in your ear, or even getting somebody else to play for you?

Online poker safety

Players will quite rightfully be unsettled by this news, as the thought of running into a bot that was literally designed to beat you at poker is daunting.

One worry is that these bots are creating liquidity at poker rooms, and paying rake. It’s a legitimate concern that certain poker rooms might turn a blind eye, as long as they’re making money.

This isn’t likely to happen at the bigger online poker sites, though. Many teams, like PokerStars, have strong online security teams working tirelessly to investigate any suspicious activity at the tables.

But there’s no doubt bots also sneak into the bigger sites. ACR Poker recently made headlines for booting bots out of its $12.5 million Venom tournament on Day 2. At another site, would they have gone undetected?

What next?

The impact of this investigation remains to be seen, but it’s been a long time coming. The wider poker community has long known about the existence of bots, albeit with few concrete details.

As long as online poker exists, people will try to exploit it, and the onus rests on the poker rooms themselves to stamp it out. Now, the action’s on them.

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