[dminor]

Even if you can manage to implement a system where everyone trusts the deal, you still have the problem of collusion between players.

You can avoid collusion by only playing heads up (2 players), but then you have the problem that there is very good AI for heads up.

In short, it's probably not possible to completely eliminate it.

[bodhisoma]

I'm really interested in poker, HU specifically, and I'd be perfectly happy if I could play an AI that gave me a challenging game but the best I've found is Poker Academy Pro and that was pretty poor. I found the AI to be sort of ridiculous and quite exploitable. And I'm not a very good player, maybe a 10NL break-even player (without rake).

So if you know of a good AI that can crush microstakes, I'd love to know about it. Since I'm in it for the challenge and not the $$, I'd be happy to play a computer.

[Wingman4l7]

Heads-up play will prevent collusion based on sharing your known hole cards with others, but it of course can't prevent the "asking a friend sitting next to you their opinion on the hand"-type collusion. The webcam video feed would prevent that, though. =)

The AI for fixed limit is much better than that for no-limit (you can do more statistical math on the situation); I could have sworn it wasn't that great on heads-up but now you've got me doubting my memory.

[bodhisoma]

>> Heads-up play will prevent collusion based on sharing your known hole cards with others, but it of course can't prevent the "asking a friend sitting next to you their opinion on the hand"-type collusion. The webcam video feed would prevent that, though. =)

Not unless you require nobody listens to music on headphones.

Even then, people using micro earpieces which sell for under $100 would go undetected.

If you required an inspection of every player's ear over the webcam, an app which allows two SMS devices to do Morse code with the player having vibrate turned on would suffice. One buzz for check/fold, two buzzes for bet/raise followed by a pause then binary for bet size.

I like the idea of the webcam as a novelty but I don't see how it offers anything but the illusion of honesty.

[Wingman4l7]

Funny that you came up with an SMS-based "buzzer" -- a technique similar to this was used to gain an edge in casino blackjack decades ago. A custom microcomputer was hidden in the player's shoe, and IIRC they used vibrating motors to communicate the correct plays in one version of the device.

The webcam I think isn't there for an "illusion of honesty" but rather for a more personal / "human" game experience.