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#15 Slansky Analyser
Writing Bots is difficult. Finding the weak parts in a bot is even more difficult.
To study the gameplay of a bot is easier if done offline. This means the PokerServer needs to log all its traffic (and maybe more, like all hand cards?) to a file. After the game, that log file can be processed with any kind of gameplay analyser to find the weak spots of a bot.
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Analysing the gameplay of a bot and finding weak spots is like a chicken/egg problem. To find weaknesses in a bot you need to have another automated program that can judge a move as eather weak or strong. But usually the bot is already the best of your knowledge about poker fit into a computer program. So you have nothing better.
That's where Slansky's fundamental theorem of poker comes into play.
An analyser can make its judgement offline. This enables him to see every move from a god's view knowing all opponent hand cards and already knowing the final outcome. The fundamental theorem of poker states (in simple terms) that every time you act different from how you would knowing all your opponent's cards, you lose. Ignoring the effects of psychology and bluffing for a moment, this easily brings us to the concept of pot odds:
If you know the final outcome and all your opponents cards, you can correctly calculate your expectancy in every decision:
E = - ThisAndFollowingBets_you + Chances_you * FinalPot
Calculating this formula for every decision in a game that is over already can help us to spot one type of bad moves "risky bets"
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The concept above also allows us to measure the amount of luck and psychology in a game or at least some aspects of luck and psychology.
Luck means the player makes a 'bad' move (bad according to expectancy) but still wins at a showdown. (There are maybe other forms of luck)
Psychology means the player makes a 'bad' move and as a consequence scares other people out.