On Saturday, esteemed poker pro Martin Zamani released a video showing a massive bot farm on the shared Ignition and Bovada poker sites.
The video shows at least 30 screens operating without human interaction, clearly showing the use of robotic software. Including the one shooting the video, at least three people can be seen in the room.
Zamani claims the video is not his, though he did not say where the video came from.
Life for poker players is already becoming tougher as it is, with the FAIR BET act stalled in the House. Players already have to worry about cheating and rake, and now the 100% gambling loss deduction has been reduced to 90% in 2026, leading many American players to leave the game for good.
Plenty of previous evidence
Six-time WSOP bracelet winner Brian Hastings has consistently brought up the nefarious activity that would happen on Ignition’s high-stakes tournaments, especially around the bubble.
The hand below was likely the most blatant evidence of cheating that the poker world has ever seen. In a four-way pot with 5.9 big blinds in the middle, a 0.1 big blind all-in shove got three players to fold, something that would never happen in real life.
With real poker math, calling a 0.1 big blind shove to win a total pot of six big blinds gives you 60-to-1 on your call. That means your call is profitable in the long run if you win more than 1.6% of the time. With another card still to come, players should be calling with the extreme majority of their hands.
There’s no justifiable reason three players would fold except blatant collusion.
Poker community reacts
Matt Berkey, founder of the famous Solve for Why Poker Training Academy and former host of the Solve for Why podcast, was very happy that the videos finally came out. He also warned players against attempting to beat Ignition and Bovada when this amount of bot-based cheating exists.
“Good to finally be able to show people what’s happening to them (in spite of it having been wildly known and broadcast throughout the community). Perhaps this will be enough to make people think twice before firing off on a Sunday “for reps.” And to those arrogant enough to still believe you still have a win rate, I emplore (sic) you to do some ROI calc when collusion to cash reaches this scale.”
Poker pro Jay “JWin” Nguyen chimed in: “Have played on Ignition for years before going completely away from it in 2023. This is an open secret. And yet everyone still plays on it.”
Poker sites push for integrity
A number of top poker sites took this as a big marketing opportunity to showcase their security, although none actually showed any hard proof, much to the dismay of many on Twitter/X.
PokerStarsUSA retweeted the video and stated that their game integrity team is 60 people deep.
“PokerStars believes its customers deserve a safe and reliable place to play online poker against real people. Our game integrity team made up of 60 specialists: ex-professional poker players, qualified data scientists and statistical analysts, uses purpose-built software to detect, investigate and resolve potential occurrences of collusion, multi-accounting or prohibited software use.”
CoinPoker claimed that over $150,000 was refunded to players and 98 bot accounts were banned, though they have yet to show any actual proof. They claim that they will produce an in-depth report in their newsletter, sharing more details after all refunds are completed.
“Every operator faces challenges with bots on the platform, and the support of our community is essential in identifying and combating them. Thank you for that! This week, $156,446 is being refunded to players following the ban of 98 bot accounts and the confiscation of their balances over the past months. The funds get redistributed to players affected by this activity. We sincerely thank the players who supported our security efforts through reports and feedback. Community involvement is a crucial part of maintaining a secure plattform (sic). We will continue to take action against unfair play, with the clear goal of preserving a fair and transparent environment for all players and making it close to impossible to run a bot on our plattform (sic) by the end of Q2 2026. Thank you for your trust and continued support.”
Cheating remains a hot-button issue
Cheating in both online and live poker continues to be one of the biggest concerns, even among extremely profitable players. Regardless of when a new cheating scandal comes out, it is discussed heavily amongst the poker community.
In late 2024, Kat Chellel wrote an extensive article exposing the Russian Bot Farm Corporation (BFC). This company has been developing poker bots since 2004 and still hasn’t been shut down. In fact, you can go to their website right now and purchase their software. We will not post the link as to make an effort to maintain game integrity.
On this Russian website, they write: “We develop animation robots for intellectual card games: poker, bridge, mahjong, and more. The goal of deep play is to create a comfortable environment for players. Robots employ different strategies and personalities to maintain a balance of power. Amateur players lose less often to experienced players, enjoy the gameplay, and stay in the game longer.”
ACR Poker was in the heat of a bot scandal in early 2024 after making a $100,000 “bot challenge”, literally asking players to make winning poker bots to use on their website and show proof. This, of course, blew up in their face, as more bots swarmed the site. A player ended up making a bot with proof in less than 12 hours before ACR Poker adjusted their terms and conditions, failing to ever pay out the $100,000.
Cheating in the gambling community has always been extremely worrisome. A huge college basketball point-shaving scandal was exposed last week, which named 26 individuals in a 70-page federal indictment.
Chauncey Billups was suspended from his role as the Portland Trail Blazers head coach for his role in a mafia-linked, illegal poker operation just before the NBA season tipped off. He pleaded not guilty in November. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was also arrested during the investigation, along with roughly 30 other individuals. The trial should begin around September 2026, though another procedural hearing is set for March 4.
Bovada and Ignition yet to comment
Unbelievably, the social media teams for both Bovada and Ignition have yet to make a statement about the video. Furthermore, they have continued carrying on with casino and slot promotions while discussing the NFL playoff games.
We will report on any updates as soon as they are made available.
