The bot does bluff, and in fact it learns from self-play that bluffing is (sometimes) the optimal thing to do. At the end of the day, bluffing is simply betting when you have a weak hand. The bot learns from experience that when it bets with a weak hand, the opponent (another copy of itself) sometimes folds and it makes more money than if it hadn't bet. The bot doesn't view it as deceptive or dishonest. It just views it as the action that makes it the most money.
Of course, a key part of bluffing is getting the probabilities right. You can't always bluff and you can't never bluff, because that would make you too predictable. But our self-play and search algorithms are designed to get those probabilities right.
> when it bets with a weak hand, the opponent (another copy of itself) sometimes folds and it makes more money than if it hadn't bet.
This makes no sense. If I am betting for thin value with a weak hand, then I make less money when my opponent folds. Does the bot not know whether it is bluffing or value betting?
It makes complete sense. There’s a component of value and a component of bluff for a given hand in front of you. They’re related.
Value betting and bluffing aren’t defined by the outcome of a hand — action yet to be completed. Poker is a game of hidden information so betting with “thin value” implies that your component of bluffing is larger. You want your opponent to fold more often than not when you have thin value because more often than not you’re actually beat.
QQ can get KK to fold based upon board texture, street, and prior action. But you don’t know the other person is holding KK when you’re betting for “thin value” on the river.
“Value betting” and “bluffing” are human heuristics to simplify complicated situations.
The bot doesn’t “know” whether it’s value betting or bluffing—it’s not a relevant question. The relevant question is whether to bet, and what amount, in order to maximize value of the particular hand it has, with reference to the board and opponent actions taken.
Right, we agree on that, but the above comment lumps all of what you describe (“betting with a weak hand”) under “bluffing” and says the bot learns that it makes more money when its opponent folds.
Where does your quote say that the bet is a value-bet? I read it as saying that the bot learned to bluff (not value bet) by betting when it has a weak hand (I.e. The bot has a weak hand, so it's getting better hands to fold by betting). The phrase "value bet"was not used.
(This, in addition to what the other comments have said about there being spots where a bet can get better hands to fold with some probability AND get worse hands to call with some probability - see the chapter "The grey area between value betting and bluffing" in Applications of No Limit Hold Em)
I mean, unless only those who interpret it wrong would respond, then I must be the one reading it wrong. Because these responses aren't lining up with how I read it or what I meant.
Of course, a key part of bluffing is getting the probabilities right. You can't always bluff and you can't never bluff, because that would make you too predictable. But our self-play and search algorithms are designed to get those probabilities right.