Poker program winning at Hold 'em
- July 24, 2007 2:03 PM |
- By Paul Jay
by Paul Jay, CBCNEWs.ca
Having solved checkers, University of Alberta computer programmers led by Jonathan Schaeffer are now taking top professional poker players Phil "The Unabomber" Laak and Ali Eslami at the First Man-Machine Poker Championship in Vancouver this week.
And so far the poker-playing computer program Polaris is winning.
The contest, run in conjunction with the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence conference running Monday and Tuesday, consists of four 500-hand duplicate matches. In each duplicate match, "the same series of cards will be dealt in two parallel Man versus Machine matches, with teammates playing the opposite hands in each game", according to University of Alberta's web page devoted to the contest.
Polaris narrowly finished ahead in the first match – which was ruled a draw – before convincingly winning the second match.
The next two matches are Tuesday at noon and 6 p.m. Vancouver time.
Check for updates here.
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- Tara Kimura
is a multimedia producer for CBCNews.ca.
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Comments (5)
Ok.. Wouldn't the machine always win seeing as it can calculate the odds? IE: how many cards played, which ones, which ones could be next etc..?
I've never tried but I would find it hard seeing as the machine constatly has on a "poker face"
PERFECT! We'll stop robots from taking over the Earth by giving them GAMBLING ADDICTIONS! :D
The computer can calculate the odds, but the odds are very easy for humans to calculate as well. Deception, varying your play, and understanding your oppenent's actions are a big part of poker and it was generally understood humans were better than computers at this.
How come the first game was declared a draw? If they had kept going maybe the computer would have one!
To the first comment,
Cards are shuffled after each hand, so the computer has no edge by remembering all the cards played. Also, a good poker player can calculate the odds necessary as well. Also, regarding the comment about the first game being a draw, and could the computer win if they continued....sure it could have, and the human may have as well. I don't see your point exactly.