Alberta’s poker-playing computer
p2pnet news | games:- Scientists at the University of Alberta in Canada developed a computer chess champion so good that it was retired because no one could beat it. Now comes news of another U of A game-playing super-system, only this time it’s a genius at poker.
“Phil Laak (right) and Ali Eslami are representing the human race at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and, well, they aren’t doing so good,” posted CardPlayer.com yesterday.
The two professional players were in the middle of a two-day match staged at the AAAI conference in Vancouver with the U of A’s Polaris programme dealing the cards in heads-up limit poker, with hard cash on the line.
“After playing two sessions yesterday, Laak, a self described Geekaphile, believes the scientists are extremely close to solving it,” says the story, quoting him as declaring:
“(Polaris) is phenomenal. They just spent all their (freaking) time perfecting heads-up limit poker,’ Laak said. ‘That thing just beat us’.”
Continues CardPlayer.com:
Both players play simultaneously – one in front of an audience and one in a private room – and they are playing a form of duplicate poker. This means the cards dealt in the first match to the human are dealt to the computer in the second match, and vice versa. According to the computing team, this significantly reduces the role of luck in determining who the better player is.
So far, it’s been Polaris. Unlike the computer that Laak beat two years ago as the human representative at the World Poker Robot Championship, Polaris is designed to bob and weave like a real player, adjusting playing styles and recognizing weakness. But Polaris also plays the way many pros play â it tries to play basic solid poker and wait until its opponent makes a mistake.
Who won in the end?
The humans beat the computer by just 570 points in the fourth and final game of the match, says the Vancouver Province.
“I really am happy it’s over,” story has Eslami, 30, and ex-computer consultant, saying, adding:
“I’m surprised we won … it’s already so good it will be tough to beat in future.”
The previous three games over two days resulted in one tie and one win each for humans and the machine.
“The Polaris program handles the bluffing aspect of poker well through mathematical theory, but it still has to grasp the playing style of the opponent and how to counter it,” says CTV, which has Michael Bowling, computer science professor at the University of Alberta and team leader of the Polaris Team Project, stating:
“The hard part for computers is trying to model the other humans. That’s where we’re only scratching the surface.”
Bowling said researchers are in discussion with a company to make Polaris available online.
Also See:
no one could beat it – Canada`s unbeatable chequers champion, July 20, 2007
CardPlayer.com – Man Versus Machine: Computer Giving Players Real Test, July 24, 2007
Vancouver Province – 2 humans deal ‘good’ machine poker loss, July 26, 2007
CTV – Computer proves worthy foe at poker tournament, July 24, 2007
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March 25th, 2008 at 7:00 am
They shuold have picked better professionals. Even a donkey could win against Laak
So, the computers are still pretty bad.
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