In a game of Texas Hold ‘Em heads up poker, a computer was narrowly beaten by two professional players.
Under laboratory conditions, the computer, nicknamed Polaris, failed to master the humans but scientists believe the day is not far away when the software can get one over its human counterparts.
The experiment took place in Alberta, Canada with the computer using only the power of an ordinary laptop. Over a series, the computer edged narrowly ahead but it was the humans who eventually came out on top.
The so-called “First Man-Machine Poker Championship”, match was staged at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and offered prize money of $50,000 (£25,000) to the winner of four rounds of poker.
Although for the professional players - Ali Eslami and Phil “the Unabomber” Laak - the cash prize was small, the stakes were high.
“I literally felt the same feeling that you would have if you beat 500 people in a tournament and won a million dollars,” Laak said after the match. “We won, not by a significant amount, and the bots are closing in.”
“Playing against the computer was more exhausting than any other game he had played,” Eslami said. “I really am happy it’s over. I’m surprised we won….it’s already so good it will be tough to beat in future.”
Computers such as ‘Deep Blue’ have already proved more than a match for Grand Master chess players, while recently there was the development of software that could play the perfect game of draughts - indeed the computer could not be beaten and the best the human could hope for was a draw.
It is perhaps the computer’s inability to bluff that was its biggest weakness though programmers are already working on a way to increase this aspect of its artificial intelligence. With so much online poker being played these days, the argument about the computer not being unable to read tells and players faces falls down.
Another plausible reason for the computer’s defeat is its inability to play off ‘confidence’ that can help a lot of players.
Perhaps worrying for the future of online poker is if such software can be developed and used by any player. Indeed, if this is possible then it would certainly be the end for the pastime with only ‘live’ tournaments offering a chance for humans to show their poker skills.
