Humans fend off AI challenge in "milestone" poker match

It apparently wasn't easy, but a pair of top human poker players managed to narrowly beat a brash young artificial intelligence program yesterday in a poker match scientists had touted as a "milestone" comparable to Garry Kasparov's 1997 bout with the IBM's chess-playing Deep Blue. According to the AFP, the four-round match stretched on until 11pm, with poker players Phil Laak and Ali Eslami ultimately edging out the program, dubbed Polaris, by 570 points. Eslami seems to have been particularly impressed by his competitor, saying that he found playing against Polaris more exhausting than any previous game in his career, adding that "it's already so good it will be tough to beat in future." No word on a rematch just yet, but don't be surprised if you run into Polaris the next time you play a little online poker -- it's gotta recoup its losses somehow.

[Photo courtesy of AP]

[Eric @ Jul 25th 2007 2:11PM]

Yet more proof that poker is a skill game. Please re-legalize this on the tubes!!

[jowee @ Jul 25th 2007 2:23PM]

I,for one, welcome our future....eh nevermind

[Fenway Beer Man @ Jul 25th 2007 2:46PM]

This comment confuses me:
"I was expecting a draw," said computer scientist Michael Littman of Rutgers University in the United States.

There are no 'draws' in poker. The article could have been more specific; they could have verified if it was No limit Texas hold'em, and if it was, was it tournament style or in the style of a cash game?

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO USEFUL INFORMATION IN THE LINKED ARTICLE!!!!


GAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

[Adam @ Jul 25th 2007 3:58PM]

The way this tournament was set up, there could be a draw. The tournament consisted of 500 heads up hands played. The computer played each of the 500 hands as Player 1, and then again against another player as Player 2. The chips accumulated by the computer playing as Player 1 & 2 were compared against the number of chips accumulated by the real players, thereby allowing the possibility of a draw.

[Adam @ Jul 25th 2007 4:00PM]

More information can be found here.

[Adam @ Jul 25th 2007 4:01PM]

Err, here.

http://poker.cs.ualberta.ca/man-machine/

[yoshi @ Jul 25th 2007 2:50PM]

Why do the "professional" poker players bother to play in person if they're just going to try to cover as much of their body as they can? They might as well be playing in a cardboard box. Or online.

I'd like to see a revision of the rules to make sunglasses and anything else that covers the face or head a no-no. It's POKER, after all. The term "poker face" didn't involve sunglasses.

[chaosrain @ Jul 25th 2007 3:16PM]

You have to understand that the "professional" players who don sweatshirts and sunglasses are acknowledging that even they are not fully aware of their tells or cannot fully control them. I suspect that stopping a tell is much like squeezing a wet bar of soap...once you stop a certain tell, another just pops up in its place. Unless you're a zen master and can control every physical manifestation of your emotions, you're going to leak tells like a sieve.

I would agree that a player who does not hide from his competitors is likely much better at the bluffing and tell-hiding aspects of good poker, but that's only part of the battle. Knowing the odds of your fellow players making a hand that beats yours is another important component and you can't play as a team. So if you're only good at the odds side of things and stink at hiding your tells, you physically hide them and ante up. I'm sure some of the "pros" are poor at the odds side of things and rely on bluffing and tells more than others. It's all about the skillset of the player.

[kuzu-b @ Jul 25th 2007 3:33PM]

It's a common misconception that tells work best when reading the eyes. Tells manifest themselves the most thought table habits and hand movements, and you can't hide those. Notice that in tournaments it's mostly the amateur and mid level players that put all that crap on, not the pros. Sunglasses or not, you aren't going to pick up on a Phil Ivey tell. In fact, I would prefer he wore glasses while playing him, his stares are very intimidating.

[Erick @ Jul 25th 2007 3:39PM]

About table habits. One of the most important tells are betting patterns, and that can't even be hidden if playing online. Some people always check big hands on the flop, then bet big on the turn, others always bet out with big hands. They can change from hand to hand, but many don't because they are comfortable with their betting patterns and don't change too often. A skill is in learning when to mix it up against different opponents, to make them not know what your bet means.

[Andrew Jones @ Jul 25th 2007 3:49PM]

In other news, the US Department of Commerce unveiled their plans to combat the "evils" of online poker today. A leading authority is quoted as saying "We finally came to the conclusion - sometimes, it's best to just fight fire with fire."

[Lt_Ladle @ Jul 25th 2007 9:10PM]

just hope i never run into this thing online... somebody could make alot of money like that

[drtekger @ Jul 25th 2007 10:27PM]

All-In you rusty old bucket!

[Kentucky Wildcats! @ Jul 25th 2007 11:10PM]

I wonder if the Unabomber used his sunglasses while playing the computer.

[Transistor154 @ Jul 26th 2007 6:50AM]

I understand the poor computer, even if he had won he couldn't have spent the money, so he let the humans wins so he could make friends and at the same time he knew that if he'd lose his team of technicians would get him new more advanced components and fancy programs, which is all that the computer wanted anyway... :)