After two thousand hands and countless 鈥渇lops鈥�, 鈥渞ivers鈥�, and 鈥渢urns鈥�, two elite poker players have narrowly defeated a formidable computer opponent. The result means that, while chess world champions have fallen to computers, humans still hold sway in poker, a game where psychology plays a huge role.
Phil 鈥淭he Unabomber鈥� Laak and Ali Eslami took on Polaris, software developed by , in a set-up designed to reduce the role that luck normally plays in a game of poker.
The pair played Polaris simultaneously in different rooms, with computer and human playing opposite hands in each game. In other words, if Laak was dealt a full house, Polaris would have exactly the same hand, at the same time, in its game against Eslami.
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The game was played at a in Vancouver, Canada.
Hidden information
At the end of play on Monday, Polaris had tied the first round of 500 hands and triumphed in the second, finishing almost $1000 up against the humans. But two wins in Tuesday鈥檚 sessions earned Laak and Eslami overall victory. The pair, who said they were exhausted by the rapid rate of play, admitted to being impressed with the ability of Polaris.
Poker is harder than other games for computers to crack because of the importance of studying other players鈥� tactics and behaviour. In chequers, for example, a computer can work out the best move simply by knowing the rules of the game and the current position.
Earlier this month, computer scientists said they had created software that would never lose a game of chequers.
But poker is different because it contains 鈥渉idden information鈥�, says , a computer scientist at the University of Nottingham, UK.
鈥極ver for humanity鈥�
A good player will look at opponents鈥� facial expressions in a bid to guess what cards they might hold, for example. Bluffing is also an important way of fooling an opponent, but the strategy behind this is hard to programme into a computer.
Polaris is, however, one of a few new poker-playing machines that have begun to master the tactics behind bluffing, although Kendall says a good human player can probably deduce a computer鈥檚 tactics more easily than vice versa. 鈥淚鈥檇 probably go for the humans,鈥� said Kendall when asked to predict the winner before the match.
Yet Kendall and others admit that machines are catching up. Kendall predicts that a computer could become world champion in around 10 years, provided tournament organisers allowed machines to enter.
In a previous match against Polaris, Laak folded a hand and declared 鈥渋f that is a bluff, it鈥檚 over for humanity鈥�. Ominously, Polaris had indeed been bluffing.
