For years, many have thought humans were too efficient and skillful to be outwitted by a machine. Last month, for the first time in poker history, a top poker player was outsmarted by a computer program in “Man vs. Machine” contest. The “Man vs. Machine” event started last August, where this seemingly far-fetched endeavor was accomplished.
The program that topped the last month’s annual artificial intelligence poker programs contest was “Hyerborean07 of Ian Fellows. Hillcrest the creator of a Texas Hold ‘em program finished in a three-way tie for second place.
Ian Fellows of the University of California’s Department of Psychiatry is the same person who designed the “Fall Omen 2”. He said that the system have shown a remarkable performance in poker artificial intelligence programs and “has no weaknesses”. It was considered as another major development in artificial intelligence that excels in playing games from the system that beat Gary Kasparov at chess (the “Deep Blue computer”) during the 90′s. He has also been working on Hold ‘em programs for more than ten years and has been making steady progress. The group also created the “Polaris II,” a program designed with aggressive and unpredictable play.
He quoted that these artificial intelligence programs can solve many angles and odds of the game, makes decisions and bets accordingly and even bluff. These programs are way far from the Texas Hold ‘em video games we can purchase over the counter. Creating this kind of artificial intelligence for poker was a challenging undertaking for him. Unlike chess, actions are out in the open; moves are predetermined, making it easier to predict the next moves of the opponent. In poker, cards are hidden and there is no way of predicting what the other players’ have. Fellows said that the program overcame these problems by determining the odds of drawing a certain card based on probability factors, such as the number of cards left, the suit of the card and its rank. Because it is impossible to know what cards will be drawn.
However, some of our famous poker players are not yet ready to fold to a machine. Fresno resident and the top prize winner who took home $8.25 million in the 2007 World Series of Poker, Jerry Yang expressed their doubts that a computer can defeat a poker PRO in a tournament.
Yang mentioned that it takes human senses to play well in poker, since it is a game that has many variables. For him, studying his opponents’ body language is so important. Because Yang observes other players’ moves at the table, for instance how they talk and how they breathe, which he thinks computer can’t do.
Expert says that the technology hasn’t been developed to allow these machines to play “all-in” style poker. They are only able to play poker with pot limit.
Then again, creators & developers believe that it’s only a matter of time before the programs become more sophisticated.
Related posts:
No user commented in " Man vs. Machine "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackLeave A Reply