It Is A Man Vs. Machine Kind of Poker World
A team of researchers at the University of Alberta developed Polaris, a computer program that plays poker against humans. Previously developers have perfected the chess and checker playing machines, but poker seems to be a bit more complicated. The artificial Intelligence team designed various strategies and introduced the art of bluffing, difficult behavior for machines to achieve, to the program.
During the first Man vs. Machine Poker championship two well-known poker players teamed up against Polaris. Although in the end they won, both agree that the program is by far more challenging than playing against another human.
In early July Las Vegas hosted another man vs. Polaris Texas Holdem tournament, in which the computer beat the professional players. This was mainly due to the changes that the developers had added to the program, and the eight billion games that Polaris played against itself. The innovative program is now able to recognize different playing styles of the opponents, and select its own style that counteracts their play.
It seems that the developers have really perfected the program, and unlike humans who are bound to make mistakes, Polaris can do no wrong. Their next projects will include expanding Polaris’ poker abilities to playing with different or no betting limits and against multiple players at a time.