Man Vs. Machine Poker Tournament
Two professional poker players, Phil Laak and Ali Eslami, will take on a computer program called Polaris in the world’s first man-versus-machine poker tournament. The challenge will run over two days and 500 hands of Texas hold ‘em at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Vancouver for a total prize pot of $50,000.
Polaris is the most sophisticated poker-playing program yet written and the product of years of research and development by a team of artificial intelligence experts at the University of Alberta in Canada.
The tournament was organised by the American Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence as part of its annual meeting. The two poker players will play against Polaris simultaneously in adjoining rooms.
Jonathan Schaeffer, the lead scientist behind Polaris, said that, even though his program had the perfect poker face, it was not the favourite to win.
The games are designed to eliminate the influence of luck. Whatever cards are dealt to Mr Laak will automatically be dealt to the computer playing Mr Eslami and vice-versa.
Polaris has been written to learn its opponent’s playing strategy and identify its weaknesses.
“The program knows it has to bluff. In poker, if you don’t bluff you’re playing a bad game, and if you bluff too much, you’re playing a bad game,” Dr Schaeffer said.
The poker tournament will be watched by an audience. The players is encouraged to discuss their decisions and the computer’s strategy.
Tags: Polaris Poker program, Phil Laak, Ali Eslami
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