Technology: Claremonters dealt a good hand

“Over the years, the game of poker has attracted more and more attention worldwide with the popularity of televised Texas Hold ‘em tournaments like the high stakes World Series of Poker. In the process, professional poker players have become celebrities, with catchy nicknames like Action Dan Harrington, Phil “the poker brat” Hellmuth and Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson.

Getting swept up in the poker craze, a local software developer and his friend created a poker program that took top honors in this year’s Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Computer Poker Competition in Alberta, Canada. After going undefeated in the no-limit, heads-up category, Jay Cordes, 36, co-developer of BluffBot 2.0, took the news in stride.

Computer: In Poker Match Against a Machine, Humans Are Better Bluffers

“For anyone stuck on a casino stool, playing hours of video poker, rest assured: humans can still beat a computer.

Phil Laak pitting his poker skills against a software program. Mr. Laak, working with a partner, Ali Eslami, won two rounds out of three.

But computers may soon dominate on the felt-top table, as they have on the chessboard.

Computer: Poker hotshots narrowly defeat bluffing computer

“After two thousand hands and countless “flops”, “rivers”, and “turns”, 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 “The Unabomber” Laak and Ali Eslami took on Polaris, software developed by researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada, in a set-up designed to reduce the role that luck normally plays in a game of poker.

Computers: Poker pros to challenge computer in mind-vs.-metal match

“If you think reading the poker faces of your buddies on Texas Hold’em night is tough, try calling the bluff of an opponent with no face at all.

A $50,000 showdown between a poker-playing computer and two of the world’s sharpest poker players will take place on Monday in Vancouver, and it’s anybody’s guess who will take the pot.

Top poker players test skill against computer (Canada)

“University of Alberta researchers are betting their poker-playing computer program will beat two of the sharpest human professional players in the world and they’re not bluffing — yet.

The developers of the Polaris program have challenged Phil (The Unabomber) Laak and Ali Eslami to 2,000 hands of Texas hold ‘em.

The $50,000 man-versus-machine poker match will not only be fun, it will help test advances in artificial intelligence, said Jonathan Schaeffer, leader of the computer science team that created Polaris.”

The Hamilton Spectator (06/11/07)

Bots: Software learns when it pays to deceive

“Imagine being up against a poker player who can calculate the exact odds of a hand being a winner, play it with a straight face, and if necessary bluff with the best of them. Such a player exists, but you won’t find him wearing a Stetson or hiding behind a pair of dark glasses. This player lurks within a computer, created by a pair of academics who have succeeded in making a software agent that can bluff just like a human player can.

Poker-playing computer agents or “bots” are nothing new in themselves. Indeed, many online poker players, especially those who habitually lose, believe that poker sites are riddled with such bots – virtual players that can outwit even the best humans. “I hear this conspiracy theory about poker bots all the time,” says Clément Sire, a physicist and avid poker player at the CNRS, the French national research organisation, in Toulouse – but he doesn’t believe they are that good. “Given the current state of poker bots, if you are losing to them you should be ashamed,” he says.”

NewScientist (05/30/07)

Press Release: Man Versus Machine – PokerBot World Championship on the High Seas

“HixoxiH Software, parent company for Pokerbot.com, is about to change the poker-playing field. It is scheduled to host the first-ever, live digital real money Texas Hold’em tournament – akin to the World Series of Poker – on a Carnival Eastern Caribbean Cruise – September 23-30.

Throughout history, there has been a long tradition of how poker is played. Pokerbot.com (www.pokerbot.com) is excited to tap these uncharted waters and to offer a poker-playing venue to the public that is not only unique, but safe, reliable and honest.

“This event will be the first time in poker history that pokerbots can play in a live, human tournament with real money entry fees and cash prizes,” Ray E. Bornert, II, owner of HixoxiH Software, said. “With online tournaments, it’s not possible to prove that a human or pokerbot was unassisted. But with live digital, it’s possible…”

HixoxiH Software (05/01/07)

Event: Man Vs. Machine – 2007 PokerBot World Championship

“In the fall of 2007, for the first time in history, Texas Hold’Em players, from all over the world, will travel to Miami Florida and board the Carnival cruise ship Valor, where they will compete for 7 days in the same room using laptops and a live digital poker server all contained within a closed local area network. Some of the players will be humans. Some of the players will be bots. They will pay an entry fee just as they would for any other tournament – live or online. The winners will be paid from the prize pool of the entry fees for their event and the winner of winners will receive a trophy ring and the official title 2007 Pokerbot World Champion.”

PokerBot.com