Computer program wins second Man v. Machine competition
7th July, 2008
The stage was set for the second round of Man vs. Machine poker challenge for Polaris II, a poker-playing computer programme created by a group of programmers from the University of Alberta.
Polaris had lost to poker professionals last year by a narrow victory, but this year managed to defeat seven players from stoxpoker.com, an online poker training site.
“We’re very excited,” said Michael Bowling, head of the team who created Polaris II. “I think there’s no question that we’re playing on the level of the absolute best human players in the world at the game of heads up limit hold’em.”
The computer programme emerged victorious after posting a record of three wins, two losses and a draw against the poker players in heads up matches.
The programmers of Polaris modified their creation by altering computer’s ability to reason, learn and adapt to its opponents, which is essential in poker. Many in the poker world are astonished by what this means for the future of poker and technology.
“For those of us who make our incomes largely from playing heads up games, whether (computers) are ready to beat us or not, they’re certainly ready to beat some of our opponents,” Hawrilenko said. “They might win some of our money away.”
I don’t think this is the last will be hearing from Polaris. Bowling said that his team will do some post-match analysis before the next Man v. Machine matchup, but there seems to be plenty of interested poker players, especially around the WSOP, who would be willing to test their skills and risk their reputation against the computer.
By Michael
