Poker Pros vs. Computer: And The Winner Is...

It was being billed as an epic Heads-Up No-limit Texas Hold’em challenge between Man and Computer. 

A study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh at nearby Rivers Casino had poker pros Doug Polk, Dong Kim, Bjorn Li and Jason Les take on the artificial intelligence. 

When all was said and done, the poker pros walked away victorious…..just barely though.

Three of the four players had more money than the computer. Together the human players' winnings exceeded Claudico's by $732,713.

Bjorn Li, Doug Polk, and Dong Kim led Claudico by $529,033, $213,671, and $70,491, respectively. Jason Les trailed Claudico by $80,482.

 “Poker is now a benchmark for artificial intelligence research, just as chess once was,” said Thomas Sandholm, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon who has led development of Claudico. “It’s a game of exceeding complexity that requires a machine to make decisions based on incomplete and often misleading information, thanks to bluffing, slow play and other decoys. And to win, the machine has to out-smart its human opponents.”

The margin of victory may on the surface appear significant but, given that $170 million was bet during the contest, the human monetary edge amounts to less than half a percentage point of that total -- a statistical tie, InfoWeek.com points out.

- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com