Humans Still Superior When It Comes to Poker

Written by Nigel

Who can forget when the chess Grand Master Kasparov was defeated by the computer Deep Blue in what was dubbed the “Brain’s Last Stand?”  When Deep Blue won the match, the rest of the world commiserated with Kasparov and at the same time marveled at Deep Blue.  Last week, a similar event was held in Canada.  This time it was a match between 2 professional poker players and a computer program called Polaris.

Polaris, 16 years in the making, plays for days before a match, creating 10 different bots that each has a unique playing style.  The very concept of Polaris is enough to make anyone wonder.  Yet after four rounds of Texas Hold ‘em poker, Polaris surrendered and folded once and for all to the humans.

Interestingly enough, lest we be smug and say that poker is too complex for computers to get the hang of, we (humans) barely won that match.  According to Phil Laak (the Unabomber), “I literally felt the same feeling that you would have if you beat 500 people in a tournament and won a million dollars. We won, not by a significant amount, and the bots are closing in.”

Many others agree with the Unabomber.  It seems that it will be only a matter of time till the programmers find a way to make their machines even more powerful.  Yet for now, we can thank these two poker players for proving that man reigns supreme over machine – at least in the world of poker.