Computer poker players
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Computer poker players are computer programs designed to play the game of poker against human opponents or other computer opponents. They are commonly referred to as pokerbots or just simply bots.
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[edit] On the internet
These bots or computer programs are used often in online poker situations as either legitimate opponents for humans players or a form of cheating. Whether or not the use of bot constitutes cheating is typically defined by the poker room that hosts the actual poker games, however the vast majority of cardrooms forbid the use of bots.
The subject of bots and computer assistance, while playing online poker, is very controversial. Player opinion is quite varied when it comes to deciding which types of computer software fall into the category unfair advantage. One of the primary factors in defining a bot is whether or not the computer program can play by itself without the help of its human operator. Computer programs with this ability are said to have or be an autoplayer and are universally defined to be in the category of bots regardless of how well they play poker. The issue of unfair advantage has more to do with what types of information and artificial intelligence are available to the computer program.
[edit] Artificial Intelligence
Because poker is a game of imperfect information some cards in play are concealed, making it impossible for a computer to deduce the exact state the game is in. Because of this lack of information, the computer's programmers have to implement systems based on the Bayes theorem, Nash equilibrium, Monte Carlo simulation or neural networks, all of which are imperfect techniques. This is unlike games such as chess, where because no information is concealed, a computer can play with greater accuracy than a human.
Methods are being developed to at least approximate perfect poker strategy from the game theory perspective in the heads-up (two player) game, and increasingly good systems are being created for the multi-player game. Perfect strategy has multiple meanings in this context. From a game-theoretic optimal point of view, a perfect strategy is one that cannot expect to lose to any other player's strategy; however, optimal strategy can vary in the presence of sub-optimal players who have weaknesses that can be exploited. In this case, a perfect strategy would be one that correctly or closely models those weaknesses and takes advantage of them to make a profit, such as those explained above.
[edit] Research groups
A large amount of the research into computer poker players is being performed at the University of Alberta by the GAMES group led by Jonathan Schaeffer who developed Poki and PsOpti. The Poki engine has been licensed for the entertainment game STACKED featuring Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu. "PsOpti" is available under the name "SparBot" in the poker training program "Poker Academy".
[edit] Historic contests
[edit] ACM competitions
The ACM has hosted competitions where the competitors submit an actual piece of software able to play poker on their specific platform. The event hosts operate everything and conduct the contest and report the results. (citations and references and links needed).
[edit] The 2005 World Series of Poker Robots
In the summer 2005, the online poker room Golden Palace hosted a promotional tournament in Las Vegas, at the old Binions, with a $100k giveaway prize. It was billed as the 2005 World Series of Poker Robots. The tournament was bots only with no entry fee. The bot developers were computer scientists from six nationalities who traveled at their own expense. The host platform was Poker Academy. The event also featured a demonstration headsup event with Phil Laak.
[edit] The UofA Man V Machine experiment
In the summer 2007, the University of Alberta hosted a highly specialized headsup tournament between humans and their Polaris bot, at the AAAI gathering in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The host platform was written by the University of Alberta. There was a $50k maximum giveaway purse with special rules to motivate the humans to play well. The humans paid no entry fee. The unique tournament featured four duplicate style sessions of 500 hands each. The humans won by a narrow margin.
[edit] The 2007 PokerBot World Championship
In the fall 2007, pokerbot.com hosted the 2007 PokerBot World Championship on a seven day cruise out of Miami, FL. The event was open to both humans and bots. The host plaform was Poker Professional. There were nine entrants from four countries. The contestants paid their own travel expenses and tournament entry fees. The prize pool was composed from the entry fees. Trophy rings were awarded to the winners in each format category. Historically, this was the first recorded instance where bots were able to enter a traditional style poker tournament alongside humans. Each contestant was required to supply their own laptop able to interface with the host platform.
To date there is yet to be an actual hardware robot to sit and play poker at a standard physical poker table as any human would.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The First Man-Machine Poker Championship
- Science News: The Ultimate Poker Face
- Wired:On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Bot
- USnews.com: Can "pokerbots" beat humans?
- Programming Poker AI Article by the programmer of the AI for the World Series of Poker Game
- The 2007 PokerBot World Championship
