R2D2 -- Great in Star Wars ... but a lousy poker player!
HUMANS-1 ROBOTS-0 This is my third re-visit to the poker robot debate but this time we have some professional research to draw on. Despite all the scaremongering about poker robot programmes eventually taking over online poker games and thrashing human beings with their magic software it appears all is not well in the high tech HQ of Machinesville, USA.
POKER IS NOT CHESS Whilst it was an achievable task to produce a robot that managed to beat two World Chess Champions it has proved to be an impossible task for the software boffins to pre-programme a half decent poker-bot. Why? Well, chess has a certain mathematical logic about it which poker happily avoids by a wide margin.
CONSIDER THESE ISSUES How do you suppose you would effectively pre-programme bluffing, emotional betting, uncertainty, guessing, deception and a whole range of probabilities based on time of the month, rows with the wife and the occasional 50 Cent fan who wants to “Get Rich or Die Trying”? Answer? You can’t and it’s why no online players worth their salt need to give a toss whether or not they’re playing a Chinaman in Shanghai or a robot in Seattle when he or she takes a seat at a web-based poker game. Personally, a Chinese poker player is far more likely to put the wind up me as they learn to gamble in the womb and perfect it in the nursery.
ENTER ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Interestingly, the American Association of Artificial Intelligence is conducting a series of tests on poker robots. One of the conclusions already reached is that whilst these programmed machines are fine for deep problem solving their bolts begin to drop off in despair when it comes to the kind of psycho behaviour the average Texas Hold’em “heads up” tends to generate.
MAN VERSUS METAL It was gratifying to note that while poker champ Phil Laak was battling a poker robot programme back into its parts’ bin during a serious test at last year’s WSOP, members of the crowd were chanting, “Humans! Humans!” No vocal support was heard coming from nearby vending machines and possibly as a result of this obvious lack of fan encouragement the poker robot programme caved in like “Tin” Henman. Not much of a joke, I know, but the poker robots certainly are, so quit worrying about micro-chips and concentrate on building a decent stack of the brightly coloured circular kind that really matter.
