[BruceZ]

Chess computers just play against a position; poker computers must play against people. The correctness of a computed chess move depends on the position and not on who the opposing player is. Poker played with no regard to the tendencies of the other players can be mediocre at best, and is easily defeated. Chess for a computer is essentially a computational exercise. The more powerful the computing resources, the better decisions can be made. Infinite computing resources would produce a chess program which can never lose. Simply increasing computing resources alone will not help a hold'em program to make better decisions. It is much more difficult for a computer to play high quality hold'em than high quality chess. This is why chess computers have existed for awhile which can defeat all but the very best players in the world, and now can sometimes even beat the very best. The same cannot be said for hold'em playing computers.