Interesting Holdem Read

[Festus22]

http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~jonathan/...pers/aij02.pdf

[bicyclekick]

wow...long read...I'm on page 21...still goin.

Real interesting...

[Festus22]

I found this passage very interesting:

"These lowest level games (open to everyone) vary from wild to fairly normal, offering
a wide variety of game conditions to test the program. The second and third tier games
resemble typical games in a casino or card room. Most of these players take the game
seriously, and some are very strong (including some professionals). Since Poki has been a
consistent winner in these higher tiered games (and is in the top 10% of all players on the
server), we believe the program plays better than the average player in a low-limit casino
game.
Recently, several online poker servers have begun offering real-money games played
over the Internet. The response has been very favorable, and it is normal to have more than
1000 players logged into a virtual card room at any given time. With the agreement of
the entrepreneurs, this might provide a future venue for testing programs in a completely
realistic setting."

Could it only be a matter of time before some of our opponents are computer programs? Given the apparent level of sophistication involved, that doesn't appear likely anytime soon but it certainly isn't a stretch that someone will offer something like this commercially. Given the potential dollars involved, I would even say it's very likely.

[GrinningBuddha]

I played against Pokibot quite a bit a few years ago when it was active on the IRC poker channels. He was quite amusing to play against, and was a half decent player. Mind you, there was quite a few fish there, but he (it) consistently won money. It was also programmed with human-like sayings, and would give up his seat if asked so that another human could play. Great fun.

I'd be interested to see how he's advanced in the 4 years since I last played with him...

[Festus22]

Does anyone see this as a threat to the online game? I could see some entity buying the source code and turning it into a commercially available product with only a few modications. Just enter the player types and the cards as they're dealt and press whatever action button it specifies. If it was already playing in the top 10% against good players 2 years ago, one can only think it's gotten better (and maybe the competition has gotten worse). You could charge a mint for something like this since it would pay for itself in very short order.

I guess if I see someone named HAL show up at my table, maybe it's time to move on.