July 18, 2005

Computers play poker, too

When I play chess online, the best players are computers. You can tell when you are playing a computer because they have a little (c) next to their username. There isn't incentive to pretend to be a human, while actually playing with a program, because the only thing involved is rating points (although I have been accused of being a computer from an opponent, along with many other things). But with online poker, who knows how many people are really just computer programs? As a programmer, I think it would be much easier (and much more profitable) to write a very good poker-playing program rather than one that beats the best chess players. Here is an article that talks briefly about the subject, indicating that "They Won't Be A Threat To Humans Until They Can Smoke Cigars, Chew Terbacky, And Spit."

That's trickier than chess, which computers mastered when Deep Blue beat human champ Garry Kasparov. Chess is a "perfect information game": Every player knows the position of every piece on the board. Poker is a "misinformation game": You don't know what cards have yet to be dealt or what your opponents are holding, and your opponents are out to trick you.

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