Las Vegas (NV) – An unflinching, uncaring silicon machine beat several top poker champions during “Man versus Machine” match at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas.  The Polaris program developed by University of Alberta researchers was beaten last year, but managed to best the players this year with a 2 win, 1 loss and 1 draw record.  And don’t think the machine had it easy, three of the human competitors had more than $1 million in lifetime winnings each.

Each of the four matches consisted of 500 hands of Limit Texas Hold’em poker.  Researchers analyzed approximately eight billion poker hands and believe the program can play a perfect game.

"It's possible, given enough computing power, for computers to play 'perfectly,' where over a long enough match, the program cannot lose money," said Michael Bowling of the university’s computer poker research group. "Humans will always make some mistakes, meaning the program will have an advantage."

Read more … University of Alberta press release