The new god of gamblers: a computer has beaten pro poker players for the first time
A computer has defeated professional poker players for the first time by refining its intuition of the game, marking a step forward for artificial intelligence, scientists said Thursday.
The computer program, named DeepStack, beat 11 professional poker players recruited by the International Federation of Poker, in a game of heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em poker in December 2016.
The report in the journal Science describes how the machine bested nearly a dozen players, who were asked to play a 3,000-hand match over a period of four weeks.
“DeepStack beat each of the 11 players who finished their match, with only one outside the margin of statistical significance, making it the first computer programme to beat professional players in heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em poker,” said the study.
DeepStack won by bridging “the gap between approaches used for games of perfect information - like those used in checkers, chess, and Go - with those used for imperfect information games.”
