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Champions Declared In AI Poker Tournament
the_newsbeagle writes "The annual computer poker competition has just wrapped up, in which artificial intelligences battled each other over the (virtual) Texas Hold 'Em table. A researcher who worked on one of the top programs, the University of Alberta's "Hyperborean" program, has blogged about this year's competition and entrants for IEEE Spectrum. His first post explains the rules of the game and why it's tougher for a computer to win at poker than at chess; his second post describes Hyperborean's strategies, and the third gives the results and takes stock of Hyperborean's performance."
Hiding tells and bluffs are nearly impossible for even skilled players. The real trick is to show a "tell" or "bluff" when you aren't. But that means you must know yourself as well as anything else.
I play poker, I have a huge number of "tells". Take video of yourself playing poker and learn your "tells" and figure out a way to mimic those tells at will. Natural Tells are really really hard to fake, and take much practice to imitate. When you can imitate your own tells at will (accurately), then you'll have also mastered your tells. I can't fully hide my tells, but I can fairly accurately represent them when I want.
The greatest skill of poker is remembering everything you have ever seen. Knowing how players play (tendencies) over time also helps. Knowing their personality also can expose when their tells are real verses "practiced" ones.
Lastly knowing the Odds is hugely beneficial. As is Gaming Theory.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
By these criteria, I'm the greatest poker player alive. I have no "tells" of any kind. When I look at my cards, I haven't the faintest idea whether the hand is good or bad, so I couldn't tell you even if I tried. With my 10 luck stat and a silver dollar, I am unbeatable.
I was initially going to just mod this informative and/or insightful, but I wanted to add on instead.
There's certainly some value to understanding tells:
Does your opponent look back at their hole cards when a middling card hits the board? Do they reflexively look at their chips when the flop comes out? Do they make a bet and give a speech about why they're betting? Are they quiet when they weren't before? Are they sitting upright when they were slouched before? All of these mean things - and they all mean different things coming from different players of different experience and skill...
....but none of those things are as important as understanding bet sizing and hand ranges and putting that together with a player's history. The glint in your opponent's eyes isn't nearly as important as the fact that he re-raised out of the small blind when defending against a raise from the cutoff. What hands do this and why? How often does he do this? What does that say about his cards -- or what does it at least say about what cards he's representing. What does it mean when the early limper gets raised and then HE re-raises?
Sure, players lie, but bets speak WAY louder than tells.
Side note: A number of top game pros take beta blockers. Most of their edge comes from understanding the game, but they'll do everything they can do protect the remaining part of the puzzle that is tells -- especially the impossible to prevent ones that adrenaline rushes cause (and beta blockers prevent).