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Researchers "Solve" Texas Hold'Em, Create Perfect Robotic Player

Posted by samzenpus on from the I'll-raise-you-infinity dept.

Jason Koebler writes The best limit Texas Hold'Em poker player in the world is a robot. Given enough hands, it will never, ever lose, regardless of what its opponent does or which cards it is dealt. Researchers at the University of Alberta essentially "brute forced" the game of limit poker, in which there are roughly 3 x 10^14 possible decisions. Cepheus runs through a massive table of all of these possible permutations of the game—the table itself is 11 terabytes of data—and decides what the best move is, regardless of opponent.

2 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Re:I guess that means ... by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Maybe so, but a lot of online casinos have some reason to kiss their feet. You see, a lot of countries have laws against "gambling", which is usually defined as playing games for money where luck is the deciding factor.

    And these people just proved that luck plays no role.

    So playing poker is no longer gambling. Scientifically proven.

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  2. Re:I guess that means ... by kamapuaa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This doesn't prove it at all. You shouldn't have been modified +5 Insightful. Over the course of a game, luck is very important. Like you get dealt the card you already have, or you get dealt crap.

    Blackjack also has a perfect strategy, and of course blackjack has a great amount of luck.

    I guess if you planned on playing an infinite amount of games, luck wouldn't be a part of Texas Hold Em. For somebody playing a finite amount, luck is key.

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