Artificial Intelligence, Poker Bots and Wining at Poker
Approximately ten years ago I was approached by a company from Israel that was working on some artificial intelligence projects. The owner loved to play poker so he started on a new venture to try to see if he could develop a program based upon artificial intelligence to help him to become a better poker player. This project involved the development and programming of the software, physics, mathematical analysis and a variety of gaming and casino marketing experts including myself. All of this was before the current boom and popularity of both online poker and casino gaming. Einstein was ahead of his time as well as the father of modern physics. Einstein was a genius; Einstein was a curious type of individual who liked to question “Why?” My poker enthusiast friend was the same type of creative, curious individual but whose passion was playing poker and gambling. He was convinced that with the help of computers, proper programming and software development involving complex algorithms, etc. that he could learn the secrets and teach himself to be a great poker player and a great gambler. I am still not sure whether he wanted to learn these skills purely for enjoyment or to make lots of money as a semi-professional, highly skilled player. He never told me.
Artificial Intelligence or “AI” can replicate or mimic many of the human brain functions. Computer programmers have often played with new software applications to try to match or improve upon human brain functions. This became very evident with the game of Chess. Deep Blue was the name given to a chess playing computer developed by IBM. On May 11, 1997, the machine, with human intervention between games, won the second six-game match against world champion Garry Kasparov by two wins to one with three draws. Kasparov accused IBM of cheating and demanded a rematch. IBM refused and retired Deep Blue. Kasparov had beaten a previous version of Deep Blue in 1996. IBM used one of their faster computers in 1997 but that was sixteen years ago. Computer chips, RAM and software have been improving dramatically and geometrically every year since 1997. It is amazing how powerful some of the new computers for gaming are today compared to just a few years ago. […]