The Amazing World of Poker and Artificial Intelligence

A highly popular card game in the online casino world, Poker offers players with an option of playing with high stakes to win big money. While the game of Poker does require skills and a strategic approach, the role of luck cannot be ruled out. The most common form of Poker games playable online is Video Poker though new operators are opening up to the option of hosting Poker and Artificial Intelligence on their gaming platforms. ‘Libratus’ has come to be known as the Poker playing AI robot that can get you into tough competition.

Rolling High on Poker and Artificial Intelligence

Libratus- the AI supercomputer was developed by the Carnegie Mellon University. The robot became world famous as it defeated its human counterparts in Poker hands of ‘Heads-Up No-limit Texas Hold’em Poker’ to rise as the next generation of Poker and Artificial Intelligence with the capability of offering strategic reasoning. The robot can bluff, deceive and create an unpredictable situation to stand out as a clear winner irrespective of its human co-players having better hands.

As a human player, the Poker event saw Libratus improving its performance over days on the competition which implicated its gradual learning in real-time. The AI robot that didn’t have a solid plan initially seemed to get a hang of the game with time just as human players who learn by doing.  It was observed that with every new hand the supercomputer brain managed to defend with a stronger strategy adding to its better positioning in the game ahead.

The game of Head’s-Up No Limit Texas Hold’em is regarded as a rather complex format among other poker games. In real-time, the Poker and Artificial Intelligence robot managed to make fruitful decisions without having complete knowledge of all the cards in play. Libratus made its strategic moves with a speed of 1000 teraflops which works out to be almost 7250x faster than any high-end laptop. The memory storage capacity of the Poker playing AI robot was 274 Terabytes which contributed to the ease with which it ‘upped the Ante’ and defeated the four players outright, literally breaking their bank.

The reward function in Poker is as rewarding for humans as for computers. In the Poker event, Libratus optimized the reward function, though the game is one of the multiple possibilities. It made more money by employing an action that reaped it more profitable. The estimates are said to be more accurate than that of a human as it played and learned 100% from scratch by playing many poker hands.

The researcher, Noam along with his team combined several bet sizes and developed one policy to address many situations making it simpler for the AI to arrive at a workable strategy for all. Poker and Artificial Intelligence approach varies from AI approach of other games. In a Poker game, the opponent’s cards aren’t visible unlike games of Chess and Go. Thus, it requires players to start from scratch. Poker and Artificial Intelligence uses an algorithm to decide on how much to bet following the opponent’s betting patterns.

Experts applauded the massive winning potential of the robot that was displayed in how it outdid the best Poker players in the world and praised its capability of entertaining the world in an efficient manner.

For Poker enthusiasts interested in taking up a challenge to beat a supercomputer, there is a multitude of spectacular video poker variants with a range of betting limits playable at top online casinos.