Computer Scientists Create ‘Unbeatable’ Poker Algorithm

A team of researchers has created the perfect poker player, in the form of a computer algorithm. Scientist Michael Bowling, with his colleagues at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and Finnish software developer Oskari Tammelin, created the Cepheus Poker Project to develop a system to solve heads up fixed-limit Texas Hold’em, a variation on poker. They succeeded, creating a virtual player that boasts a perfect game, including the ability to bluff.

Bowling claims that bluffing is pure maths, a part of game theory, contrary to the common belief that it is instinctive, saying, “Bluffing falls out of the mathematics of the game.”

Although the Cepheus program is not guaranteed to win every single hand, the algorithm invariably wins the game in the long run.

Eric Jackson, a computer-poker researcher in Menlo Park, California, said, “The strategy the authors have computed is so close to perfect as to render pointless further work on this game. I think that it will come as a surprise to experts that a game this big has been solved this soon.”

The algorithm is available online to any poker ace that wants to test it.

Source: Business Standard