Last Friday (April 24), the “Brains Vs. Artificial Intelligence” competition kicked-off at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Today, exactly halfway through the event, computer program “Claudico,” a joint effort between the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and Carnegie Mellon, has played over 40,000 hands of No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker against four of the game’s professionals.
The pros, Doug Polk, Dong Kim, Bjorn Li, and Jason Les, are among the world’s best poker players and have amassed millions in total winnings. However, this is their first time competing against an artificial intelligence program, as this is the first time it has ever been done.
“Poker is now a benchmark for artificial intelligence research, just as chess once was,” said Tuomas Sandholm, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon who has led development of Claudico. “It’s a game of exceeding complexity that requires a machine to make decisions based on incomplete and often misleading information, thanks to bluffing, slow play and other decoys. And to win, the machine has to out-smart its human opponents.”
Claudico was built using algorithms that analyzed the rules of poker. While experienced professionals will bluff, raise, or employ other tactics to deceive their opponents, Claudico simply abides by the basic rules of the game in order to win.
“The pros may find that playing Claudico is like playing a Martian,” said Sandholm. “Claudico performs real-time reasoning while playing a hand and improves its strategy during the match by continuously computing. I know many people are rooting for the humans, but I’m still hopeful that Claudico will give them a run for their money.”
Throughout the 13-day tournament, each pro will play 1,500 hands a day against Claudico. By the end of the competition (May 7), a total of 80,000 hands will have been played and a winner decided. In most poker tournaments, a player is eliminated once they lose all of their chips. The one player remaining at the end is deemed the winner. However, in this case, the player, or AI program, with the most chips at the end will be declared the winner.
Prior to the competition starting, Polk stated, “I imagine that the humans have an edge here. However, it is very difficult to determine an outcome with any sort of stability, as I do not know what I am going to be up against.”
“My strategy will change more so than when playing against human players,” Polk added. “I think there will be less hand reading so to speak, and less mind games. In some ways I think it will be nice as I can focus on playing a more pure game, and not have to worry about if he thinks that I think, etc. So I am looking forward to the match.”
Currently, three of the four “Brains” are up. Polk leads Claudico by 262,489 chips, Li by 304,914, and Kim by 160,401. However, Claudico has the upper hand on Les by 124,137 chips. Combined, the “Brains” are ahead of Claudico by a total chip count of 603,667. (Note: These numbers are constantly changing as the tournament goes on.)
“Playing Claudico has been unlike any other game I’ve ever played,” Polk said. “I’ve been taking notes along the way when it makes a move that I wasn’t expecting so that I can continue to improve my strategy and make sure I walk away with a win.”
To view the live feed and for more information on the event click here.