I Like Big Bots

A technologically significant poker match is going down right now in Canada — Phil Laak and Ali Eslami vs. Polaris, a supposedly bad-ass poker bot — for $50,000. Here\’s an article with more specifics. (Thanks, Venita, for the link!)

This is a scientifically controlled experiment, being played in \”duplicate poker\” format. Further explanation of this concept here. To learn more and follow the action live, you can do so here.

That\’s what Sommer the Batface is doing:

also, don\’t imagine you\’re following that bot-live-blog, but Ali is absolutely running over the computer in the first 75 hands, thanks to an insane run of cards. He\’s up $350 (in limit). Will be fasincating to see if the bot can extract more or less money from Laak with the same cards Ali has gotten so far.

Very cool and interesting. I could see people lining up to try their luck/skill against Polaris. For example, while Laak and Eslami are clearly good players, I wonder how RaiNKhaN would do … you know, since he has been mistaken for a bot and all.