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Friday 27th July 2007 Man beats machine in poker showdown
Although computers may be the way of the future, when it comes to poker, the wiles of the human brain have not yet been licked by technology.
In a competition organised by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, poker pros were pitched against a computer programme called Polaris developed by the University of Alberta, to see whether man or machine would win.
After four rounds, it was found that people still had the poker edge as Ali Eslami beat the programme by 570 points.
Yet the match was close, with one round resulting in a tie, one round won by the human player and the computer triumphing in the third round.
"I really am happy it's over," Mr Eslami told the Middle East Times. "I am surprised we won because Polaris is already so good and it will be tough to beat in future." He added that it was a surprisingly tiring ordeal to beat the machine.
Michael Littman, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University, who was the official arbiter of the game, said that despite expecting a draw, the human players were "clear winners".
This news may come to help poker fans in the US to convince authorities that poker is a psychological game, which means that it involves skill.
Source: Direct News
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