Computer poker players
Encyclopedia
Computer poker players are computer programs designed to play the game of poker
against human opponents or other computer opponents. They are commonly referred to as pokerbots or just simply bots
.
situations as either legitimate opponents for humans players or a form of cheating
. Whether or not the use of bot constitutes cheating is typically defined by the poker room that hosts the actual poker games. Most (if not all) cardrooms forbid the use of bots although the level of enforcement from site operators varies considerably.
The issue of unfair advantage has much to do with what types of information and artificial intelligence are available to the computer program
. In addition, bots can play for many hours at a time without human weaknesses such as fatigue and can endure the natural variances of the game without being influenced by human emotion
(or "tilt
"). On the other hand, bots have some significant disadvantages - for example, it is very difficult for a bot to accurately read a bluff or adjust to the strategy of opponents the way humans can.
in the client software. Another method is to use CAPTCHA
s at random intervals during play.
s.
In a brick and mortar casino a house player does not subvert the fairness of the game being offered as long as the house is dealing honestly. In an online setting the same is also true. By definition, an honest online poker room, that chooses to operate house bots, would guarantee that the house bots did not have access to any information not also available to any other player in the hand (the same would apply to any human shill
as well). The problem is that in an online setting the house has no way to prove their bots are not receiving sensitive information from the card server. This is further exacerbated by the ease with which this can be accomplished in a digital environment without being detected. For the house to even prove they are not using any house players to begin with is essentially impossible - probably the only real way that could be done would be to disclose the confidential personal information of every player and that obviously cannot be done due to privacy
considerations.
(because some cards in play are concealed) thus making it impossible for anyone (including a computer) to deduce the final outcome of the hand. Because of this lack of information, the computer's programmers have to implement systems based on the Bayes theorem, Nash equilibrium
, Monte Carlo simulation or neural network
s, all of which are imperfect techniques. This is unlike games such as chess
where (because no information is concealed) a computer can play with greater accuracy than a human.
Methods are being developed to at least approximate perfect poker strategy from the game theory
perspective in the heads-up (two player) game, and increasingly good systems are being created for the multi-player game. Perfect strategy has multiple meanings in this context. From a game-theoretic optimal point of view, a perfect strategy is one that cannot expect to lose to any other player's strategy; however, optimal strategy can vary in the presence of sub-optimal players who have weaknesses that can be exploited. In this case, a perfect strategy would be one that correctly or closely models those weaknesses and takes advantage of them to make a profit, such as those explained above.
by the GAMES group led by Jonathan Schaeffer
who developed Poki and PsOpti. The Poki engine has been licensed for the entertainment game STACKED featuring Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu
. "PsOpti" is available under the name "SparBot" in the poker training program "Poker Academy".
hosted a highly specialized headsup tournament between humans and their Polaris bot, at the AAAI conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The host platform was written by the University of Alberta
. There was a $50k maximum giveaway purse with special rules to motivate the humans to play well. The humans paid no entry fee. The unique tournament featured four duplicate style sessions of 500 hands each. The humans won by a narrow margin.
In the summer of 2008, the University of Alberta
and the poker coaching website Stoxpoker ran a second tournament during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The tournament had six duplicate sessions of 500 hands each, and the human players were Heads-Up Limit specialists. Polaris won the tournament with 3 wins, 2 losses and a draw. The results of the tournament, including the hand histories from the matches, are available on the competition website.
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
against human opponents or other computer opponents. They are commonly referred to as pokerbots or just simply bots
Bots
Bots may refer to:* BOTS!!, a massively multiplayer online game distributed by Acclaim Games* Bots , open source EDI translator * Bots , a Dutch language folk rock group* British overseas territories...
.
On the Internet
These bots or computer programs are used often in online pokerOnline poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...
situations as either legitimate opponents for humans players or a form of cheating
Cheating in poker
Cheating in poker is any behavior outside the rules that is intended to give an unfair advantage to one or more players.-Types of cheating:Cheating can be done many ways, including collusion, sleight-of-hand , or the use of physical objects such as marked cards or holdout devices.Cheating occurs in...
. Whether or not the use of bot constitutes cheating is typically defined by the poker room that hosts the actual poker games. Most (if not all) cardrooms forbid the use of bots although the level of enforcement from site operators varies considerably.
Player bots
The subject of player bots and computer assistance, while playing online poker, is very controversial. Player opinion is quite varied when it comes to deciding which types of computer software fall into the category unfair advantage. One of the primary factors in defining a bot is whether or not the computer program can interface with the poker client (in other words, play by itself) without the help of its human operator. Computer programs with this ability are said to have or be an autoplayer and are universally defined to be in the category of bots regardless of how well they play poker.The issue of unfair advantage has much to do with what types of information and artificial intelligence are available to the computer program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
. In addition, bots can play for many hours at a time without human weaknesses such as fatigue and can endure the natural variances of the game without being influenced by human emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
(or "tilt
Tilt (poker)
Tilt is a poker term for a state of mental or emotional confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy, usually resulting in the player becoming over-aggressive...
"). On the other hand, bots have some significant disadvantages - for example, it is very difficult for a bot to accurately read a bluff or adjust to the strategy of opponents the way humans can.
House enforcement
While the terms and conditions of poker sites generally forbid the use of bots, the level of enforcement depends on the site operator. Some will aggressively seek out and ban bot users through the utilization of a variety of software tools. The poker client can be programmed to detect bots although this is controversial in its own right as it might be seen as tantamount to embedding spywareSpyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
in the client software. Another method is to use CAPTCHA
CAPTCHA
A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing as an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a person. The process usually involves one computer asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade...
s at random intervals during play.
House bots
The subject of house bots is even more controversial due to the conflict of interest it potentially poses. By the strictest definition, a house bot is an automated player operated by the online poker room itself, although some would define more indirect examples (for example, a player operating bots with the knowledge and consent of the operator) as "house bots" as well. These type of bots would be the equivalent of brick and mortar shillShill
A shill, plant or stooge is a person who helps a person or organization without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with that person or organization...
s.
In a brick and mortar casino a house player does not subvert the fairness of the game being offered as long as the house is dealing honestly. In an online setting the same is also true. By definition, an honest online poker room, that chooses to operate house bots, would guarantee that the house bots did not have access to any information not also available to any other player in the hand (the same would apply to any human shill
Shill
A shill, plant or stooge is a person who helps a person or organization without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with that person or organization...
as well). The problem is that in an online setting the house has no way to prove their bots are not receiving sensitive information from the card server. This is further exacerbated by the ease with which this can be accomplished in a digital environment without being detected. For the house to even prove they are not using any house players to begin with is essentially impossible - probably the only real way that could be done would be to disclose the confidential personal information of every player and that obviously cannot be done due to privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
considerations.
Artificial Intelligence
Poker is a game of imperfect informationPerfect information
In game theory, perfect information describes the situation when a player has available the same information to determine all of the possible games as would be available at the end of the game....
(because some cards in play are concealed) thus making it impossible for anyone (including a computer) to deduce the final outcome of the hand. Because of this lack of information, the computer's programmers have to implement systems based on the Bayes theorem, Nash equilibrium
Nash equilibrium
In game theory, Nash equilibrium is a solution concept of a game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only his own strategy unilaterally...
, Monte Carlo simulation or neural network
Neural network
The term neural network was traditionally used to refer to a network or circuit of biological neurons. The modern usage of the term often refers to artificial neural networks, which are composed of artificial neurons or nodes...
s, all of which are imperfect techniques. This is unlike games such as chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
where (because no information is concealed) a computer can play with greater accuracy than a human.
Methods are being developed to at least approximate perfect poker strategy from the game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
perspective in the heads-up (two player) game, and increasingly good systems are being created for the multi-player game. Perfect strategy has multiple meanings in this context. From a game-theoretic optimal point of view, a perfect strategy is one that cannot expect to lose to any other player's strategy; however, optimal strategy can vary in the presence of sub-optimal players who have weaknesses that can be exploited. In this case, a perfect strategy would be one that correctly or closely models those weaknesses and takes advantage of them to make a profit, such as those explained above.
Research groups
A large amount of the research into computer poker players is being performed at the University of AlbertaUniversity of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
by the GAMES group led by Jonathan Schaeffer
Jonathan Schaeffer
Jonathan Herbert Schaeffer is a Canadian researcher and professor at the University of Alberta and the Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence....
who developed Poki and PsOpti. The Poki engine has been licensed for the entertainment game STACKED featuring Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big...
. "PsOpti" is available under the name "SparBot" in the poker training program "Poker Academy".
ACM competitions
The ACM has hosted competitions where the competitors submit an actual piece of software able to play poker on their specific platform. The event hosts operate everything and conduct the contest and report the results. (citations and references and links needed).The 2005 World Series of Poker Robots
In the summer 2005, the online poker room Golden Palace hosted a promotional tournament in Las Vegas, at the old Binions, with a $100k giveaway prize. It was billed as the 2005 World Series of Poker Robots. The tournament was bots only with no entry fee. The bot developers were computer scientists from six nationalities who traveled at their own expense. The host platform was Poker Academy. The event also featured a demonstration headsup event with Phil Laak.The UofA Man V Machine experiments
In the summer 2007, the University of AlbertaUniversity of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
hosted a highly specialized headsup tournament between humans and their Polaris bot, at the AAAI conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The host platform was written by the University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
. There was a $50k maximum giveaway purse with special rules to motivate the humans to play well. The humans paid no entry fee. The unique tournament featured four duplicate style sessions of 500 hands each. The humans won by a narrow margin.
In the summer of 2008, the University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
and the poker coaching website Stoxpoker ran a second tournament during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The tournament had six duplicate sessions of 500 hands each, and the human players were Heads-Up Limit specialists. Polaris won the tournament with 3 wins, 2 losses and a draw. The results of the tournament, including the hand histories from the matches, are available on the competition website.
The Annual Computer Poker Competition
Since 2006, the Annual Computer Poker Competition has run a series of competitions for poker programs. In 2009, three types of poker were played: Heads-Up Limit Texas Hold'em, Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold'em, and 3-player Limit Texas Hold'em. Within each event, two winners are named: the agent that wins the most matches, and the agent that wins the most money. These winners are often not the same agent, as one evaluation rewards robust players, and the other rewards players that are good at exploiting the other agents' mistakes. The competition is motivated by scientific research, and there is an emphasis on ensuring that all of the results are statistically significant by running millions of hands of poker.External links
- The Annual Computer Poker Competition
- Programming Poker AI Article by the programmer of the AI for the World Series of Poker Game
- USnews.com: Can "pokerbots" beat humans?
- MSNBC Article - 2004-Sep
- Science News: The Ultimate Poker Face
- NYTimes.com: Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling