Polaris (poker bot)
Encyclopedia
Polaris is a Texas hold 'em
poker
playing program developed by the computer poker research group at the University of Alberta
, a project that has been under way for 16 years as of 2007. Polaris is a composite program consisting of a number of bots, including Hyperborean08, the winner of the limit equilibrium series in the 2008 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
(AAAI) Computer Poker Competition. Polaris also contains a number of other fixed strategies, and chooses between these strategies during a match. Polaris requires little computational power at match time, so it is run on an Apple MacBook Pro
laptop during competitions. Polaris plays only heads-up (two player) Limit Texas hold'em.
and Ali Eslami
at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. The competition consisted of 4 duplicate matches, with 500 hands per match. In each duplicate match, the same cards were dealt to both pairs of players, human and bot, but with the seating reversed. This meant that if Polaris had terrible hands in one half of the match against Phil, the other copy of Polaris would be getting great cards in the other half of the match against Ali. This was done to reduce variance, or "luck factor", as neither team could say they got the worse set of cards. The two players were in separate rooms to eliminate the chance of the audience revealing information about the hands, which would be especially problematic in a duplicate match. Laak had previously played the Polaris predecessor Vexbot in 2005 in a prior tournament. Laak admitted to luck playing a part in his victory over Vexbot.
After roughly 16 hours of play over two days, Polaris tied the first round, won the second and lost the last two. One of the lost matches was against a learning variant which tried to switch between a few styles of play, while all of the remainder were against large, static, randomized sets of rules which approximate a pair of Nash equilibrium strategies. Laak and Eslami split $10,000 for the two wins, and $2,500 for the draw.
On July 3-6, 2008, Polaris competed against six human professional poker players in the Second Man-Machine Poker Championship, held in Las Vegas at the 2008 Gaming Life Expo. Polaris defeated the human players with 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie. Each of the six sessions was a duplicate match of 500 hands against two different players, resulting in six thousand hands played. Across all six sessions, Polaris won 195 big blinds. The version of Polaris used in the 2008 match was much stronger than the 2007 version, both in the quality of the component strategies and in its ability to learn which component strategy to use.
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
poker
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...
playing program developed by the computer poker research group at 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...
, a project that has been under way for 16 years as of 2007. Polaris is a composite program consisting of a number of bots, including Hyperborean08, the winner of the limit equilibrium series in the 2008 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence or AAAI is an international, nonprofit, scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines...
(AAAI) Computer Poker Competition. Polaris also contains a number of other fixed strategies, and chooses between these strategies during a match. Polaris requires little computational power at match time, so it is run on an Apple MacBook Pro
MacBook Pro
The MacBook Pro is a line of Macintosh portable computers introduced in January 2006 by Apple. It replaced the PowerBook G4 and was the second model, after the iMac, to be announced in the Apple–Intel transition...
laptop during competitions. Polaris plays only heads-up (two player) Limit Texas hold'em.
Play vs. professionals
On July 23-24, 2007, Polaris played against poker professionals Phil LaakPhil Laak
Philip "Phil" C. Laak is a professional poker player, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour title, a World Series of Poker bracelet and has appeared on numerous nationally-aired television shows.-Early life:...
and Ali Eslami
Ali Eslami
Ali Eslami is a professional poker player currently residing in Los Angeles area. He was one of two people, who first won the man-machine poker championship....
at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. The competition consisted of 4 duplicate matches, with 500 hands per match. In each duplicate match, the same cards were dealt to both pairs of players, human and bot, but with the seating reversed. This meant that if Polaris had terrible hands in one half of the match against Phil, the other copy of Polaris would be getting great cards in the other half of the match against Ali. This was done to reduce variance, or "luck factor", as neither team could say they got the worse set of cards. The two players were in separate rooms to eliminate the chance of the audience revealing information about the hands, which would be especially problematic in a duplicate match. Laak had previously played the Polaris predecessor Vexbot in 2005 in a prior tournament. Laak admitted to luck playing a part in his victory over Vexbot.
After roughly 16 hours of play over two days, Polaris tied the first round, won the second and lost the last two. One of the lost matches was against a learning variant which tried to switch between a few styles of play, while all of the remainder were against large, static, randomized sets of rules which approximate a pair of Nash equilibrium strategies. Laak and Eslami split $10,000 for the two wins, and $2,500 for the draw.
On July 3-6, 2008, Polaris competed against six human professional poker players in the Second Man-Machine Poker Championship, held in Las Vegas at the 2008 Gaming Life Expo. Polaris defeated the human players with 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie. Each of the six sessions was a duplicate match of 500 hands against two different players, resulting in six thousand hands played. Across all six sessions, Polaris won 195 big blinds. The version of Polaris used in the 2008 match was much stronger than the 2007 version, both in the quality of the component strategies and in its ability to learn which component strategy to use.
See also
- Association for the Advancement of Artificial IntelligenceAssociation for the Advancement of Artificial IntelligenceThe Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence or AAAI is an international, nonprofit, scientific society devoted to advancing the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines...
- Computer poker playersComputer poker playersComputer 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.- On the Internet :...
External links
- Official site includes hand histories, a copy of the live blog that was updated throughout the matches, a gallery of photographs, video highlight reels, and post-match analysis.