Re: How soon do you think poker AI will be able to beat all players?
I accept your point, and it is a good one, but I would add that is not often a good idea to bluff completely randomly in poker. But neither is it a good idea to repeatedly bluff only when a scare card hits or only when your opponent's actions imply that they are weak. At the same time, a bot would have to bluff on occasion (and pick good spots to do so) or the pro would have an edge.
As I said before, a top player would be continually putting their opponent to the test, and a bot, by definition, is programmed to act in a certain way.
I would concede that these issues probably don't make it impossible for AI to be invented that could consisently beat a top player sometime in the future, but I do think that we are not even close at present. Every strategy has a counter-strategy, but the professional players have so many weapons in their strategic armouries and are so good at mixing up their play that any bot would have to be very sophisticated indeed to stand a chance against them.
Having said that, in heads-up play, going all in every hand would probably result in a fair proportion of wins for the bot. It depends really on whether we are talking about a bot designed to play one opponent or a full table of professionals? And if it is playing just one player, was it designed to beat that particular opponent's dominant style, and would the player have knowledge of either this or the fact that they are playing against a computer?
Sorry if this post appears a bit rambling, I am thinking as I type, but it is an interesting subject... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
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