[DarkMagus]

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I think I may be missing something here, but surely with any game where by you can see all of your opponents moves and pieces, there is an exact strategie and counter strategie to every move.

In something like Hold 'em whereby cards are hidden, then there is never an exact strategie that a computer can completely solve with the type of examples you have given for Chess and Checkers.

It can work out the likely hood of cards appearing, odds, probabilities, position etc. This just makes it a good micro limit player. If it plays the perfect strategie against even a slightly good player it will get wiped out. Why, cos we will know when it has a good hand or a bad hand.

So therefore it needs to learn how to mix up things up, adjust to peoples play etc. This is nothing like the complete mathmatical solving of Chess.

This requires artificial intelligence, which can be programed with the outcomes of millions of hands and draws its conclusion using weighted decisions. At the moment AI has been very impressive in certain tasks (Travelling Sales man), and absolutely aweful in other seemingly simple tasks for a human.

I have no doubt tho, that it will get to a level withing the near future where it can trade blows with a good player and not get white washed. But do not assume this has anything to do with it ever having solved Poker in a mathmatical sense, it is just playing really good, probabilty sound, variable poker, whilst learning everyone else's habits and tells.

It does not give it cart blanche way to win

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A perfect strategy, requiring no adjustments to opponents, can guarantee an EV >= 0 game, for heads up matches. This is of course neglecting rake.