PC Poker that Learns From Your Mistakes

PC Poker that Learns From Your Mistakes By Lonnie Brown For The Ledger For the better part of the evening, Richard had been pretty free with his chips in this game of no-limit Texas hold 'em. Having burned me once with his pair of pocket jacks, he'd managed to scare me away from a pot or two -- or three -- that I normally would have pursued. But this hand was too good: I held two kings, and the flop had a third, with the king the high card. The fourth card on the table offered no improvement for my three-of-a-kind kings -- nor did it give Richard a chance at having a straight, flush or full house, given the mix of four cards on the table. Darned if he didn't make another big bet. I went all in. He folded. I then took the liberty of peeking at his folded hand: Two trash cards. Richard had been bluffing. And although I didn't know it at the time, it became clear later: Richard didn't bluff often, but when he did, he did so effectively. Normally, a peek at an opponent's cards will get one tossed from the poker table -- or perhaps a worse fate. But I didn't get in trouble because this was a computer game. More correctly, it is a computer simulation of no-limit hold 'em, and a very complete one at that. Poker Academy (Standard) and Poker Academy Pro v2 are one-trick ponies: They play Texas hold 'em -- and no other poker variation. But since World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker have made that game all the rage, that shouldn't be much of a drawback when it comes to marketing the program. The standard version (about $20) has the same hard-playing poker opponents as the Pro version (about $130). Unless you're serious about going on the poker tour, the $20 version will fulfill the needs of the large majority of players. Those who hanker to hone their game for the next trip to a Las Vegas cardroom might find the Pro version's price is cheap if it provides the background to win a sizable pot. What sets PA apart is its artificial intelligence. Once a user enters his or her name under which to play (more than one can be entered if a user wants to test several styles of play), the computer will track how every hand was played. If a showdown was involved, it will record the cards played and bets made. Once it's honed in on a player's quirks, it goes for the weaknesses. "Only a few games currently employ the kind of adaptive artificial intelligence found in Poker Academy," said Hector Munoz-Avila, assistant professor of computer senses and engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. The artificial intelligence (AI) engine the program uses was developed by the University of Alberta, which has been in the process of perfecting it for the past 10 years. In computer lingo, the AI players are known as "bots" because they are governed by robotic-like rules. There are about a dozen different bots in PA that each play by a different set of rules telling them when to call, raise or fold. Unlike chess, where a player's current position and potential moves are displayed for all to see, poker is a guessing game. What might the other player have? Sometimes it seems like the unseen players in the computer monitor are looking out, picking up on the human player's ticks and wrinkled brow, or vague smile. Unless you want to peak at an opponent's cards (one of the optional features available in the game), you'll have to compare your hand with possible winning hands and act accordingly. Poker Academy's two versions show the current strength of the hand, the odds of improving it, and other relative information. There's also a coach that will offer graphic advice on when to call, raise or fold. Poker Academy's standard edition is available in stores; the Pro version is available only online. As noted previously, the standard version will be fine for the Friday night poker player. Those who engage in more serious games should consider the Pro version. In addition to the hand evaluator and a detailed statistical history of a player's hand outcomes, it also features advanced AI and the ability to create custom tables for network play. Moreover, it can simulate the World's Series of Poker championship play and can be set to start the tournament with as many as 10,000 players. If you've daydreamed about giving up your day job to become a professional poker player, the bots from Poker Academy can add a dose of reality. For more information, including a limited demo game: www.poker-academy.com.

Poker returning to Skycity Casino

Poker returning to Skycity Casino For nine MSN After a four year absence, poker will return to Adelaide's Skycity Casino, riding a wave of renewed popularity around the world. On Wednesday the casino opened its new Poker Zone with a Texas Holdem tournament scheduled to host 60 players. It plans to run games on four nights a week, Wednesday to Saturday, featuring Holdem, Omaha and Manila variations of the game. Skycity said it closed down the last of its dedicated poker tables in 2001 due to dwindling public interest. But since then the king of card games - said to be as much about psychology as luck - has enjoyed a worldwide resurgence with regular television coverage for tournaments and extensive internet sites devoted to on-line competition. Its popularity in Australia is also expected to increase after Melbourne father of four, Joseph Hachem, last weekend won the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and a $10 million prize. Prior to their demise four years ago, the poker tables at Skycity were also home to the Australian Poker Championships for 13 years. "We have observed the new poker phenomenon that has swept the US in recent times and we're very excited to be reintroducing the game here - back to where it used to have such a great following," said Skycity communications manager Alice Bowran. "Poker's popularity has now reached a whole new generation of players because of the internet and popular television coverage." Ms Bowran said poker's traditional image dated back to the 1800s in the United States where opponents did battle in smoke-filled saloons. "Gone are the smoke-filled rooms and predominantly mature players - poker is now played in a smoke-free environment and appeals to people of all ages and backgrounds," she said. In the Texas Holdem variation players use a full deck and are dealt two cards each. They then use any combination of the five community cards and their two cards to make their best possible hand.

Don't bet against the poker 'robots'

Don't bet against the poker 'robots' By Joseph Menn For LA Times LAS VEGAS — Perhaps one day soon, the automatic card-playing programs known as robots will rule the poker world, dominating this most human of battles as computers have already conquered chess and backgammon. But not today. Not on Phil Laak's watch. Late Friday night at Binion's Gambling Hall, an old-fashioned casino in the old-fashioned part of Las Vegas, the poker champion drew a line in the felt. Buoyed by a cheering crowd ("Hu-mans! Hu-mans!"), Laak topped a pair of kings with his own pair of aces and held on to win the last hand in a three-hour exhibition match with PokerProbot, a sophisticated program written by a 37-year-old car salesman from Indiana. Laak let out a whoop and accepted congratulations from the audience, $100 from a side bet with his opponent's owner and a hug from girlfriend Jennifer Tilly, the actress who last month won the $158,000 top prize in a major women's poker tourney. "You don't want the human player to be obsolete," Tilly said. Still, the unprecedented spectacle left Laak, 33, more relieved than proud, and the predominant feeling among the pro players and fans watching was that he had merely staved off the inevitable. The human monopoly on trickery and deceit had never appeared so fragile. "In three to five years, they're going to win," said Kenneth "The Clone" Jones, a poker pro and sometime software engineer who said he has played against a dozen underground robots. For most players, the display at Binion's made clear, the day of reckoning could be now. It took more than 300 hands for Laak to put away PokerProbot. He emerged with deepened respect for the program and its rival "bots," which include five it defeated in an earlier three-day contest for $100,000 and the right to take a shot at the delegate from humanity. "It would for sure make money online," Laak — known as "the Unabomber" for hiding his emotions behind sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt — said of PokerProbot. At least in the simpler versions of Texas hold 'em with betting limits, "bots are better than the average person." The programs pose no imminent threat to live games at casinos and card clubs, which generally bar technological aids. But online poker, which has exploded in popularity, is another matter. PokerProbot is one of many bots already winning surreptitiously on Internet card sites based offshore. That's why among the gamblers watching Friday night, those who play online were the most alarmed: They saw programs that bluffed, sniffed out bluffs, didn't tire, didn't get aggravated, figured the exact odds and learned from every play. Few were pulling as hard for Laak as Erez Savion, an executive and investor at Check n Raise Poker, a Curaçao-based gambling site. Savion would have greatly preferred that the match had never taken place. "It may be a negative for the people who want to play online," he said. "A novice player may say to himself, 'What's to stop someone buying that software and having bots all over the place?' " According to Laak, nothing: Anyone smart enough to write a poker program that wins can write one that evades detection. Even during the first rounds at Binion's that pitted machine against machine, some online regulars walked by, wondered aloud why anyone would watch, and then stayed with increasingly grim fascination. "It would be very sad if a machine could duplicate human decisions in this game," said Taylor Berkowitz, a 26-year-old teacher from Clifton, N.J. "It kind of takes something away from it." The invitation-only programming contest coincided in timing and location with the main-event finals of this year's World Series of Poker at Binion's. It coincided in nomenclature until World Series owner Harrah's Entertainment observed that the name World Series of Poker Robots was a little close for comfort. The re-christened World Poker Robot Championship drew entrants from Hong Kong, Spain, Canada and Florida, along with Roger Gabriel of Newport Beach and Hilton Givens, the Indiana car salesman who came with his fiancée and left planning a more expensive honeymoon. A weak card player himself, Gabriel worked on his program until the day the dealing began. It was knocked out in less than two hours because a flaw had it calling too many bets when it should have folded. Givens, who has won poker-tournament money without digital assistance, intensified his programming after losing a software job. In some of the highest drama of the week, Givens' PokerProbot fell to less than $4,000 in chips Thursday night, out of $30,000. Givens finally drew enough good hands in a row to make a comeback, emerging with the $100,000 prize. In a special playoff the next day, luck helped PokerProbot come from behind again to defeat Poki-X, a slapped-together variation of software developed over a decade by computer science experts at the University of Alberta, in Canada. Laak, who hosts one of the many poker shows on cable television, had trained heavily against another version of the Alberta software. After dispatching PokerProbot, he played Poki-X, concentrating harder than he had the previous match. "It feels like I'm playing a human," he complained early on. "It's probably outplaying me." After an hour, Laak realized the machine was playing too aggressively, and he moved to take advantage, winning in the early morning on Saturday. "Chess is a game that's over for humans," said Darse Billings, the leader of the Alberta effort, as his stack of chips thinned. "Poker is still alive."

U.S. Poker Players Believe Skill Outweighs Luck and Playing Conveniently Online Reduces the Pressure

U.S. Poker Players Believe Skill Outweighs Luck and Playing Conveniently Online Reduces the Pressure A survey of U.S. poker players commissioned by The World Poker Exchange, sponsor of the upcoming London Open lifestyle poker tournament in August, reveals preferences regarding playing poker, a game that is reaching new heights in popularity. Seventy-five percent of players engage in a game at least three times a month. Respondents indicated that 39 percent play five times or more a month. A 57 percent majority of online poker players believe that winning is more about skill than luck versus the 74 percent of traditional casino poker players who believe that skill definitely trumps luck. Where Poker Players Are Gathering For A Game Given a choice, nearly half of poker players (45 percent) want to play online, and the same amount (45 percent) prefer playing face-to-face with friends. Women are six times more likely to prefer playing online than in a casino (48 percent vs. 8 percent). Overall, more than three out of four players (77 percent) regularly play online each month. Among players who play games online, nearly six in ten surveyed (59 percent) prefer to play poker online because it is less intimidating than playing in a casino. A full, 75 percent of online poker players also reported enjoying that online is both convenient and comfortable to play at home. Additionally, as a benefit, they can find a game at any time. Sixty-six percent of the respondents stated they prefer playing online because they don't need to worry about maintaining a "poker face", and 48 percent consider playing online a good way to practice for face-to-face games. Forty-three percent like online play because hands are dealt faster than in a casino. Venus Vs. Mars Poker Playing Habits Men and women play poker about the same amount of time, with 60 percent of men playing up to four times each month and 62 percent of women playing up to four times per month. Despite playing the same number of times each month, nearly half the women (49 percent) consider themselves a "social player," compared to 28 percent of men. Almost one in five (17 percent) men rate themselves as "serious players" versus only 7 percent of women players. When it comes to playing poker in a casino, 73 percent of men reported that they are comfortable playing poker in this environment, while only 52 percent of women would be at ease doing so. Women Are In the Game; Some Are Placing Bets More than half of all players surveyed (53 percent) say they make bets for fun, even if it means "losing a small amount." A strong majority (69 percent) wagers enough to "win a little money occasionally." Only six percent wager enough to supplement their incomes and 2 percent "play full-time as an occupation." Win or lose, four in 10 players say they love the thrill of betting on poker games. Wagering for Fun, Thrills and to Win More than half of all players surveyed (53 percent) say they make bets for fun, even if it means "losing a small amount." A strong majority (69 percent) wagers enough to "win a little money occasionally." Only six percent wager enough to supplement their incomes and 2 percent "play full-time as an occupation." Win or lose, four in 10 players say they love the thrill of betting on poker games. Celebrity Fantasy Game Player Preferences From a list of celebrities, George Clooney was the most desired fantasy poker player, with more than one in five respondents (21 percent) saying they would most like to play with him. Other popular celebrities that people want to play poker with included Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Shannon Elizabeth and Mimi Rogers. Women were 20 percent more likely to want to play with George Clooney (33 percent among women to 13 percent among men), and men were five times more likely than women to choose Jennifer Lopez as a playing partner (24 percent among men to 5 percent among women). About the Survey World Poker Exchange commissioned KRC Research to conduct a Poker Player Habits and Attitudes survey in June, 2005 encompassing 301 online interviews of poker players age 18 and up. The margin of error is estimated at +/- 5.7% at the 95% confidence level. KRC Research is a full-service opinion and marketing research division unit of Interpublic, with offices in Washington, DC, Boston, New York and London.

Big World Series of Poker payday for Penn law student

Big World Series of Poker payday for Penn law student By Don Steenberg For Philadelphia Inquirer The million-dollar envelope that Brad Kondracki pulled out of his shorts pocket Friday night looked like the mangled wrapper containing your Friday pay stub, after you've ripped a jaggy opening with your finger and stuffed it in your pocket so you can throw it away later. Kondracki, a 24-year-old second-year law student at the University of Pennsylvania, unfolded it and read aloud the unbelievable number written on the voucher slip. "One million, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars," he said. Not a bad week's pay. Kondracki had come to Las Vegas eight days before to play in the World Series of Poker's No-Limit Texas Hold `em Championship. There were 5,618 other players too, and each paid a $10,000 entry fee, creating a record-breaking prize-money pot. Kondracki had his entry fee and his stay in Las Vegas paid for by a sponsor, the Web site Pokerstars.com, after he had won an online tournament that he entered for $160. With about two years of experience playing any kind of poker, almost all of it sitting at a keyboard, Kondracki ended up playing in the biggest day in the history of professional poker, at a final table where nine players would split $23 million and the winner would get $7.5 million. At a news conference after Kondracki went out in eighth place, Kondracki was joined by his parents, Tony and Louise Kondracki of Kingston, Pa. "You wake up one day and go to work and cut the grass and all of a sudden you're here at a press conference," Tony said. "It's beyond belief." "They weren't this happy when I said I was going to take a year off before law school to play online poker," Brad said. Poker, of course, is bigger than ever, in casinos and suburban dens, on the Internet and on TV. Last year's World Series of Poker had been its biggest ever, with 2,576 players, and this year it more than doubled, forcing early rounds to move from its traditional venue at Binion's Gambling Hall to the bigger Rio Hotel & Casino. The first loser to go out blew his $10,000 in about three minutes. Louise Kondracki and Brad's youngest brother, Steve, "had made arrangements to watch him, and then we were going on to visit relatives in Flagstaff," Louise said. They never reached Flagstaff. By Monday, Brad was among the chip-count leaders. Tony Kondracki, a vice president at Wachovia Securities, went to work "and everybody said, `What are you doing here?' So I got on a plane." Kondracki built his stack Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and reached the final 27. On Thursday, in play that would last until 3 a.m. Friday, Brad survived to the final table, where all nine players were guaranteed at least $1 million. (The chips just count as points; cash prizes are based on finishing order.) "He just wins a million dollars, and we're going to get the car, and he asked his friends to go in and get the parking ticket validated for 10 bucks," Tony recalled. The final on Friday shifted back to Binion's, in a room that held about 300 people. Among those at the table were Daniel Bergsdorf, a Swedish truck driver; Tex Barch, who owns Big Johnson's Beer Garden near Dallas; and Scott Lazar, a magician from California who has performed for Liza Minelli. ESPN commentator Norman Chad took several takes on camera to successfully call the players "an eclectic collection of relative newcomers," although you could say that every year in a game where you can reach the World Series finals with two years' experience. Just minutes into play, Kondracki went "all in" betting his whole stack on the kind of card-flipping showdown that makes TV poker popular. Brad held two black 10s. Steve Dannenman, an accountant from California, had an ace and a queen. The three-card "flop" turned up a jack, queen and four, all spades, giving his opponent a pair of queens but Kondracki four spades. If any of the next two cards turned up spades - a 50/50 shot - Kondracki would have a flush. The next card was a two of hearts. The final card, the river, was a spade. The crowd roared. After that, his luck wore down. Kondracki went all-in again later, and the angels were not with him. He finished eighth. The others played on until 6:44 a.m., with an Australian named Joe Hachem taking the grand prize. Kondracki wasn't sure what he'd do next, besides celebrating with his friends and family, and sleeping. "I just know I don't have to worry about much right now," he said. Excited members of the poker media wondered whether one of the game's hottest rookies and newest millionaires (before taxes) would really need to go back to all that book-learning at law school. His father said, only partly joking, that was "nonnegotiable." "Uh, we'll see," Brad said. "I have some thinking to do now. Probably."