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U of A bot takes on poker champ
Published: 2005-08-30
 By MAX MAUDIE, EDMONTON SUN
There's no blood, sweat or tears, but Edmonton's poker champ-in-waiting is training like a madman, and his trainer hopes to one day see him wearing the crown.
"I want to see him (a champ) squirm," said Jonathan Schaeffer, heading up the University of Alberta's Games Research Group.
For 14 years, artificial intelligence (AI) researchers at the university have been working on various versions of computer programs that play problem-solving games, such as poker.
"This is the mecca of research into AI," Schaeffer said.
Back in 1991, Darse Billings, now a PhD student at the university and one of the developers of Poki-X, had the idea to use poker in the study of AI. He earned his master's degree at the U of A in 1996 and, in the interest of research, turned pro poker player for three years.
"It was a very interesting way to learn about the game," Billings said.
In July, Poki-X, one of the university's so-called "pokerbots," took on world-class player Phil The Unabomber Laak at Las Vegas's Binion's Gambling Hall.
The Unabomber - hiding behind sunglasses and a hooded sweatshirt - had already "pulled the limbs off" PokerProbot, Billings said, a bot based on the university's research.
Then Laak went one-on-one against Poki-X.
Laak, Billings said, admitted "after 50 or 60 hands that he was being outplayed."
But Laak won after 290 hands. Billings said researchers studied the results and a lot of it was luck.
Laak acknowledged as much, Billings added.
When the university researchers run more experiments, they'll play 40,000 hands, Billings said, to minimize the importance of luck.
It's just a matter of time before the university, or Billings himself, designs a champ-killer.
"I believe it will happen, but it's hard to predict when," Billings said.
Play against Poki at games.cs.ualberta.ca-/poker.
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Cultural phenomenon takes hold at colleges
Published: 2005-09-04
 Sunday, September 4, 2005
It was the culmination of a week and half's worth of research for a story about the cultural phenomenon of poker among young people. It was a night at the table bluffing and betting with college students.
I have been a casual poker player since college. I enjoy the game from its social aspects, to its strategy, to -- frankly -- the excitement of gambling.
What hooked me into this story was a Sunday night in June when my TV options were Game 2 of the NBA Finals, baseball and poker.
Despite being a huge sports fan, I was pulled to the poker and couldn't flip away.
I wondered if this was happening to other people and how much TV was behind the cultural poker phenomenon? I knew poker was huge among young people, so I went about investigating how big it is.
I got a glimpse on a recent weekday night at a New Jersey university while playing a No-Limit Texas Hold'em cash game, where the blinds were $.25 and $.50 with a maximum buy-in of $50.
My night started when I bought in for $50. I sat alongside six players who ranged in age from 17 to 23.
One was a high school student, three were students at the university, one had recently graduated and the other was a college-aged friend of the crowd.
They had invited me to their game and agreed to be interviewed for my story.
It was a dank, dark, cramped basement that smelled of stale beer and burned-out cigarettes. The "poker" table was a graffiti-covered fold-up that also serves as the house's beer pong table.
It was an absolutely perfect setting for the story.
I was a little intimidated at first. Maybe because I was nearly 10 years older than almost everyone there, but more likely because I had the feeling immediately that these kids could play and it could be a costly night if I wasn't careful.
I managed to hold my own for the most part. Tired, weary and still with an interview to do, I cashed out at 3 a.m. after eight hours of playing and a $25 loss. I enjoyed the game and the company as this was an affable group of young men -- and excellent poker players.
Believe me, these are guys you wouldn't want to invite to your monthly home game.
And for them, poker was serious business.
For example, not one person who lost his stack of chips could refuse the urge to buy back in for another $50. After two $50 buy-backs, one player borrowed another $50 from a friend. After losing that fairly quickly, now down $150 on the night, he went to an ATM and came back for more.
That was at 2 a.m.
Their style of play was aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. That's a good way to win big, but also lose big.
The early chip leader whittled away about $100 in profit in a mere half hour because of some questionably aggressive plays. He wanted to double up with a big hand or two, rather than slowly build his stack.
It seemed to me like $100 didn't really mean much to him, whereas I was protecting my $50 investment like my life depended on it. Maybe that's why I went home in the red, but at that table I could've dropped $100 in an instant and gone home broke and without a story. The interviews
Finally it was time for my interviews, but rather than stop the game they chose to continue on and talk while playing. That surprised me because any good poker player will tell you the importance of complete concentration while playing.
But these guys didn't want to stop playing even for 15 minutes to talk to me.
They continued on and talked, very openly and honestly, which was refreshing after dealing with public relations folks and people careful with every word for some of my previous interviews for this story.
They told me about their poker habits, about how TV has been a major influence on them playing, about how much they play online and how much they've won and lost.
They talked about underage trips to Atlantic City, about giving up their summer jobs to dedicate their time to poker. They talked of winnings of thousands of dollars in a day, and laughed about the people -- fish, they call them -- losing thousands online.
They told me how poker is stressful, how it takes up much of their time during the school year, but how the money makes playing irresistible. They told me how playing cards has become the No. 1 priority for many of them, with one even claiming that he likes cards more than girls.
They talked and talked and talked some more. Even though they consented to me using their names in print, I decided against it.
However, these guys had no qualms talking openly about their poker habits because in the world in which they live, what they're doing is accepted as normal behavior. What they're doing, what their friends are doing, what their friends' friends are doing -- heck, even what some of their parents are doing -- is playing poker. And they're playing a lot of it, and for big stakes. The Stories
They told me they started playing seriously at roughly the same time, about two years ago.
That's when the poker boom really began, with the crowning of long shot Chris Moneymaker as the 2003 World Series of Poker champion and the introduction of the World Poker Tour on cable TV.
They also all play online, where there are more than 30 Web sites to choose from that not only will take your money but give you a starting cash Bonus to play on their site. The only thing you have to do is give an e-mail address and a credit card, and accept a form that says you are 18 or older.
Mind you, this form of gambling is illegal under New Jersey statutes.
That doesn't stop the 17-year-old, who told the computer he was 18 when he signed up, from playing online every day. In fact, he said he came to the table the night I was there after winning $2,500 online that day. He said it was his biggest day ever, although he seemed completely unfazed by the amount of money.
He said besides playing online every day, he plays heads-up games during and after school on a regular basis at his high school, where he said all his friends play. He said he received permission from his parents once they found out how much he was winning.
Another player at the table admitted to me on the record that he was addicted to poker, saying he plays at least eight hours a day when school is out and that he's awaiting a $4,000 check he won on an online gambling site.
I believe him but he's also the same guy who dropped $150 that night and then went to the ATM. He also said he didn't even really enjoy poker, that it was a stressful game. Then in the next breath he raved about how cool it was to be making money playing poker, while many of his friends were working. A New Job
The 17-year-old said his goal in life is never to have to work a day, to support himself playing poker.
This kid was amazingly smart and on any given hand could tell you his exact odds, in terms of percentages and number of cards in the deck that could help him, in a matter of seconds. He was cool-headed and intense, and made decisions quickly and confidently. He was the one player at the table I feared -- and he was only 17.
They all spend a lot of time during the semesters playing poker, although I was happy to hear they only play live games once or twice a week and spend less time during the school year playing online.
Still, if they're playing twice a week -- or even once a week -- and the sessions are eight-hour marathons like this one, that's a lot of time spent away from the books. It's also a lot of money to potentially lose, as these guys favor No-Limit games, either $.25 and $.50 blinds with max buy-ins of $50 or $.50 and $1 blinds with max buy-ins of $100.
When I played in college, we usually had a maximum bet of $5. One all-in bet on this night was $62. The opponent called and, factoring in the previous bets, the winner took in about $175 on that one hand alone.
I believed them when they told me they were in the black, but poker is a game that guarantees nothing.
These guys aren't afraid of losing because they feel skill is on their side and, while luck is important, they say skill ultimately will win out. I agree that poker requires a great deal of skill, and I certainly don't doubt them about their ability to win.
I think every one of them can make money playing poker.
On the other hand, I also think every one of them could go broke any instant.
That's poker. That's why it's called gambling. Reach Aaron Bracy at abracy@courierpostonline.com
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