With close to 70 percent of the competition behind them, it appears four human poker players are holding their own and edging out Claudico, an artificial intelligence connected to supercomputers.
Between April 24 and May 8, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., four professional poker players - Doug Polk, bracelet winner of the World Series of Poker, and online players Bjorn Li, Jason Les and Dong Kim - are participating in a poker competition "Brains versus Artificial Intelligence" promoted by the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science.
Playing at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh for two weeks, the humans are playing an 80,000-hand Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em poker game against Claudico, the poker playing software programmed by computer scientists led by Tuomas Sandholm, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University. Prize money has been donated by the casino and Microsoft Research.
According to the facilitator, two of the human challengers are on the casino floor betting off laptops that are connected to the Carnegie Mellon University system and Claudico. The other two poker players are in an isolated room with linked laptops. During play, the four players are rotated between the isolation room and casino proper to vary the playing conditions and to methodically establish controls on the research. The main intention of the battle was to demonstrate that the results of the poker game are scientifically important and not just a lucky consequence.
As of this moment, it seems like humans have the upper hand on this classic man versus machine battle in No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. With 54,900 hands played out of the 80,000 hands, the "Brains" side has collected a total of $589,633 in winnings versus Claudico, the "Artificial Intelligence."
So far, Polk has been leading the pack with contributions of $322,455 to the professional poker players earnings. Li added $319,850 in winnings while Kim has achieved $137,616 against Claudico. Les is left behind as he lost $190,288 to Claudico after a week of playing poker. A live scoreboard is updated every 600 hands played.
Based on information from Sandholm and his students, if poker chip counts are "very close" at the end of the contest (the team did not disclose the actual amount), it is still possible that Claudico and the professional poker players will attain a statistical tie and the challenge will be announced as a draw.
In the no-limit game, players can wager any amount of money. No-limit Texas Hold 'Em is usually considered to be a far more challenging game than the Limit version of the game, where bets are restricted. Contest play consists of two 750-hand sessions each day of the tournament - 1,500 hands per day - except for May 3 when human players got a day of rest.
"I know many people are rooting for the humans, but I'm still hopeful that Claudico will give them a run for their money," Sandholm said.
There will be a live question-and-answer session Wednesday, May 6, at 6 p.m. EDT. Questions may be submitted at brainsvsai@theriverscasino.com before 5:30 p.m. EDT, and answers will be posted on Scoreboard Twitch chat feed.
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