Online vs. Live, Bot vs. Android

One for mankind!" (after winning a hand against Polaris) -Phil Laak, Man versus Polaris Poker Competition, Vancouver, Canada, July 2007

Which is better, online poker or live poker? It's an ongoing debate in the poker world.

This column will contribute to this debate on the side of live poker. Nothing beats having your opponent sitting in front of you when you're playing. Online poker is a great training lab, but online poker is no substitute, now or at any time in the future, for live poker, especially at the championship level.

Recently the use of "bots" in online poker rooms has stirred a lot of controversy. A bot is a computer software program that plays poker automatically, and usually online.

A poker bot is based on an artificial intelligence engine that makes poker decisions. From the perspective of an online human player the bot is merely a more sophisticated decision-maker. Many online players will admit they cannot tell whether they are playing a person or a bot.

In the past twenty-five years numerous poker bots have been developed with the goal of playing winning poker.

The first well-known computer program was Mike Caro's creation, Orac, which was demonstrated at the 1984 World Series of Poker, and many were impressed by its skill level.

In 1998-99, Jonathan Schaffer and Darse Billings created Loki, Poki, Polaris, and the commercial product, Poker Academy Pro. Schaffer's University of Alberta Computer Poker Group has literally redefined the artificial intelligence test-model from chess to poker.

The problem with bots is that poker is a people game, and bots lack perception. Because poker is a game of imperfect information, even after all the mathematical information and betting patterns are collected and processed, the decision to bet, raise, or fold is often intuitive and instinctual. A bot is incapable of reading emotions and detecting intentional misinformation. A bot has no intuition; hence a decision based on instinct still requires a human player.

The only feasible artificial intelligence substitute for a human player is a poker android-a humanoid robot equipped with technologies that enable it to collect and process more information than a bot. The android is able to sit at a table, play poker, and simultaneously calculate multiple opponents and their poker play.

Latest android technology includes: bio-thermal detection (the ability to detect heat fluctuations on a player's body), virtual stereoscopic (3D) graphics, lie detection through voice-stress analysis, and precise betting cross-referenced with all the players' hand-histories during the game. In addition, other newly discovered information patterns will raise the bar in decision-making machinery-thereby raising the bar for poker play at championship levels.

Playing against an android simulates live play more than simply looking at a computer display monitor while playing against an online bot. Knowing what your opponents are doing online-they may be watching TV, clicking the wrong button, or simply going to the kitchen for a bite to eat-is not the same as sitting in front of your opponent in the flesh as they sweat their hand and your re-raise.

We are in the first stages of building a poker android at the Hollywood Poker School. Stay tuned for further developments and scientific discoveries in playing winning poker through technology.

John "The Scientist" Hayes is the Founder/CEO of Poker Sports Network TV at www.psntv.tv and Hollywood Poker School at Hollywood Park Casino. He continues his work in cyber-intelligence that began in 1976 at NYU & Rockefeller University.