In 2007 Phil Laak and Ali Eslami took on Polaris, the computer built and designed by the University of Alberta’s Computer Poker Research Group in four limit heads-up poker games in Vancouver.
The humans won two games, drew on and were beaten in the fourth.
A year later Polaris triumphed in a six game match winning three, losing two, and drawing one.
Now Michael Bowling, head of the CPRG has told The Economist that he has been working on Polaris away from the public eye and his machine can now compete at “a low-level professional level” in no-limit heads-up hold’em.
The poker world now awaits with baited breath the next public battle of man against machine.
