Polaris

the buzz of the poker world yesterday was the computer program Polaris playing heads-up limit hold’em against phil laak and ali eslami (nytimes article here). the humans came out ahead in a close match.

to me, building a computer program that can beat pros at their game of choice is a really great academic and intellectual endeavor. i’d love to read more about it. just sounds like a lot of fun.

that being said: 1) there is a reason they chose limit hold’em, often the most mechanical and simple form of poker, and 2) there is a reason they chose phil laak, much more well-known as a no limit cash game and tournament player.