AI vs Players. Can artificial intelligence beat humans at poker?

Even before the rise of online poker, as far back as the 1980s, mathematicians have been creating computer powered opponents for poker players. Those early systems used dedicated hardware and were restricted to scientific research for the most part, such was the complexity and costs involved.

As technology progressed though, so did bots, and today we see AI driven poker bots that can learn as they go, understand the rules perfectly and can even adapt on the fly to how an opponent plays the game. But can they really beat human opponents?

Can Poker AI beat humans at poker? – Pluribus vs top human players

Those early bots could barely follow the simplest of rules, never mind follow strategy, and any human player could easily beat them. Over the next 30 years, bots advanced, always embracing the latest technologies, and in 2017, the adoption of AI paired with extensive high performance hardware produced a bot called Liberatus.

This was the first bot that could beat human players on a regular basis, but still relied on that dedicated hardware, and was a research tool rather than something that could be offered as a commercial product.

It was 2019 when everything changed. Software based AI algorithms were now capable of running on common PC equipment, and the developers of Liberatus used this new technology to elevate bots to a new level. Here was a software poker bot that didn’t require specialist hardware, it didn’t even need to be taught how to play poker. This new bot is called Pluribus, and by simply playing the game over and over, it teaches itself how to play poker, it learns the rules and strategies, and uses the amassed data of those games to analyse player strategies, adapt and win.

It can beat human players regularly. Not just inexperienced players either, Pluribus beat multiple professional players at the same time, repeatedly. That technology has now filtered down to commercially available AI poker bots that can run on a home computer, and yes, they can beat human players, including professionals.

Protect yourself from artificial intelligence

Knowing that there are AI poker bots out there that can beat you means it really is the sensible approach to try and protect yourself. After all, when you play poker online, its real money at stake, and if there are bots out there looking for some easy wins, you simply don’t want to be one.

Luckily there are ways to spot if there is a poker bot at your table, and it is all about repetition. Poker bots work by following a strategy, and adapting to the game as it develops. How they do that is through analysis of a vast database of previously played hands of poker, looking for similarities so they can then predict the most likely outcome of any situation in the game being played.

There are two things that this brings to the table. First, the bot will often take the exact same approach pre-flop, right down to the amounts bet. Look out for that kind of repetition, it’s a good sign there is a bot involved and you should get out of the game.

The other is time taken for each turn. Human players tend to make decisions based on the situation at hand. Some will be easy for them, and they will make their move quickly, others may take longer. A bot will go through the same process of calculations each turn, and take almost exactly the same time each time they make a choice. Look for this kind of consistency and you will likely have found a bot.

If you are an experienced player and you know you are playing a bot, you can use that knowledge to exploit weaknesses in their games and beat them. However, this is an advanced strategy, and if you are new to poker or playing against AI the best approach is to leave the table and play elsewhere.

AI Research – Human brain in high stakes poker

When we talk about artificial intelligence, the question often asked will be, is it smarter than a human brain. The thing is, it is difficult to say, because they work in very different ways.

Your brain evaluates everything it takes in, from the game itself to your own feelings, including your fear of risks and everything else. AI can only work with the data it has access to. This comes in the form of a database of actual poker hands that have been played. Often running into millions of hands, this is the guide that AI uses. It cans the database to find similar situations to the current game and sees how they played out. Through this it calculates the probabilities of each possible choice, and selects a strategy based on which is most likely to achieve a specific goal.

In a game built on mathematical probabilities, as long as it has enough information, the AI should always have the edge.  However, this is not necessarily the case, and here is why.

Does victory await us, at least in the future?

AI poker bots can apply optimal game theory almost perfectly, that is, make the most effective move at every turn. In general this makes them almost impossible to beat by a player sticking to strategy too, and in most cases, they will end any game ahead, winning money.

But there is one area where AI cannot match the human player, and that is going outside of established gaming strategy. AI learns by comparing current games to previously played ones, and works out an appropriate strategy based on how those games went. But what if you do something completely different?

AI struggles to deal with this, so bluffing when it makes no sense to strategically, how you bet, holding onto lower value hands and more can upset the rhythm. In short, if you find yourself playing AI, being unpredictable is the best way to come out on top.

That is current AI technology though, and as it continues to advance, even this approach may not be enough to throw an AI system off its game.

AI is your teacher in Poker

But AI is far from the ‘bad guy’ when it comes to online poker. In fact, because it is so good these days, AI has become one of the best training aids you can have. Professional poker players are using AI poker bots to help them refine aspects of their games. The technology allows players to focus in on specific elements of poker and play hundreds or thousands of hands to find the best strategy, or just explore how alternatives play out.

Advantages of AI over humans in poker

AI does have advantages, that is why it can beat human opponents. But they are not all based in strategy, AI has some built in advantages that no training can overcome. They can play forever, they never get tired, misread a card or anything else.  They also don’t feal that fear that comes with taking a risk. They don’t second guess themselves because of that fear either, and for most of us, that is always going to be there, impacting the choices we make.

They plough on forever with their strategies, and each game played adds to their database, so they continually improve as they go, learning from every game.

Prospects for the development of AI in poker

AI poker bots have come so far already, it is truly impressive that they can now consistently beat professional poker players. Ai is certain to evolve even further, to improve as a poker player and to deliver better performance, more effective strategy and so on.

But more than improving, AI will not only become a better poker bot for playing poker, it will become a better training aid, whether playing against or using as an onscreen advisor. In ten years, we may even be looking to hold tournaments to see whether a human player can beat a poker bot, rather than the other way around.

FAQ

What advantages does AI have over humans in the game of poker?

AI never gets tired, it also doesn’t get affected by emotions, it simply plays the probabilities. Where a human player may stop after a couple of losses, worried things will get worse, a bit keeps going, playing the strategy. GTO strategies deliver over time, and bots benefit from that ability to simply keep going.

What are the limitations of AI in playing poker?

Poker bots struggle with the idea of bluffing where common strategies would think it a poor choice. It is the unexpected that can trip them up. Other than that, the biggest limitation is the gaming providers seeking to limit their use.

How does AI in poker impact the poker community?

Someone setting up a bot and leaving it running can win a good amount of money from other players, which some feel is unfair. The result is many online poker players see AI poker bots as a threat, and actively look for them so they can report accounts and get them banned.