When artificial intelligence (AI) system Pluribus successfully beat professional poker players in six-player Texas Hold 'em, it was a significant milestone. Not only is poker a considerable challenge for AI because it's a game of "imperfect information" and intuition, playing against more than one opponent created more complexity. Since AI has mastered poker, computer scientists can use the knowledge gained to create AIs to solve other vexing issues.

1. AI Masters The
Game Of Poker -
What Does That Mean
For Humans?

2. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
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Text
IntroductionIntroduction
While AI had some success at beating humans at other games such as chess and Go
(games that follow predefined rules and aren't random), winning at poker proved to be
more challenging because it requires strategy, intuition, and reasoning based on hidden
information. Despite the challenges, artificial intelligence can now play—and win—
poker.
AI Masters The Game of Poker –
What Does That Mean For Humans?

3. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Title
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IntroductionIntroduction
Artificial intelligence systems including DeepStack and Libratus paved the way for
Pluribus, the AI that beat five other players in six-player Texas Hold ’em, the most
popular version of poker. This feat goes beyond games. This achievement means that
artificial intelligence can now expand to help solve some of the world’s most challenging
issues.
Tuomas Sandholm, a CMU professor who helped create Pluribus, stated in a press
release: “The ability to beat five other players in such a complicated game opens up
new opportunities to use AI to solve a wide variety of real-world problems.”
AI Masters The Game of Poker –
What Does That Mean For Humans?

4. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
DeepStack:
Scalable Approach to Win at Poker
The DeepStack team, from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, combined deep
machine learning and algorithms to create AI capable of winning at two-player, “no-limit”
Texas Hold ’em, a game more complex for AI to master than others because of its random
nature, hidden cards and players’ bluffs.
DeepStack’s neural networks were trained by solving more than 10 million poker game
situations. The AI relies on its neural networks to determine the best moves. DeepStack
played two-player Texas Hold 'em against professional poker players from the
International Federation of Poker. After playing 44,852 games, DeepStack’s results were
ten times what a professional poker player considers a sizable margin.

5. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Libratus:
Masters Two-Player Texas Hold ’Em
Libratus is an AI, built by Noam Brown and Tuomas Sandholm of Carnegie Mellon
University in 2017, that was ultimately unbeatable at two-person poker. This system
required 100 central processing units (CPUs) to run. Libratus played 120,000 hands in a 20-
day poker competition against four top-ranked Texas Hold 'em players. It won by a
staggering amount and walked away with $1.8 million in chips.

6. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Pluribus:
Superhuman Poker-Playing Bot
A very significant milestone was achieved by Pluribus, a robot that was able to beat some
of the best poker players in the world in a game of six-player Texas Hold 'em. The
scientists at Carnegie Mellon University along with Facebook AI collaborated on the
project—the first where AI competed in a game against more than one person and where
it couldn’t just rely on game strategy to win. Now that artificial intelligence can beat
multiple players in such a complicated game, it’s the gateway to solve some of the world’s
most vexing issues such as automated negotiations, drug development, security and
cyber-security, self-driving cars and better fraud detection.
Pluribus' results were impressive. It played 10,000 hands of poker against five others from
a pool of million-dollar earners in poker. On average, Pluribus won $480 from its human
competitors for every 100 hands-on par with what professional poker players aim to
achieve.

7. © 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Pluribus:
Superhuman Poker-Playing Bot
The research team created Pluribus by building on what it learned from Libratus. It
radically overhauled the search algorithm. Typically, part of the success formula for AI
when playing strategic games against an opponent is to process through decision trees
until the end of the game before making a move. However, in a multi-player game, this
process wasn't feasible because there was too much-hidden information and the
possibilities to process are much greater. The solution for Pluribus was that it only looks
ahead a few moves to determine the action it would take, rather than evaluate all moves
until the end of the game. The AI teaches itself through reinforcement learning,
continually looking back at plays and evaluating the success based on the circumstances. If
it determines the outcome would have been better with a different move, it learns to
apply that to future play.
Before competing against humans, Pluribus played trillions of hands of poker against
itself. Then it faced off against one professional poker player; when it made a mistake, the
player alerted the team. Soon, the bot was improving very rapidly given the new
information moving quickly from being mediocre to a world-class poker player. Ultimately,
it determined its own style of play, even adopting mixed strategies based on the situation
to beat five other players.

8. © 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2018 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website
© 2017 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
© 2019 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a
strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps
organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and
understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data,
blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is a frequent
contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for Forbes. Every day
Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers and shares content that
reaches millions of readers.
Visit The
Website

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