It would be interesting to see how Koller's poker player matches up against Loki. Such a confrontation is probably at least a year away, however. Unable to find the time necessary to complete the project, Koller is now looking for student help to finish the programming. A fter several rounds of successive improvements in probability calculations, betting and bluffing strategies, and opponent modeling, Loki can play reasonably well. For example, when the program holds a strong hand, it always makes a bet instead of occasionally holding back.
Good opponents can take advantage of such a pattern.
Loki has already faced a variety of opponents on the Internet, and it wins consistently. The problem is that these human players have just pride, rather than money, at stake. In chess and checkers, you can go to a tournament, pay the entry fee, and play to see how good the program is. Poker is different because it's meaningless without money. Further improvements may make it worthwhile for Schaeffer to bring Loki to Las Vegas.