As an example, he points out how he just bluffed his opponents out of a small pot. Difficult or not, Mr. Billings and two students are working hard under the guidance of University of Alberta computer scientists Jonathan Schaeffer and Duane Szafron to develop the poker-playing equivalent of Deep Blue, the computer chess program that humbled then world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. In particular, it models the tense political and commercial situations where everyone is guessing how opponents will respond to their high-stake moves and feints. High stakes, no limit, winner take all. Unlike chess, which pits two opponents against one another, a poker-playing program must model the plays of nine opponents and the interaction of one person's play with another.
Money distorts everything.
In poker it is not a question of how many games you win or lose, it is how much money you win. However, since that money is all pretend, there is no penalty for calling all bets, and thus the game has none of the tensions that beset real poker. The possibility of losing big or winning big plays on human players' minds. Among human players, the size of the pot and the sequences of bets is continually changing how individuals should value their hands and their bets. Betting decisions are generally made in a second or two.