First poker bot to beat human professionals in a live tournament

Writing a computer program that can beat the best chess champions may have seemed daunting at the time, but it was a doddle compared to designing a software robot, or "bot", to play world-class poker. That’s because poker is a game of imperfect information – you simply don’t know what cards your opponent has, leaving room for psychological ploys such as bluffing – which computers aren’t really cut out for. Nevertheless, in 2008 a program called "Polaris", written by computer scientists from the University of Alberta, beat a six-strong team of human professionals in a tournament held in Las Vegas. Against each of the pros, it played a 500-hand game of Limit Texas Holdem ("limit" means the bet sizes are fixed) – whoever finished each game with the most chips was the winner. Polaris won three games, lost two and tied one – taking the match.