In a match of wits between man and machine last week, a software program running on an ordinary laptop computer fought a close match but lost to two well-known professional poker players & women poker players.
The contest offered prize money totaling $50,000 and pitted Phil Laak and Ali Eslami against a program written by a team of artificial-intelligence researchers from the University of Alberta.
Poker is thought to be a more difficult challenge for software designers than games such as chess and checkers. Computer scientists have to develop different strategies and algorithms to deal with the uncertainties introduced by the hidden cards held by each player as well as difficult-to-quantify risk-taking behaviors such as bluffing.
Jonathan Schaeffer, chairman of the University of Alberta computer-science department and the researcher who started the poker-playing effort 16 years ago, said the advances being made in the development of poker software likely will be more applicable in the real world than chess research. Play online poker.
The version of poker used in the match at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence was Texas Hold 'Em heads-up no-limit poker, a two-player game. After four rounds of 500 hands each, lasting about four hours, the player with the most money is declared the winner.
The contest had to be designed to accommodate the computer, named Polaris. To counter the luck of the draw, the human players were put in separate rooms. The hand dealt to the human in one room was identical to the hand dealt to the computer in the other room. Download poker wallpapers.
The format also eliminated one of the crucial aspects of traditional poker called "the tell," subtle clues such as facial ticks that may help other players make accurate guesses about the hidden cards held by their opponent.
The human team reached a draw in the first round even though their total winnings were slightly less than that of the computer. The match rules specified that small differences were not considered significant because of statistical variation. The second round went heavily to Polaris.
However, during the third round, the human team rebounded, when the Polaris team's shift in strategy backfired. They used a version of the program that was supposed to add a level of adaptability and "learning." Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Jun Takada of Tokyo, Japan leads the charge into Day 3 of the World Series of Poker.
Jun Takada not only survived Day 2A of the WSOP but he thrived with over $100K in chips. Takada can relax today as the rest of the remaining players are thrown into the meat grinder for Day 2B of the World Series of Poker.
Shirley Williams, mother to David Williams, plays it cool and makes it to Day 3.
Woman poker pro Shirley Williams was up to nearly $100K before being knocked down to around $17K. But she never went on tilt or lost her cool and ground her way back to $51K. Play route 66 poker.
Everest Poker has announced the location for its Everest Poker Avalanche, a poker tournament with a $1,000,000 guarantee. The final table will be played aboard a cruise liner in the Mediterranean.
The Everest Poker Avalanche began months ago, with online qualifiers starting at $3+30¢, and now we are getting close to the final.
The No-Limit Hold'em tournament has a three-round structure, with different buy-ins on each level. The qualifiers will play in an online poker final in Sept. 15 and play down to the final 10.
The 10 final players & women poker players will win a free trip to board a cruise ship in Athens, Greece, together with their guests and cruise to Turkey, with stops on islands such as Rhodes and Mykonos on the way.
The final table will be played at the casino onboard. The players will compete for a total prize pool of at least $1,000,000 and the winner is guaranteed $200,000. Play route 66 poker.
"We really wanted to make the last round of the game special, and this certainly fits the bill," said Jonathan May, Everest Poker's property manager. "I can't imagine a better way to finish a long tournament like this."
Qualifiers will be held at Everest Poker all the way up to the final on Sept. 15. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Team Bodog poker players took home just under $2 million in cash from Las Vegas and the 2007 World Series of Poker this summer.
Team Bodog has 2 million reasons to be happy about the 2007 World Series of Poker. Just under $2 million is what Team Bodog poker players are taking home from Las Vegas after the 2007 WSOP. The majority of which was pocketed at the WSOP itself while the rest was won at poker tournaments conveniently coinciding with poker's biggest and richest series of events.
During the 2007 WSOP preliminary events, Team Bodog earned $1,121,843 for their combined finishes. Three of Team Bodog's young Internet guns each had final table appearances with Michael Graves securing a WSOP bracelet in the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with Rebuys event and Yuval Bronshtein and Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo finishing third and fourth in their respective events. Bodog poker pros David Williams, Josh Arieh and Evelyn Ng combined for five WSOP cashes in five separate preliminary events. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The 2007 WSOP Main Event saw the Black and Red continue their success with eight players reaching the money for a total of $524,142. Included in that count were the last two women poker players standing: Kelly Jo McGlothlin finished in 95th place and Maria Ho in 38th place. Showing that poker skills runs in the family, Shirley Williams, mother of David Williams, outlasted 5,893 other entrants on her way to cashing.
Outside of the WSOP, Team Bodog racked up two Bellagio Cup III wins courtesy of David Williams and another Internet gun, Johnathan "UFPokerStar" Westra, who also added a second-place finish to his tally at the Bellagio. Smith "nevertilt22? Collins added his own fourth place finish to these for an impressive combined total of $305,023.
At the Binion's Poker Classic and Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, yet another young Internet gun, Jose "papadelpoker" de la Guardia, took home $13,782 for two deep runs, one in each tournament. Play route 66 poker.
All in all, the total Team Bodog tally from Las Vegas was an impressive $1,921,497. With the WSOP Europe coming up and many more World Poker Tour events left in 2007, expect to see Team Bodog continue their success on the felt this year.
Lee Watkinson, the most successful poker pro at the World Series of Poker Final Table was sent packing.
Jerry Yang has continued his reign of terror at the World Series of Poker Final Table, this time by eliminating Lee Watkinson.
We are only two hours into this Final Table and Watkinson is the second player that Yang has busted with his highly aggressive play. Online poker.
Watkinson's last hand began when Yang bet $1 million from the small blind. Watkinson thought for a moment before moving all-in from the big blind. Yang took about four minutes to decide what to do before finally calling and flipping over A/9 which dominated Watkinson's A/7. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The Flop came 2/4/6. With a K on the Turn Watkinson was in a tight spot.
Here in the media room at the World Series of Poker Tournament there were calls for Watkinson to catch his much needed 7 with reporters shouting things like, "Let's see a seven for the monkeys!" and, "Why won't Jerry Yang think of the chimps?" due to the fact that Watkinson owns a refuge for chimpanzees who've been "retired" from laboratory testing.
But the Jack on the River meant Watkinson was eliminated in 8th place for $585,699 which, thankfully, can still buy a hell of a lot of bananas. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
If you've never heard the name Dee Dozier, it's probably because she's not a professional player, nor has she cashed in any major tournaments.
But that hasn't stopped ESPN from extensively featuring the young woman who originally hails from Auburn, Ala. Full Tilt Poker also noticed Dozier's pretty smile and genial table manners and quickly signed her to an endorsement deal.
Dozier just missed qualifying for the Main Event in a $500 WSOP satellite at the Borgata. She finished 14th in the poker tournament, missing one of the 10 available packages. She returned to her New York City home in tears, only to find that her friends had decided to ante up and pay for her Main Event buy-in.
Dozier hasn't discussed how much she'll be paid by the online poker site for wearing its patch on her dress and sleeve.
ESPN obsession
The television camera crews have been obsessed with one table all day.
Women poker pro Shirley Williams, mother of professional David Williams, has had a camera and a boom microphone in her face all day. Every time she enters a pot, ESPN is there, waiting to capture the moment she busts from the tournament.
She's been all-in a few times, surviving each of her attempts before the dinner break. She had A-K once and flopped a straight with a nut-flush redraw to double up. A little later, a player at her table went all-in and she turned to Casino City editor Vin Narayanan to exclaim that it wasn't her all-in this time.
Once Jane Gold, mother of 2006 champ Jamie Gold, was busted from the tournament, she became the most popular female poker player in the room with a reporter or two at her table at all times.
Obviously, the commotion is drawing a massive crowd of fans and other media members, causing a bottleneck in the area where she's playing.
King of the celebrities
With celebrities playing better than ever at this year's Main Event, it's no surprise to find one of them has vaulted to the top of the leaderboard.
Todd Phillips, writer and producer of the comedies Old School and Road Trip, was third in chips on Day 2A with more than 350,000 just before the dinner break.
But Phillips is hardly new to poker. He made a World Poker Tour final table in 2005 at the Legends of Poker in Los Angeles and earned more than $250,000.
Spiderman's Tobey McGuire played well into the evening on Tuesday, but Everybody Loves Raymond star Brad Garrett did not make it through the afternoon. He did, however, break his personal record of playing in the Main Event for more than seven hours. Montel Williams, the daytime television host who held the chip lead for some time on Day 1B, was the first player to bust today. Download poker wallpapers.
Unreal
Former World Champion Huck Seed, who has been as quiet as usual during this year's Main Event, put his tournament life on the line late Tuesday afternoon with middle pair and a flush draw.
Holding Jh-6h, Seed pushed his remaining 17,000 chips into the middle on a board of Ah-6s-3h. His opponent, the initial raiser, called the bet and flipped over pocket Tens.
Seed spiked a Jack on the river to stay alive and double his stack.
"Unreal," yelled his opponent.
"Unreal what, that the best hand won?" Seed replied.
"You didn't have the best hand," the amateur said.
"I had the best hand on the flop," Seed said before sitting back down.
Seed was actually a 51-percent favorite to win the hand on the flop, according to the www.pokerzone.com hand calculator.
Guess this Seed guys knows a little bit about poker.
Former champs holding strong
Day 2A featured a slew of former Main Event champions including Seed, Berry Johnston, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, and Joe Hachem.
Hachem busted out early, but the other four were holding strong. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Seed has been all gambles getting the better end of several coin flips to remain active. McEvoy has nursed his small stack all day, refusing to get into a confrontation that would cost him his tournament life. Johnston, a name unfamiliar to many in the new-age poker crowd, was chipped up for a time, but lost a ton of checks in the level before the break.
Scotty Nguyen is again at the secondary featured table, putting on a show for the fans who have watched him play all day. He has left the Amazon Ballroom on several occasions, having to say "thank you baby" to all his supporters who wish him well as he moves through the hallways.
After a successful trip to the 2007 WSOP, Team Bodog poker player Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo is in the field for Day 1A of the Bellagio Cup III. He will be looking to add to the $172,319 he took away from the Rio over the past few weeks.
At time of publish, Justin was sitting in the top ten in chips at about 29k out of about 129 total players & women poker players today. The field is not an easy one featuring big names like Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Steve Dannenmann, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Max Pescatori, Scott Fischman and Roland de Wolfe.
Day 1B will begin tomorrow and will most likely pick up quite a few players from the WSOP once Day 2A here ends. Team Bodog poker pro David Williams will be in the field tomorrow looking to add another Bellagio Cup III bracelet to his collection. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Stay tuned for continued updates live from the 2007 World Series of Poker and now from the Bellagio Cup III.
Head over to Bodog.com where you convert your online poker winnings into an entry to the world's most prestigious land-based tournaments. Win a Player's Choice Package of $12,000 and you decide which major poker events you want to play in - in style, of course. The next WPT event on the schedule is Legends of Poker at the Bicyclye Casino in glamorous Los Angeles. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
There buzz surrounding the World Series of Poker went up a notch on Day 1B of the Main Event.
Between more players -- 1,545 players & women poker players bought into Day 1B with another 1,606 expected for tomorrow – and the appearance of several well-known pros, the Amazon room was electric.
Day 1A saw 1,287 players at the felt.
Strategy was the most commonly cited reason for players choosing to start their Main Event on Day 1B. Since there are two Day Ones left, players who survive Saturday will have a couple days of rest before playing their second day. Play online poker.
"I don't want to play on consecutive days until I have too," said 61-year-old Dan Harrington, the 1995 World Champion.
John Juanda also needed the days off Day 1B provides.
"I played in the Deuce-to-Seven Thursday (Event #54) so I wanted to wait a day before playing," Juanda said. "I can also get a couple days rest if I make it to Day Two."
WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack believes the multiple Day 1 starting dates allows players to choose their optimum poker tournament conditions.
"It's a combination of strategy and choice," Pollack said. "It's a matter of very personal choice. That's one of the main reasons the WSOP offers multiple start dates.
Day 1B kicked off at 12:09 p.m., seven minutes earlier than Day 1A. The scheduled start times were noon. Rio regular performers Penn and Teller were on hand to tell players to "shuffle up and deal." Download poker wallpapers.
The Amazon room saw significantly more pros on Day 1B. Former World Champions Harrington, Joe Hachem, Tom McEvoy and Scotty Nguyen began their events Saturday. Hachem and Nguyen are playing at the ESPN featured tables.
Also playing are Howard Lederer, woman poker pros Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert, Paul Wasicka, Robert Mizrachi, Patrik Antonius, Tony G, Bill Chen, Sam Farha and David Williams.
Montel Williams is the top celebrity in today's field. Norm MacDonald of Saturday Night Live fame is also playing.
All of them are chasing Day 1Aa chip leader Tinten Olivier. The relative unknown from Paris amassed $270,000 chips on Friday, $70,000 more than second place John Dutchak from Tampa, Fla. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Barry Greenstein was the only superstar to finish in the top 100 of Day 1A. He has $93,000 chips.
Former World Champions Bobby Baldwin and Huck Seed survived Day 1A, but both have short stacks. Actor Brad Garrett leads the celebrity parade with $70,000 chips. Tobey McGuire also made Day Two. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Team Bodog poker player Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo is using some of his recent winnings into rebuys for the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with Rebuys event.
To the untrained eye it can look like a WSOP rebuy event is just a demonstration of how much money poker players & women poker players will plow into an event for a shot at winning, and showing off just how much money they have at the same time. Seriously, some of the bankrolls poking out of their pockets are thicker than tree trunks (is that a bankroll in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?). There is, however, a strategy to it all amid the increasingly hoarse cries of "rebuy".
Poker pros push and push at the table to either build their chip stack to be dominant after the rebuy period and build the prizepool with their opponents rebuys, or they build the prizepool with their own rebuys and view the chip loss as a "loan" to weaker players that they can then win back later. To this end, tournaments of this ilk always provide a fair amount of entertaining poker and some jaw-dropping numbers. Download poker wallpapers.
At last year's WSOP, Daniel Negreanu is famous for rebuying a whopping 46 times and adding-on twice. Add that to his buy-in and his prizepool donation totaled $49,000. This year looks to be no different, and Team Bodog poker player Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo is getting in on the action. At last count Justin had rebought 17 times, sending $17k of his own money into the prizepool.
The rebuy portion of the event is over and tournament officials are still tallying up all of the figures in order to release the numbers. Last year's grand total prizepool was $2,340,238 and the champion was Phil Hellmuth.
At time of publish, Team Bodog is looking very good in this event with David Williams in the top ten and Justin and Josh Arieh sitting at about mid-field looking to collect on their chip "loans" given earlier. We'll keep you updated on their progress live from the 2007 World Series of Poker. Stay tuned to our poker blog.
Team Bodog poker pro David Williams adds another deep run in a 2007 World Series of Poker event to his resume.
Bodog poker pro David Williams fought through a field of 1,048 in the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with Rebuys event to finish in 15th place. Rebuy events always attract big-names with deep pockets, and this event was no different. As well as battling the large field, DW had to outplay many of his fellow poker pros & women poker pros to get deep in the event. He takes home $40,333 for his efforts. Download poker wallpapers.
This is DW's third cash of the 2007 WSOP and fourth in Las Vegas this summer; he won a $5k prelim event at the Bellagio Cup III as well. His total winnings at the WSOP now equal $67,394. Add to this the $129,120 for that Bellagio event and he has won almost $200k in just the last month. Yeah, otherwise known as more than you will make over several years. Play route 66 poker.
With only one event left that has a manageble field, expect to see DW at the tables today gunning for his next WSOP bracelet. He will, of course, be playing the Main Event later this week but making predictions on that donkey-fest is beyond our prognosticatory abilities (yes, it's a word; look it up). Play $500 match poker bonus.
Stay tuned to our poker blog and we'll let you know what happens later today live from the 2007 World Series of Poker.
Day 1 of the $50,000 HORSE Event at the World Series of Poker on Sunday was an up-and-down one for Bodog pro David Williams. At one point, his $100,000 starting chip stack was cut practically in half. A late surge saw Williams finish the day at just over 100 grand, though he was well behind the leader, Eli Elezra, who had $561,000. Download poker wallpapers.
Elezra ($658,000) continues to be the runaway leader as Day 2 continues, but Williams is making his presence felt with - according to this blogger's questionable vision and chip-counting abilities - about $200,000, which certainly puts him among the contenders. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Team Bodog poker pro David Williams is getting in on the current iPhone trend at the 2007 World Series of Poker. (Bodog Beat Image)
Unless you've been living under a rock or in a cave then you have heard about the new Apple iPhone. The latest and greatest pop culture revolution from the man behind Apple, Steve Jobs (otherwise known as the thorn in Bill Gates' side), has already been seen in the hands of some of the more trendypoker pros at the World Series Of Poker Tournament today.
Team Bodog poker pro David Williams has two. That's all, we just wanted you to know that in true "Bodog lifestyle" fashion, DW has two iPhones. Why? Maybe one's an emergency bat phone. Who cares. He also has a Bentley, the man lives on a different level.
If you want to ride in style and experience the Bodog lifestyle yourself, make sure to head over to Bodog.com for your shot at the Bodog "Player's Choice" package. Online poker qualifier winners are given the choice to enter any land-based event with a $10,000 or less buy-in and receive cool gear, bonus contracts and incentives to play while they kick back with first-rate service, hang out with poker legends and bask in TV celebrity. Women poker players.
Oh, and if you're coming to Vegas for the Main Event don't forget to don your Team Bodog black and red and take a ride on the Bodog Player's Lounge Bus and cruise the strip in style. Download poker wallpapers.
See the video of David Williams and his Bentley at RawVegas.tv.
Stay tuned for more of the Bodog lifestyle live from the 2007 WSOP.
In a match of wits between man and machine last week, a software program running on an ordinary laptop computer fought a close match but lost to two well-known professional poker players & women poker players.
