Big article about casino limit hold 'em bot ("Texas Hold 'Em Heads Up") in NY Times
It's a 6 page article! Very interesting read, and reggiman was interview for it (he's "Mike Reed from Pittsburgh").
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/08/ma...nted=1&_r=2&hp
These machines have existed for a few years, but are now disappearing from some casinos.
Caesars and Rio removed theirs earlier this year.
Cosmopolitan took out their three machines this week.
Other casinos still carry the machine (such as Bellagio), but offer no comps.
I can tell you that it's a very tough opponent, though it plays different than any human being you've ever faced. You have to forget everything you ever knew about heads up limit hold 'em if you want to have a chance.
The most important things to remember when playing the bot:
- It is easier to trap than a human opponent. I have pulled off many "triple check raises" (check raise on each street, with a call each time) against the bot, where these are extremely difficult to do against a human opponent.
- It errs on the side of calling down rather than tight folding. It does make some eery amazing folds with surprisingly good hands, but for the most part it calls down too much, so you should go easy on the bluffing.
There are a lot of more subtle strategies that I won't discuss out here.
I will say that I have watched many fellow limit players attempt to beat this thing, and they got crushed because they played it all wrong. They tried to match its aggression with more aggression, and tore their hair out as it called them down with king high (and won).
I logged a shitload of hands against this thing.
I stopped playing when they did away with the comp/tier credits at the various properties.
The machine does NOT learn from opponents. However, they consistently improve it by letting it play itself.
Of course the big edge it has over you is the fact that it has no emotion and never tilts, and also never gets fatigued.
Incidentally, I believe the biggest all-time winner against the bot is our own Brandon "Drexel" Gerson.
It is interesting how the article mentioned that the bot intentionally loses sometimes in order to give the impression that it's beatable. It has been long known that the bot has different "personalities" that randomly switch in order to make it unpredictable, but I did not know that some of it was done to actually make it easier. I have noticed at times that the bot will go through stretches where it seemingly check-calls every hand and allows you to run it over.
We also noticed (through anecdotal evidence) that the 20-40 level seemed tougher than the 10-20 level. We theorized that they did this assuming that the pros would normally play 20-40 (the highest limit typically offered on the machine), and that people playing 10-20 would likely have less skill and therefore need an easier opponent. The article didn't mention this, but the fact that they admit they "dumbed it down" to allow itself to be temporarily beatable would go along with our theory.
