A New York Times article on computers playing poker heads up against humans opens with
For anyone stuck on a casino stool, playing hours of video poker, rest assured: humans can still beat a computer.
Um, well first of all, video poker is quite different from the heads up Texas Holdem the entire article is about. Significatly different from an artificial intelligence standpoint. Second, as far as I know, video poker machines have payoffs for an optimal strategy which are usually right around equal payoff and hourly wages you’d get from playing this strategy are pretty pathetic even for the machines with greater than even payoff. Since the majority of players are probably far from an optimal strategy, I’d guess video poker is quite the cash cow for the casinos.
But I wonder, when computers finally are able to beat humans at a poker (okay, some will say, “never!” I will say, you’re allowed to say “never” when you can run a thousand body simulation of a star cluster in your head. Reverse Turing Shazam!) whether this will actually hurt video poker machines. Hm, well seeing how they casinos still seem to rack in the mullah with their slot machines, probably not.
Best quote ever: “kay, some will say, “never!†I will say, you’re allowed to say “never†when you can run a thousand body simulation of a star cluster in your head. Reverse Turing Shazam!“
Video Poker has essentially nothing to do with Poker between players except that the hand values are used to calculate payoffs. it is just the same as a regular slot machine that allows multiple spins. That the winning combinations are associated with Poker hands is just a memory convenience really. You as a player at least know some more likelyhoods as opposed to the odds of another cherry coming up in a conventional slot.
They set the payouts for video poker based on average play – some are even set to give 100% back for an decent player. Usually its 80% or 90% payout. You often see signs above the banks of the video poker machines giving the average payout.
You could create an optimal player program quite easily, and run it on your smartphone if you wanted.
I have a fondness for the machines since my brother won enough at one while sitting in an airport to make the down payment on his cabin – which I have enjoyed since.
“casinos still seem to rack in the mullah with their slot machines”, eh? As in “mullah Omar”? Maybe we’ve been looking in the wrong place all these years!
Although the world changes, I still like real casino .
Yep, nothing beats playing poker with real people at a real table.