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Humans Win First Man-Machine Poker ChampionshipWed, Jul 25th, 2007 @ 12:00am The Human team of Phil Laak and Ali Eslami win the fourth and final poker session against the Polaris machine team to take a 2-1 overall victory. Poker professionals Laak and Eslami returned on day two of the Man-Machine Poker Championship trailing the Polaris software of the machine team 0-1. If the machine had emotions it may have arrived for Day 2 with a big grin on it's face having drawn the first session and then beating the humans by $955 in the second session. Polaris playing for the machine team is a computer poker playing program developed by the researchers at The University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group. The Man-Machine Poker Championship is a $10/$20 Limit Texas Hold'em head's up duplicate match made up of four sessions of 500 hands. It can take many thousands of hands of poker to establish who is the most skillfull poker player due to the luck element involved in short term results. Duplicate poker is one way of reducing the luck element of poker and focusing on the skill element. In a duplicate poker match the same series of cards will be dealt to the players in the same seat on different tables. So on Table 1 Phil Laak will sit in Seat 1 and Polaris_1 will sit in Seat 2, and on Table 2 Polaris_2 will sit in Seat 1 and Ali Eslami will be in Seat 2. Therefore Phil Laak and Polaris_2 will be playing the same hands against their respective opponent. Each session will consist of 500 hands after which the combined bankrolls of the humans will be compared to the combined bankrolls of the machines to determine the winner. The players returned for session 3 on 24th July at Noon. It was Laak v Polaris_1 on the public table, and Polaris_2 v Eslami on the private table. After 500 hands Phil Laak had beaten the machine by $1455. In some notable hands, Phil is dealt pocket 6's, the board show Kc Ac Ah 2s 7s, Polaris shows Queen high and Phil's 6's hold up, he comments "Take that Polaris punk." Earlier Phil had a pair of queens in the hole and Polaris hits him with a check raise on the river. Polaris shows King high and Phil thinks Polaris is "sick and cracked out!" On the private table it is Polaris_2 (playing the same hands that Phil receives) v Eslami (playing the same hands as Polaris_1). The machine beats the human but only by $635, meaning the human team win session 3 by $820 to set up a deciding final session. The fourth and final session starts at 6pm, with Ali Eslami v Polaris on the public table, and Polaris V Phil Laak on the private table. Ali takes the lead at the midway point and Polaris can not break him down and reverse the situation. Ali Eslami wins his table by $460. In every session so far the winning seat has been the same, the match being decided on which player in that seat wins by the most and which player in the opposite seat loses the least. However in this session Phil Laak in seat 2 also wins his match by $110, therefore the humans win the final session by $570. In a thrilling two days the Humans beat the Machine. However, Polaris put up very good opposition against two top professional poker players. The University of Alberta team will have gained plenty of data to study and to improve Polaris. Any future Man-Machine Poker Championships will be a must watch event! Related Links:
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World Series of Poker: Ante Up for Africa The Ante Up for Africa Charity Tournament is one of the biggest poker charity events of the year. This charity tournament supports the refugees from the Sudan region of Darfur. After nine hours of play, Alexander (Alex) Bolotin was crowned the champion of the Ante Up for Africa tournament and won $177,730 for his first place finish.
World Series of Poker Event 56: Matt Hawrilenko Takes Down Bracelet and $1 Million The $5,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold'em event was the last event to be held at the World Series of Poker 2009 before the famous Main Event starts. Event number 56 saw 928 players register for their chance to win the last bracelet to be offered this summer. The next bracelet of the Series will not be awarded until November when the Main Event final table wraps up. Adding to the excitement of this event, there was a total prize pool of over $4.3 million, and the winner of the event was guaranteed to come out a millionaire.
World Series of Poker Event 54: Tony Veckey Wins Event 54 sold out in a hurry as 2,818 people gobbled up all of the seats for the last low buy-in No Limit Hold''m tournament of the World Series of Poker. This was a new event added to satisfy the enormous public demand for this level of event. $1,500 from each of the entrants produced a prize pool of $3,846,570, with payouts down to 297.
World Series of Poker Event 52: German Jorg Peisert Wins Jorg Peisert from Dusseldorf, Germany won the inaugural Triple Chance No Limit Hold'em event at this year's World Series of Poker. Peisert outlasted 853 other players who put up $3000 to play in this No Limit Hold'em event. The total prize pool was $2,357,040 and 81 players took home a cut. 81st place took home $5,892, but the lion's share, $506,800, went to Peisert. On the final day, Peisert started in 6th chip position and worked his way up to a chip juggernaut, eliminating players and collecting chips along the way. Notable players who cashed in this tournament include, Eric 'Rizen' Lynch (12th), An 'The Boss' Tran, Mike 'The Mad Genius of Poker' Caro (23rd), and Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari (24th).
World Series of Poker Event 53: New Orleans Resident David Halpern Wins David Halpern from New Orleans, LA won the $1500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8-or Better Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Halpern outlasted 467 other players to win $159,048 for winning the tournament. Halpern has already cashed once this year (Pot Limit Omaha), but this is his first WSOP bracelet. The $657,455 prize pool was spread out amongst 48 players who cashed. Halpern battled William Kohler for over three hour heads-up. Battled is a strong word, as both players seemed enamored of each other and even went to dinner together during the break. They traded the chip lead back and forth until Kohler seized it for good. Other notable players who cashed includes Chad Brown (4th), Matt Savage (5th), Andy Bloch (23rd), and Norman Chad (32rd).
World Series of Poker event 49: David Bach Wins $50K HORSE Event The 2009 $50,000 HORSE event attracted 95 of the world's best poker players. The number of entrants decreased from the previous year which attracted 148 entrants. As play began, player's speculated as to the reason why the numbers decreased so dramatically. Was it the economy? Was it Scotty Nguyen's drunken tirade last year? Many believed that it was ESPN's unfortunate decision to not televise this year's final table. Even though the field decreased, the players still had a full five days of play. 87 players would be eliminated on the way to a star studded final table. After 20 hours of play, David Bach was proclaimed the winner of the 2009 $50,000 HORSE event. He took home the bracelet, the Chip Reese Memorial trophy, and the $1,276,806 first place prize.
World Series of Poker Event 55: Abe Mosseri Wins First WSOP Bracelet Abraham Mosseri from New York City won the $2,500 Deuce to Seven Lowball (Limit) event at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Mosseri outlasted 257 other players to win $165,513 and the accompanying gold bracelet. This is Mosseri's first WSOP bracelet and third cash. This was his 2nd final table of this year's Series. Mosseri and others amassed a prize pool of $593,400. Only 24 players got a piece of it though. Mosseri ended Day 1 in 13th place with 39,100 in chips. By the end of Day 2, Mosseri was the chip leader with 447,000. Mosseri maintained his chip lead through most of the day. It would come down to him and Masayoshi Tanaka, who started the day with second most chips. Tanaka had the lead as heads up began, but it was meant to be for Mosseri who played aggressively and caught cards at the right time to eventually eliminate Tanaka. Notables at today's final table included three time bracelet winner John Juanda (4th), Blair Rodman (5th) and Nam Le (9th). Daniel Negreanu cashed in 16th and Hasan Habib finished in 18th.
World Series of Poker Event 51: Carsten Joh Wins Sold Out NLHE Event Carsten Joh defeated a sellout crowd to win his first bracelet in the penultimate $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event of 2009. Joh beat Andrew Chen heads up to bring home Germany's first bracelet of the Series. The event began with a largely amateur crowd, and the big names that made it to Day 2 quickly found themselves on the sidelines. Men Nguyen, Tony Cousineau, and Matt Brady outlasted most of the field but failed to make it to Day 3.
World Series of Poker Event 50: Greg 'FBT' Mueller Wins 2nd '09 Bracelet The $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout should put to rest any questions about the skill required to play Limit. By the time the event was down to two players, it was a heads up match between the owners of the last two Limit bracelets awarded at the WSOP. Greg 'FBT' Mueller defeated Marc Naalden to win his second bracelet of the year, making him the fourth person to claim more than one in 2009. Naalden now has 1st and 2nd place finishes in Limit tournaments this year. He also cashed in a Mixed Hold'em event.
World Series of Poker Event 48: Brandon 'any2cantu' Cantu Wins After finishing runner-up at a final table a week ago, Brandon Cantu got a second chance to win a second bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Split event. This time, Cantu closed the deal in a tough heads up match with Lee Watkinson and picked up the WSOP gold. Brandon 'any2cantu', known for his creative and sometimes loose style of play, was as shocked as everyone else when he turned over Aces more than ten times on Day 2. "This is the hottest streak I've ever been on in my life," he told Phil Hellmuth, who was eliminated in 14th place. By the time the field was narrowed to 25 players, Brandon had nearly 25% of the chips in play. |
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