On September 7th, 2008, the premise underlying Internet poker is that all poker enthusiasts are humans. But with the improving availability of free poker bots that players can download, it is becoming very difficult to detect on whether the player is a real person or just an unbeatable poker bot. Ian Fellows, a researcher at the University of California at San Diego and the author of the open-source poker-bot "Fell Omen" said that it was not until mid 2000 when a functional algorithm was developed, that bots could even come close to good player. But right now, Internet poker player may become a thing of the past.
The UCSD poker researcher is offering players free downloads of the poker bot but according to Fellows' official site, he does not condone the use of the poker bot software on Internet gaming sites. According to Fellows, the name "Fell Omen" also suggests the possibility of the end of Internet poker with open source poker bots that can edge out every human poker players. But Fellows said that since it is an open-source program, programmers will be able to study the codes and improve its content.
Fell Omen recently tied for 2nd place during the AAAI's 2008 Computer Poker Competition. Unlike AAAI's Man-Machine Poker Competition, where the poker bot made at the University of Alberta beat a human poker champion, the Computer Poker Competition bots played against sixteen other bots.
10/06/2008 05:17 PM