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Cepheus, The Unbeatable Poker Program

Tags: Cepheus, poker bot, unbeatable.
Posted on 12 January 2015 by "T".

A group of Canadian programmers and researchers at University of of Alberta have created what they claim to be the first unbeatable Limit Hold'em program. The program is called "Cepheus" and the devolopers believe that not even the best players in the world would win against it in the long run.

In order to learn the game, Cepheus played more than a billion billion hands of Texas hold'em - more poker hands than have been played in human history. The computer program required the power of four thousand computer processors, with each processor handling six billion hands per second. During this time the program built up a database of cards dealt, betting decisions and outcomes.

"For every single possible situation you could get into, it has a description for how you should play," said Neil Burch, a computer scientist who helped develop Cepheus at the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group.

Burch admits that Cepheus starts off with a pretty bad strategy but that it comes up with a better strategy every new hand. The program won't win every single hand, but it won't lose to anyone in the long run.

"Cepheus loses to no one over a long enough time. You just have to play enough hands so that luck goes away," said Burch.

You can play against Cepheus on University of Alberta's website, but keep in mind that a lot of hands are required in order for the program to learn your game.

"I'm sure we'll get plenty of emails from people who will play 20 or 30 hands against it, win a little bit, and then happily declare victory and say Cepheus must have a bug. But while a human or another program could get lucky and beat Cepheus in a short match, nobody could do it consistently over a long match," said Michael Johanson, a researcher at the lab.

 


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23 comments on "Cepheus, The Unbeatable Poker Program"


 pochui12/01/2015 13:10:21 GMT
the only thing that is truly unbeatable at the poker tables is drunk pochui, when in condition he becomes a totally destructive force that leads to any opponents annihilation. cepheus is a mere kids toy compared to drunk pochui and shouldn't be promoted in the news as this only emphasizes the lack of knowledge from the authors.
 lukasb12/01/2015 13:38:55 GMT
Put this one playing freerolls at stars against the horde of donks there. If it comes out winning in the long run ill believe it.
 zeroster12/01/2015 13:42:54 GMT
Yeah right, limit hold 'em and who plays that.
 marqis12/01/2015 13:45:35 GMT
I can beat Cepheus no problem... To prove otherwise, Cepheus should play infinite hands against me. Until then I declare myself the winner.

I'm sure I would not beat Cepheus, but their argument, that they won't lose in the long run, can't be disproved, any more than they can't prove that I won't win in the long run. Seems like an empty argument to me...
 StheP12/01/2015 13:45:59 GMT
Posted by lukasb:
Put this one playing freerolls at stars against the horde of donks there. If it comes out winning in the long run ill believe it.

he will winning in long run for sure... all it takes is to 1 time reach ITM... because its freeroll it would be winning, and he cannot lose anything... so there you go it would win in long run Big SmileDD This "program" or as you call it bot or script is just made for pot limit holdem, because no limit is too complicated, and I think none machine couldnt make profit on no limit poker soon... maybe in future Thumbs Up
 klash2312/01/2015 15:02:19 GMT
I am pretty sure I have heard about this program somewhere else!!
I have just been to the site again and it seems they are now allowing people to play against the software but I haven't really played limit poker for a long time.Would be interesting to see if a fellow mobster challenges this robot!!
 shokaku12/01/2015 16:20:30 GMT
lol @ min bet poker. Real men play no limit or at least pot limit. Blink

Of cause a computer has an advantage at fixed limit poker against a human. The machine just can't feel the boredom of min bet poker.
 uno1Bomber12/01/2015 16:32:10 GMT
I play fix limit cash games, when I play them, but I play tournaments most of the time.
 tamayin2812/01/2015 16:33:52 GMT
Hahahahaha.They are right, I think the same thing a robot was never going to get tired while us that I think most people play poker no limit obviously we are going to get tired soon,in order to i have never tasted the poker limit
 Heskor12/01/2015 17:03:18 GMT
Cheers nice bot they made, just needs somebody to test it in the long run and play an insane amount of limit poker against the bot and we will see what will happens, but i get the drift the more time spent on the bot the more time the bot will know how you play and the bot would be able to play against us, anyway cheers for the news, would not have seen it without this post!
 Tony_MON7ANA12/01/2015 17:06:04 GMT
Thanks, I learned a new word today.

Cepheus is a constellation in the northern sky. It is named after Cepheus, King of Aethiopia in Greek mythology. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations. Its brightest star is Alpha Cephei with an apparent magnitude of 3.5. Delta Cephei is the prototype of an important class of star known as a Cepheid variable. RW Cephei, an orange hypergiant, together with the red supergiants Mu Cephei, VV Cephei and V354 Cephei are among the largest stars known. In addition, Cepheus also has the hyperluminous quasar S5 0014+81, hosting an ultramassive black hole in its core at 40 billion solar masses, about 10,000 times more massive than the central black hole of the Milky Way, making it the most massive black hole known in the universe.

It can't adapt? Really...
 StS512/01/2015 17:31:35 GMT
Posted by lukasb:
Put this one playing freerolls at stars against the horde of donks there. If it comes out winning in the long run ill believe it.


Yes mate, that is a really good idea. I wonder, if we could put that into reality? If the developers would agree, as well as Bankroll Mob and of course Ppokerstrs it should be possible and the outcome would be very interesting. Also the developers can earn some money that way. Big Smile
 Robbo199012/01/2015 23:15:32 GMT
In the long run, isn't this bad - not just for pokersites, but for players aswell?
 av196612/01/2015 23:56:17 GMT
That the perfect way out to the bad plays Thumbs Up Thumbs Up
Some poker players are always saying they were beat by a bot and that poker is rigged now this will be the perfect excuse for the bad poker playing was not my fault was Cepheus that crush me out was not poor poker skills that got me beaten was Cepheus Worship Worship
My life will be easier now Big Smile Big Smile Big Smile
 superthight13/01/2015 04:55:04 GMT
there is no such adressing a word unbeatable in the long run if a program is cheating!!!!poker is gamble mixed with skill.if we play open flops and no bluffs has been made .then we should say good bye to poker.cards are shuffled and needs to gues the win by srong hand or bluff.if we follow this kind of cepheus???who wants to play poker any more????? Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship Worship .were just humans make mistake no humans is a perfect .not unless yur cheating???
 doubletop77713/01/2015 09:56:21 GMT
This is like something out of a science fiction movie and this sort of thing really fascinates me. I love to read about all this hi-tech stuff but i wouldnt have a clue where to start
 jsikonja13/01/2015 10:12:58 GMT
Posted by zeroster:
Yeah right, limit hold 'em and who plays that.


exactly! that is the most boring type of p0ker ever.
 bowie198413/01/2015 14:05:04 GMT
Four thousand computer processors, with each processor handling six billion hands per second is a lot of power to make calculations about things nobody really cares about. NOBODY. REALLY. CARES. ABOUT. POKER. PERIOD.
If this was some group effort to bring up poker to the level of chess which society greatly approves then I couldn't do anything else but laugh about it. On the other hand they sure spent a lot of money, time and manpower to create something none of the online sites or live tournaments allowing you to use.
 LadyFloppy13/01/2015 14:28:31 GMT
If this were true it would be the end of poker on line because they had this program would be invincible and would ruin the finances of many, I do not think poker rooms could allow a program so that would be a serious fraud
 klash2313/01/2015 15:37:07 GMT
I do not think this poker program will ever make it's way onto any of the poker sites in its current form,for a start it is so powerful it is not something you can use your ordinary laptop to run,it only plays limit heads up which I don't think is that popular and it usually "won't lose money in the long run".
 bowie198416/01/2015 15:40:03 GMT
So I went to this website to test my knowledge and skill level (LOL at both of course) against this so called 'machine' and it said to me: Temporarily Offline. We are undergoing temporary maintenance. Please check back soon!
I think Skynet is a couple years away still and unless they are not able to use some trustable servers and good processors Cepheus will be kaput too.
It's just ridiculous they go with this to any news outlet and when the reader deicide to check them out they aren't online no more.
 jsikonja16/01/2015 17:00:24 GMT
Posted by bowie1984:
So I went to this website to test my knowledge and skill level (LOL at both of course) against this so called 'machine' and it said to me: Temporarily Offline. We are undergoing temporary maintenance. Please check back soon!
I think Skynet is a couple years away still and unless they are not able to use some trustable servers and good processors Cepheus will be kaput too.
It's just ridiculous they go with this to any news outlet and when the reader deicide to check them out they aren't online no more.


and prolly the reason for that is because someone figured out how it makes decisions and beat it a couple times and now they try to fix that Big Smile
 klash2317/01/2015 13:20:15 GMT
When I first saw this story and checked out the website it was undergoing maintenance but then it allowed play on the software though said you would have to play 100's of hands to realise the full potential but then it was down again soon after.Maybe they should have been a bit more patient before stating it played perfect poker. Smile

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