KEY POINTS:
Computer science folded yesterday as Polaris poker software was bankrupted by professional players.
Phil Laak and Ali Eslami beat Polaris after four rounds in the world's first man-versus-machine poker championship, held at Vancouver's Hyatt Regency hotel.
The pair won by 570 points in the final game.
Both agreed that the machine was a tough competitor, and would only get harder to beat as programmers further improved the Polaris programme.
The psychological aspect of poker made software difficult to write.
Scientists compared the match-up to when a Deep Blue supercomputer beat Russian genius Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
