Big Take Podcast

The Geniuses Who Invented the World’s Best Poker Bots

Computers have outplayed humans in chess and Go for decades. But poker was long considered unhackable — until Russian bots took over the game.

   

Photographer: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
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Computers have outplayed humans in chess and Go for decades. But poker was long considered unhackable. The game requires not just crunching numbers, but creativity and complex strategy. That only started to change about 10 years ago, when a new generation of unbeatable poker bots began to appear online.