Poker News: As I noted in my checkers piece last week, computer scientist Jonathan Schaeffer is currently pitting his poker playing program Polaris against ptoo--I mean, two--top human card wranglers, Phil "Unabomber" Laak (above) and Ali Eslami. Play online poker

For a few more hours you can still get live updates (*) of the match, which consists of four 500-hand rounds of Texas hold 'em. Read poker blogs

Polaris drew one round yesterday and won the second. As of 2:16 Pacific time, after 275 hands in the penultimate round, Laak was up but we don't yet know the details for Eslami. (To minimize the effect of chance, Eslami gets the cards Polaris drew against Laak, so the Eslami-Polaris game occurs in private.) Play route 66 poker

The fourth and final round is schedule to begin at 6pm Pacific. Play $500 match poker bonus

Play strip poker. I asked Schaeffer last week by email if he thought this match would settle the superiority of man v. machine at poker. He said no: "Humans are probably better than computers, and the match next week is likely to show it. So... we will need a match next year (and the year after that...) until the result becomes completely clear." Play full tilt poker

Poker News Source: sciam