Anyone who is into poker bots will probably know exactly what I’m talking about here, because ORAC was the first ever attempt at a poker bot. Created by Mike “Mad Genius” Caro in 1984, this poker bot could actually be dubbed as the father of all poker bots.
So who is Mike Caro?
Well, his Wikipedia entry reads:
“In 1978 he contributed 50 statistical tables to Doyle Brunson’s Super System and wrote that book’s chapter on draw poker. He acts as a consultant to many casinos, providing odds, and he helped develop the Poker Probe, the first serious commercial PC program for analyzing poker situations. He is the founder of the Mike Caro University of Poker, Gambling and Life Strategy, the world’s first permanent poker school. He was one of the few people who believed in the 1990s that real money online poker would not only work (most people said it would not) but also that it would eventually eclipse face-to-face casino poker.”
Caro is the author of a number of books about poker, including:
- The Body Language of Poker
- Bobby Baldwin’s Winning Poker Secrets
- Caro on Gambling – a collection of his columns published in Gambling Times magazine
- Mike Caro’s Book of Poker Tells – There is also a companion Video/DVD
- Caro’s Fundamental Secrets of Winning Poker
- Gambling Times Official Rules of Poker
- Gambling Times Quiz Book
- Master Hold’em and Omaha Poker
- New Poker Games – Descriptions and rules of esoteric or newly invented poker variants
- Odds Quick and Simple
- Professional Hold’em Play by Play
- Poker at the Millennium
- Poker for Women: A Course in Destroying Male Opponents at Poker and Beyond
He has also made multiple videos, some of which correspond to his books, and he was formerly editor in chief of Poker Player magazine and senior editor of Gambling Times magazine.
In 1984 at the World Series of Poker he demonstrated Orac (Caro backwards), a poker-playing computer program that he had written. Orac was the world’s first serious attempt at an AI poker player, and most of the poker professionals who witnessed the demonstration were surprised at how well it played.
Impressive track record, isn’t it? This guy, a genius, a professional poker player, and whatever else you want to call him, actually paved the way for all of the poker bots, odds calculators and the other types of poker applications that are available on the market today.
Of course, different people have mixed feelings when it comes to poker bots. There are those who think and feel that they are nothing but a cheater’s tool. Then there are those who see much more merit in poker bots than that. The way I see it though, no matter what you think, is that you can’t deny the genius and intelligence behind these poker bots – especially the newer ones that have appeared in the poker world recently.
I’ll write more about poker bots in the weeks to come, but in the meantime if you’d like to see for yourself what all of the fuss is about you can download and test out this free poker bot right away… ;-)
Interesting article although I doubt strongly that poker bots will have a serious chance in the long term. All good players know that varying your playing style is essentiel, otherwise your strategy will be known to the other players typically resulting in continuoesly losing. I find it hard to believe that a computer can be programmed to do this in an efficient way. However, I personally welcome all efforts to develop these poker bots as they might also contribute to reveil more about the true nature of the poker game and enlighten the rest of us.