Commentary: Heads-up limit hold'em poker is solved

The game of poker, with its tactics of bluffing and deception, has frequently captured the imagination. In one example from popular culture, James Bond defeats a terrorist financier at the poker table in the film Casino Royale. Bond's poker skill reflects his abilities as a spy: Spotting lies and deception, and thinking one move ahead of his opponent. But like other domains of human skill, poker has been affected by the rise of the machines. In 2015, a supercomputer with 48 CPUs running for 68 days “solved” heads-up limit hold'em poker, the simplest poker game played for money in casinos and online (Bowling et al., 2015). This computer cannot be beaten, even in a human lifetime of play. This commentary analyzes the perfect strategy from Bowling et al.'s target article to ask: Does the computer's strategy in the game's key initial decision reflect poker expert wisdom, or does the computer play entirely differently?