"When you're in a hand, you're never gonna be able to process what these solvers are offering up to you."
"What do we do with all this complexity? I can barely explain what a solver does, let alone how to interpret it."
"Just imagine a player who has software that can tell him how to play GTO style in game. How do you beat that player?"
"The most successful classrooms that I've been a part of are collaborative and dialogic."

Season 01 Episode 06

Poker, Artificial Intelligence & Learning

Featuring Ben Saxton

The Libratus AI beating top poker pros is just the public face of a revolution in poker strategy. Journalist Ben Saxton joins Dirk and Jon to explain poker engines, cutting-edge strategy, and tips on how to learn.

Poker is undergoing a revolution in strategy thanks in part to AI-driven poker engines that enable precise computation of game theory optimal, or GTO, strategy. Based on physicist John Nash’s “equilibrium”, GTO is professionalizing a game historically known more for cigar smoke and degenerate gamblers than extremely complex math. Journalist, teacher, and poker player Ben Saxton joins Dirk and Jon to go inside these developments.

Mentioned in this episode

Poker’s 2011 Black Friday

GTO Poker

Ben Saxton

Writer

Ben Saxton is a New Orleans-based writer who teaches at Tulane Medical School and Bard Early College. His essays, book reviews, and interviews about poker have appeared in Two Plus Two Magazine, PokerNews, and wsop.com. He is currently writing a book about Gulf Coast poker players.

Dirk Knemeyer

Producer

Dirk is a social futurist, helping to imagine and implement social systems that better humanity. His research on the human condition has taken him around the world, from North Korea to Nepal, and from an anti-immigration parade in Germany to meeting with a community leader in Ferguson, Missouri. Previously a design entrepreneur, he created successful technology companies in Silicon Valley, Boston, and his native Ohio.

Jonathan Follett

Producer

Jon is a writer, musician, and emerging tech researcher who is a principal at GoInvo, a design practice dedicated to innovation in healthcare. His published books include science fiction novel "Marvin and the Moths" with Scholastic and "Designing for Emerging Technologies" with O’Reilly. He produces electronic dance music under the name Jonny Fallout.

Season 01 Episode 06

Poker, Artificial Intelligence & Learning

Featuring Ben Saxton

On This Episode

Ben Saxton

Dirk Knemeyer

Jonathan Follett

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