Monday, November 3, 2014
Perfect Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em Strategy part 1
STUDYING THE STRATEGIES OF THE FOUR ALL-TIME BEST HULHE PLAYERS, MAN OR MACHINE, TO CREATE YOUR OWN
The best way to find the Perfect Heads-Up Fixed Limit Hold' Em Strategy is to study the strategies used by the great ones. For me the greats in HULHE are two humans plus two machines. My two human players are Phil Ivey and Andy Beal. My two poker bots are Polaris and Texas Hold ‘Em Heads Up Poker. I will try to enter the brain of those four world-class experts to find and analyze their winning strategies.
Phil Ivey's HUHU FL HE strategy:
Step 1. Raise pre-flop in position
Raise pre-flop in the big blind with (1:1)
Ax, Kx, Q3s, Q6, J8, T7s, T9, 98s, 33+
Step 2. Continuation bet on the flop and turn 100% of the time
Step 3. Leaving after losing one buy-in
Keep playing when winning
Why is Phil Ivey so good?
a) hyper aggressive
b) incredible focus and concentration
c) uncanny ability to detect and exploit opponents's weaknesses and betting patterns
d) zero tilt factor
e) intimidating and fearsome reputation
b) incredible focus and concentration
c) uncanny ability to detect and exploit opponents's weaknesses and betting patterns
d) zero tilt factor
e) intimidating and fearsome reputation
f) unlimited bankroll
Why is Andy Beal so good?
Andy Beal High Stakes Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em strategy
Step 1. Play nearly every hands
Raise (most of the time) every pot he enters
Step 2. Check-call all the way down to the river with any A-high hand
8-bets the turn with two pair
Step 3. Obsession with preventing tells
Raise (most of the time) every pot he enters
Step 2. Check-call all the way down to the river with any A-high hand
8-bets the turn with two pair
Step 3. Obsession with preventing tells
Why is Andy Beal so good?
a) Obsession
b) Specialization
c) Mathematical approach
c) Mathematical approach
d) High stakes
e) Ultra-aggressive
f) Impossible to read
f) Impossible to read
Polaris's Strategies:
Polaris have a total of 5 different strategies.
The Nash Equilibrium plus 4 other to use against different types of opponents. Polaris identifies which common poker strategy a human is using and switches its own strategy to counter.
1- The first approach is to approximate a Nash equilibrium strategy which is robust against any opponent.
2- The second approach is to find an exploitive counter-strategy to an opponent. We will show that these counter-strategies are brittle: they can lose to arbitrary other opponents.
3- The third approach is a compromise of the first two, to find robust counter-strategies.
4- The four approach is to combine several of these agents into a team, and learn during a game which to use.
Why is Polaris so good?
a) Adaptation. Polaris doesn't have a "best way" to play; it has a "best way" to adapt.
b) Specialization
c) No emotion
d) Aggression
b) Specialization
c) No emotion
d) Aggression
Texas Hold ‘Em Heads Up Poker "The Brain" strategy
Pre-flop
Hyper-LAG / maniac
+ Raise almost every time from the Button
+ Raise called button from over 75% of the time from the BB.
... Sometime 3-bet weak hands like T5off (negligible)
... Occasionally fold on the Button or when raised in the BB (negligible)
- Fold more hands from the SB on most streets than from the BB
Flop
Very LAG
+ Routinely raise with middle pair and a weak kicker
+ Call most of the time a check-raise+ Rarely 3-bet the flop with weak overcard, no straight, flush or backdoor possibilities
+ Often fold to a bet if a high card comes on the flop
+ But he will bet the high card on the flop
+ Most likely to fold on the flop
Turn
Tightens up
+ Check-call with middle pair and weak kicker
+ Check the turn most of the time
River
+ Call with a piece of the board
+ Call down with Ace high unless the board is scary
+ Likely to call with King high
+ Sometimes call down with weaker hands (J high) on a bimodal (monster or miss) board. Like a pair on the board.
Overall
+ Reasonable adjustment to what the opponent might hold based on the board.
+ Seem to play top pair / top kicker more slowly on board with flushes and straights possible
+ Seem to play high card / no pair more aggressively on paired flops. Check-raise bluff
+ More likely to check-raise if opponent put the last bet on the previous street.
+ Doesn't fold too often.
Why is "The Brain" so good?
a) Defense. The basic idea behind its play technique is to do everything it can "to prevent itself from being exploited". "The theory behind it is almost paranoid,"
b) Unpredictable. The pokerbot use knowledge gained from billions of staged rounds of poker fed through neural networks, and the result is an unpredictable poker player that can win almost every time. Three different banks of knowledge are used depending on the gameplay scenario, but the basic idea behind its play technique is, as I said above, "to prevent itself from being exploited." "The theory behind it is almost paranoid." So "The Brain" unpredictibility and three different game plays are part of his perfectly defensive game.
Here are his 3 tag-team fighters alternating against an opponent.
* The first is a neural net with optimal number of bluffs and can do anything in anyone hand.
*The second play a slightly different style.
*The third come into play when the opponent has a reduced stack.
Aggression level might change at random moment
c) Aggression. "The Brain" is the aggressor. Almost never check-calls or simply matches an opponent's bet without a raise. But give credit to your hand when you raise and reraise. Far too aggressive and steals far too many pots to get beat on a regular basis.
Now that we have a complete overview of the strategies and strengths of our four Heads-Up Fixed Limit bosses. We will compare their respective style to each other in the second part of this guide.
PYGOD
Perfect Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em Strategy part 2
DO NOT COPY AND PASTE MY WORK INTO YOUR WEBSITE WITHOUT GIVING ME THE CREDIT
Andy Beal in Rounders 2
Billionaire banker Andy Beal in Rounders 2?
Speaking of Matt Damon. He was excellent in Team America! Seriously, if they were to make a rounders 2, I think the climactic scene would be Matt building up enough bankroll to sit in the big game with the likes of Doyle, Greenstein, Negreanu, Ivey, etc. If he were to have a heads up battle for the finale, it would have to be against someone who can look the bad guy. I mean Negreanu would be intimidating, but he's too likable. Maybe, Ivey since he's quiet and stone cold. Ohhh even better (just got so many ideas flying here).
How about Andy Beal or an Andy beal type to play heads up. They would have to change some facts though but I can hear Mike McDermont in the background saying something like this. "Sure, I'm a winning Poker player. I've won some big tournies and done well at the cash games, but there's one game and one man that I haven't beaten. His name is Andy Beal, a billionare banker from Texas. He came to vegas ten years ago to try to beat the pros. His idea was to set the limits so high that he could intimidate the pros and win. Unfortunately for Andy the pros or the corporation were not intimidated and took millions from him. Andy, though stating several times he was done with poker, was relentless. He read books, studied the game, set up a staff to run numbers, calculate odds, and help his play. Andy is very analytical and dedicated. He built his fortune from nothing. He was determined to be the best and after years of refining his skills at High Limit Texas Hold em' he became just that. He came to Vegas a couple of years ago and cleaned the pros out. It's rumored that he took 50 million from the corporation. Some say a hundred million. A few pros were completely broke after this. People say Beal completely dominated anyone they sat in front of him. His style was untouchable and his skill was overwhelming. Andy will only play $150k/$300k Limit Holdem. Needless to say, no pro will play him. Well, no pro until now. I'm lucky enough to have backers that believe in me. I'm about to play in the richest poker game that's ever been played. Where millions of dollars swing back and forth from one hand to the next. Six days, sixty hours. By Friday, I will have lost everything, completely broke or... I will be the richest pro to ever play the game. This man is said to be unbeatable, even by the best to ever play the game. Am I committing financial suicide, or am I what I truly feel I am... the best" or something like that...heh
Very interesting story posted 26 February 2006 by
Phil Ivey vs The Brain
In NVGtard fantasy land (12-01-2010) :
"The Brain" heads up poker machine proves to be remarkably resilient, beating the best minds in poker over a large sample. When the limits are raised to 200/400 Hoss tbf flys to vegas and enters the Bellagio and plays it days on end only to break even until he tires and begins to lose. And so the machine sits outside the poker room unplayed and unscathed save a few suckers from time to time. The stakes are raised to any that the tourist wishes to play, from .50/1 to 500000/1000000. A billionaire is reported to have lost 4 million on may 23, 2011 during a break from highstakes craps. One day at the poker table Ivey is asked if he would play heads up nl omaha by a young upcoming susperstar from norway and Ivey responds that he would play anybody. The kid says I bet you wouldn't play the brain smugly. "Who's that?" asks Ivey. The kid points to the machine. Ivey says sure and spends the next 45 minutes inserting a giant wad of hundreds and over the course of the next 28 hours he beats it for 300 million dollars infront of the ever growing massive crowd of spectators. Finally after being down 324 million dollars and 28 hours of poker, The Brain ask Phil Ivey if he would let him play on credit. A fat executive hobbles out of the crowd red faced and screams hell no! and pulls the plug.
That's exactly what could happen if Phil Ivey was met to play Texas Hold' Em Heads Up Poker machine "The Brain". This funny story was written by spaceman Bryce on the twoplustwo poker forum.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/heads-up-poker-machines-raise-limits-929205/index2.html
It's nice to see that Phil Ivey's dominance made him a mythological figure just like Chuck Norris.
Now you can say that Phil Ivey is the Chuck Norris of Poker.
Originally published in: http://www.heads-up-fixed-limit-texas-hold-em-poker.com/2013/10/phil-ivey-vs-brain.html
Polaris
Polaris is the Deep Blue of poker.
The patience of a monk or the fierce aggression of a tiger, changing gears in a single heartbeat. Polaris can make a pro's head spin. Bluff, trap, check-raise bluff, big lay-down -- name your poison.
Polaris is a Texas hold 'em poker playing program developed by the computer poker research group at the University of Alberta, a project that has been under way for 16 years as of 2007. Polaris is a composite program consisting of a number of bots, including Hyperborean08, the winner of the limit equilibrium series in the 2008 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Computer Poker Competition. Polaris also contains a number of other fixed strategies, and chooses between these strategies during a match. Polaris requires little computational power at match time, so it is run on an Apple MacBook Pro laptop during competitions. Polaris plays only heads-up (two player) Limit Texas hold'em.
Limit Hold'em (LH) Heads-up Duplicate poker
On July 23–24, 2007, Polaris played against poker professionals Phil Laak and Ali Eslami at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. The competition consisted of four duplicate matches, with 500 hands per match. In each duplicate match, the same cards were dealt to both pairs of players, human and bot, but with the seating reversed. After roughly 16 hours of play over two days, Polaris tied the first round, won the second and lost the last two.
Final result -- Polaris record: 1-2-1
On July 3–6, 2008, Polaris competed against six human professional poker players in the Second Man-Machine Poker Championship, held in Las Vegas at the 2008 Gaming Life Expo. Polaris defeated the human players with three wins, two losses and one tie. Each of the six sessions was a duplicate match of 500 hands against two different players, resulting in six thousand hands played.
Across all six sessions, Polaris won 195 big blinds. The version of Polaris used in the 2008 match was much stronger than the 2007 version, both in the quality of the component strategies and in its ability to learn which component strategy to use.
Final result -- Polaris record: 3-2-1
Overall Polaris's record vs. humans: 4-4-2
Polaris and Deep Blue
Comparing Polaris results with IBM chess computer Deep Blue versus reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in two games under tournament regulations.
Result: Kasparov–Deep Blue (4–2)
Result: Deep Blue–Kasparov (3½–2½)
Overall Deep Blue record versus Kasparov (5½–6½)
Polaris (4-4-2 or 5-5) vs. Deep Blue (5½–6½)
So with that being said. We can see that Polaris had better results versus humans than Deep Blue.
Polaris's Strategies:
Polaris have a total of 5 different strategies.
The Nash Equilibrium plus 4 other to use against different types of opponents. Polaris identifies which common poker strategy a human is using and switches its own strategy to counter.
1- The first approach is to approximate a Nash equilibrium strategy which is robust against any opponent.
2- The second approach is to find an exploitive counter-strategy to an opponent. We will show that these counter-strategies are brittle: they can lose to arbitrary other opponents.
3- The third approach is a compromise of the first two, to find robust counter-strategies.
4- The four approach is to combine several of these agents into a team, and learn during a game which to use.
Why is Polaris so good?
The patience of a monk or the fierce aggression of a tiger, changing gears in a single heartbeat. Polaris can make a pro's head spin. Bluff, trap, check-raise bluff, big lay-down -- name your poison.
Polaris is a Texas hold 'em poker playing program developed by the computer poker research group at the University of Alberta, a project that has been under way for 16 years as of 2007. Polaris is a composite program consisting of a number of bots, including Hyperborean08, the winner of the limit equilibrium series in the 2008 Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Computer Poker Competition. Polaris also contains a number of other fixed strategies, and chooses between these strategies during a match. Polaris requires little computational power at match time, so it is run on an Apple MacBook Pro laptop during competitions. Polaris plays only heads-up (two player) Limit Texas hold'em.
Limit Hold'em (LH) Heads-up Duplicate poker
On July 23–24, 2007, Polaris played against poker professionals Phil Laak and Ali Eslami at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, B.C. The competition consisted of four duplicate matches, with 500 hands per match. In each duplicate match, the same cards were dealt to both pairs of players, human and bot, but with the seating reversed. After roughly 16 hours of play over two days, Polaris tied the first round, won the second and lost the last two.
Final result -- Polaris record: 1-2-1
On July 3–6, 2008, Polaris competed against six human professional poker players in the Second Man-Machine Poker Championship, held in Las Vegas at the 2008 Gaming Life Expo. Polaris defeated the human players with three wins, two losses and one tie. Each of the six sessions was a duplicate match of 500 hands against two different players, resulting in six thousand hands played.
Across all six sessions, Polaris won 195 big blinds. The version of Polaris used in the 2008 match was much stronger than the 2007 version, both in the quality of the component strategies and in its ability to learn which component strategy to use.
Final result -- Polaris record: 3-2-1
Overall Polaris's record vs. humans: 4-4-2
Polaris and Deep Blue
Comparing Polaris results with IBM chess computer Deep Blue versus reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in two games under tournament regulations.
Result: Kasparov–Deep Blue (4–2)
Result: Deep Blue–Kasparov (3½–2½)
Overall Deep Blue record versus Kasparov (5½–6½)
Polaris (4-4-2 or 5-5) vs. Deep Blue (5½–6½)
So with that being said. We can see that Polaris had better results versus humans than Deep Blue.
Polaris's Strategies:
Polaris have a total of 5 different strategies.
The Nash Equilibrium plus 4 other to use against different types of opponents. Polaris identifies which common poker strategy a human is using and switches its own strategy to counter.
1- The first approach is to approximate a Nash equilibrium strategy which is robust against any opponent.
2- The second approach is to find an exploitive counter-strategy to an opponent. We will show that these counter-strategies are brittle: they can lose to arbitrary other opponents.
3- The third approach is a compromise of the first two, to find robust counter-strategies.
4- The four approach is to combine several of these agents into a team, and learn during a game which to use.
Why is Polaris so good?
a) Adaptation. Polaris doesn't have a "best way" to play; it has a "best way" to adapt.
b) Specialization
c) No emotion
d) Aggression
b) Specialization
c) No emotion
d) Aggression
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