BLUFFING

One of the main reasons for Libratus' victory was the machine's ability outbluff humans.

"The computer can't win at poker if it can't bluff," said Frank Pfenning, head of the Computer Science Department at CMU.

"Developing an AI that can do that successfully is a tremendous step forward scientifically and has numerous applications. Imagine that your smartphone will someday be able to negotiate the best price on a new car for you. That's just the beginning."

Dong Kim, one of the four top poker players who participated in the tournament echoed the statement. The 28-year old, originally from Seattle, had also participated in a similar poker tournament with another AI machine built by CMU in 2015 named Claudico.

"It was about half way through the challenge (with Libratus when) I knew we wouldn't come back," said Kim.

"It had less bugs in the algorithm. We just ran over Claudico, bluffed it everywhere, but this time I felt like it was the other way around."

In the battle against Claudico, the human players racked up more than $700,000 over 80,000 hands, winning almost every day of the tournament.

In the same 2017 heads-up, no limit Texas Hold'em battle, the four human players only won five days out of 20 and split a $200,000 prize based on their performance.