Through 61,000 of the 80,000-hand requirement, the team of poker pros taking on the poker bot Claudico at heads-up no-limit hold’em have a commanding leading of 680,450.

Doug Polk, Dong Kim, Bjorn Li and Jason Les all put in sessions yesterday against the machine, which was developed by Carnegie Mellon University researchers. Claudico is considered the best heads-up no-limit hold’em bot in the world right now.

Each hand starts with the competitors having 200 big blinds. Blinds are 50-100.

If the team of pros is winning after 80,000 total hands, they each will collect $100,000. The chips being bet in the sessions don’t have a dollar value.

The match, dubbed “Brains vs. AI”, is being advertised as the first time that a computer program has played heads-up no-limit hold’em in competition with top human players.

Microsoft is a sponsor and the match is being held at Rivers Casino Pittsburgh.

The match is scheduled to end on May 8. You can watch today’s sessions here.