Thought that this should be bumped up since the same researcher has organized
the first man-machine poker tournament this week.
The checkers problem was simply a brute force computing problem...this is much more interesting because in poker (like in many real life situations) you are dealing with incomplete information for decision making.
Outstanding publicity for the research we have going on here in Alberta...
By the way...who do think will win the tournament man or machine?
I am betting on man...for now