The First Man-Machine
Poker Championship

Jonathan Schaeffer introduces the players again

Darse Billings (green shirt) enjoying the match

Scott Fortin from Poker Academy watches the action.

The screen where Phil Laak's view was projected onto the screen. Here we are waiting for the match to get under way.

A view of the blogging station. Morgan Kan sits at his post typing about the action

A few observers to start

Phil Laak giving some commentary

Phil Laak concentrating on a difficult hand

The room becomes packed with observers!

Rows of faces watching the match

A good view of the stage area

Later in the match, and still there is standing room only

Phil continues his colourful commentary

Another look at the blogging station. Darse Billings (left) chats with Nolan Bard (center), while Morgan Kan (right) observes a hand to blog.

A nice closeup of Phil Laak concentrating on a hand

Phil Laak is animated in his commentary

University of Alberta professors Jonathan Schaeffer (left), Rich Sutton (center), and Michael Bowling (right) watching the action

Phil makes quad queens en route to winning a medium sized pot

Phil Laak may not get a stare down from the computer, but Darse Billings is doing his best to substitute

Nolan Bard at the blogging table uploading photos

Phil Laak doing commentary during the match

And more commentary

A view of Phil's position on stage

Late in the match, there are still many people enjoying the match

Ali Eslami was done his part of the match early and hung around outside waiting for Phil to finish. Here he talks with some members of the team. The result of Ali's side of the match is still unknown to the people in the room

Phil is concentrating hard on a hand

A look at crowd from the back of the room

Phil Laak's girlfriend, actress and poker player Jennifer Tilly cheers Phil on

Morgan Kan blogging away

The crowd watching the action

Phil Laak and Jonathan Schaeffer discussing something before Ali comes in to report the result

The CPRG members celebrate a victory for this session!

Phil and Ali discuss what happened in this match

Phil and Ali continue their discussion

The bankroll graphs for the two sides of the duplicate match

The discussion ends and the players retire to do some analysis on their play for the next day