想玩遊戲?新的電腦程序勝過你的大腦

No matter how sharp you are, a new computer program will always win at this type of poker.

在紙牌遊戲中不管你是個多麼厲害的角色，新電腦程序總是會贏過你。

The best poker player in the world doesn't have a poker face. In fact - it has no face at all.

世界上最好的紙牌玩家沒有撲克臉（面無表情），甚至連有沒有臉都談不上。

The new poker expert is an algorithm (AL-go-RITH-em), or problem-solving program. Called Cepheus, it has solved one form of this card game. "Solved," in this case, means the program knows the game well enough to win against any human.

最新紙牌專家是一種演算法，一種叫做Cepheus能解決問題的程序，它已經solved（搞定）了這種紙牌遊戲中一種玩法。"solved"在這裏指該程序對這個遊戲瞭如指掌，無論和誰比，它都會贏。

And this new algorithm may be useful beyond the card table. It can win at poker even without knowing what cards the other players are hiding. That skill may be useful elsewhere. For instance, it might help guide business decisions or predict terrorist attacks. In those circumstances, a decision-maker will seldom have all of the information he or she feels are needed.

這種新的改進算法可用於牌桌上。使用這種方法無需知道其他玩家手裏的藏牌你就能輕而易舉奪冠。此外這項技能也會在應用到其他方面。比如說引導商業決策，預測恐怖襲擊等。在這些情況下，一個決策者幾乎沒有他或她感覺應該所需要的信息。

The algorithm is "a big step toward understanding games that are closer to real-world problems," says Murray Campbell. This computer scientist works at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Campbell did not work on the new study. He did, however, help develop a computer called Deep Blue. In 1997, it defeated world champion Garry Kasparov at chess.

就職於美國約克敦海茨國際商用機器公司托馬斯·沃森研究中心的計算機科學家Murray Campbell稱能夠透徹的瞭解一個如此接近現實世界問題的遊戲，algorithm可謂是個很大的進步。N.Y. Campbell沒有參與此次新研究，但他助力開發了一款叫做深藍的計算機，並於1997年戰勝了國際象棋冠軍Garry Kasparov。

For decades, scientists have been designing computers that can win games. There's even a branch of mathematics - game theory - that focuses on finding the best strategies in competitive situations. And using such strategies, some computers have performed quite well.

幾十年來，科學家一直致力於開發一款能在遊戲方面所向披靡的電腦，甚至還涉及到一大堆數學公式，即博弈論，這是一種專注於在競爭情況下找到最好對策的方法，並且很多電腦對於這一策略的運行已經相當出色。

But poker is a harder game. Unlike in checkers, poker players cannot see everyone's pieces (or here, cards). Another difference: In checkers, every turn has a best move. But for poker, champs don't always play the same way. To win, a good player might choose to fool his or her opponents, known as bluffing.

但紙牌屬於更難的遊戲。它不像跳棋那麼明顯，紙牌玩家看不到任何人的牌。另一個不同之處在於：在西洋跳棋中，每一步都會有最好的選擇。但對於紙牌玩家來說，厲害角色不總是按套路出牌。如果你想贏，那麼你就要學會怎樣迷惑對手，學會怎樣去唬人。