🚀 go-pugleaf

In <3317449D.44F3@acs.ucalgary.ca>, "John E. Abraham" <j!abraham@acs.ucalgary.ca> writes:
>David D'Antonio wrote:
>> 
>> In article <raccoon.856599064@shellx>, raccoon@best.com says...
>> >
>> >gowest@ibm.net writes:
>> >
>> >>You're right the damn thing cheats!  I'm a fairly competent backgammon
>> >>player and the system has the most unbelievable luck! So I cheat right
>> >>back using manual dice!
>> >
>> >TD-Gammon's creator, Gerry Tesauro, has affirmed publicly, and more than
>> >once, that the TD-Gammon program does not cheat. That's good enough for
>> >me.
>> 
>> I'm sure it doesn't "cheat" (or at least I'm sure Gerry didn't write it
>> to cheat), but it gets the most amazing luck to pull it out of weak positions.
>> And I never seem to be able to get that level of luck going for me.
>
>I bought a real (actual, physical) backgammon board to see if I'd have
>better luck against a real (actual, physical) person.  The actual person
>cheats just as much as TD-GAMMON does!  There's no way anyone can throw
>that many double sixes!
>
>-- 
>John Abraham
>Urban Modelling and Transportation Planning
>j!abraham@acs.ucalgary.ca
>
>(the "!" isn't part of my email address - be sure to remove it before
>replying.
>it's just there to keep the spammers at bay.)

I thought I was a good Gammon player, so when TD-Gammon started consistanly 
beating me ( real bad too! ).  I of course concluded that it was cheating.  I accepted
that part of the challange was beating a dishonest opponent.  

However after playing at the expert level for a while I have changed my mind. 
 It is just a very good player!
Watch the moves it makes at the various board positions.  I changed my style of play
to match the machine and now I win about half the time.

Chuck