Computers can whip top players of chess, backgammon and other games. But Annie Duke could surely beat a machine at Texas Hold 'em.

Next month in Las Vegas, poker "robots" will play against other robots, and humans, in an event called the World Series of Poker Robots.

Jonathan Schaeffer is professor of computer science at the University of Alberta, which is in the forefront of research into artificial intelligence as it applies to games. Schaeffer helped create the technology that powers a leading poker computer game, Poker Academy. He says computers lack the ability to beat humans at poker for one reason: They can't know what cards their opponents are holding.

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