Computers can now challenge -- and beat -- professional poker players at Texas hold 'em

First they figured out how to play checkers and backgammon. Then they mastered chess, Go, "Jeopardy!" and even a few Atari video games. Now computers can challenge humans at the poker table -- and win. DeepStack, a software program developed at the University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group, took on 33 professional poker players in more than 44,000 hands of Texas hold'em. Overall, the program won by a significantly higher margin than if it had simply folded in each round, according to a new study in Science.