Next: 4.7 Architecture
Up: 4. How Computers Play
Previous: 4.5 The Gala System
  Contents
Several programs by hobbyists were examined to explore
the architecture and approach used. The most common
approach is expert-based, however simulation-based approaches
tend to be stronger (although more computationally expensive).
- xbot by Greg Reynolds
uses an expert system which is
manually patched when weakness is observed.
http://webusers.anet-stl.com/~gregr/
- replicat by Stephen How also uses an expert system in combination
with observing a large number of possible features about the
hand and board ( e.g. three-straight).
- r00lbot by Greg Wohletz is perhaps the strongest of the three IRC
programs. For the pre-flop it uses
Sklansky and Malmuth's recommendations [14], and
for the post-flop it conducts
a series of simulations (playing out the hand to the showdown, typically
3,000 times) against N random hands (where N is the number of opponents,
and is artificially adjusted for bets and raises). The actual action is
dependent on what percentage of simulations resulted in a win.
- Smoke'em Poker is a Five-Card Draw program
by Dave O'Brien.
It uses an expert system and has a set of rules
for each opponent type ( e.g. tight, loose).
http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~gmgrimsh/poker.html
- There are two poker games by Johann Ruegg, Sozobon Ltd.
Both the Seven-Card Stud and Texas Hold'em games
use a simulation-based approach
where the program plays the hand to the showdown several times against
random opponents. The resulting winning percentage is artificially
adjusted depending on the game state
and compared against several hard-coded action thresholds.
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu/pub/rec.gambling/poker/spoker.tar.Z
Next: 4.7 Architecture
Up: 4. How Computers Play
Previous: 4.5 The Gala System
  Contents
Denis Papp
1998-11-30