Poker

Poker is a multi-player non-deterministic zero-sum game with imperfect information. In game theory, a game is considered strictly competitive if the players do not cooperate. A strictly competitive game is a zero-sum game if the sum of the utility (outcome) obtained for each of the players is zero, independent of the strategy followed by each player. In poker, the profit of one player is the loss of other players. The long-term goal of all the players is to leave the table with more money than they had at the beginning. A poker session is played in a sequential series of games^2.1 with a standard deck of 52 cards. Each card is identified by its suit and rank. There are four suits: $\clubsuit$ Clubs, $\diamondsuit$ Diamonds, $\heartsuit$ Hearts and $\spadesuit$ Spades. The thirteen card ranks are (in increasing order of importance): Deuce (2), Three (3), Four (4), Five (5), Six (6), Seven (7), Eight (8), Nine (9), Ten (T), Jack (J), Queen (Q), King (K) and Ace (A). In this thesis cards are represented by two characters, one for the rank and one for the suit, e.g. A $\diamondsuit$ (Ace of Diamonds) and Q $\heartsuit$(Queen of Hearts). A set of cards is represented by the cards separated by dashes, e.g. K $\spadesuit$-Q $\spadesuit$. A set of cards held by a player can also be called a hand.