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{{refimprove|date=February 2023}}
{{short description|Computer program designed to play poker}}
A '''computer poker player''' is a computer program designed to play the game of [[poker]] (generally the [[Texas hold 'em]] version), against human opponents or other computer opponents. It is commonly referred to as '''pokerbot''' or just simply [[Computer game bot|bot]]. As of 2019, computers can beat any human player in poker.<ref>Nature. “DeepMind AI topples experts at complex game Stratego”. Anil Ananthaswamy. NEWS
01 December 2022, Clarification 05 December 2022.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Heaven |first=Douglas |date=2019-07-11 |title=No limit: AI poker bot is first to beat professionals at multiplayer game |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=571 |issue=7765 |pages=307–308 |doi=10.1038/d41586-019-02156-9|pmid=31312056 |bibcode=2019Natur.571..307H |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref> {{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Dana G. |title=AI Learns What an Infant Knows about the Physical World |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-learns-what-an-infant-knows-about-the-physical-world/ |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=Scientific American}}</ref>

== On the Internet ==
These bots or [[computer programs]] are used often in [[online poker]] situations as either legitimate opponents for humans players or a form of [[cheating in poker|cheating]].  As of 2020, all use of Real-Time Assistance (RTA) or automated bots is considered cheating by all online poker sites, although the level of enforcement from site operators varies considerably. {{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

=== Player bots ===
Use of player bots or computer assistance while playing online poker is prohibited by most, if not all, online sites. Actions taken for breaches are a permanent ban and confiscation of winnings. {{citation needed|date=February 2023}} One kind of bot can interface with the poker client (in other words, play by itself as an auto player) without the help of its human operator. Real-Time Assistance (RTA) is another method of using computer programs. RTA is when a human player uses program called a “solver” such as PioSOLVER or PokerSnowie,<ref>Seven Games: A Human History. Chapter 5. Oliver Roeder, 2022. Publisher: W.W. Norton and Co.</ref> running on a different computer,<ref> https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF17/20131210/101570/HHRG-113-IF17-Wstate-EggertK-20131210.pdf  Testimony of Kurt Eggert Professor of Law Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade At a Hearing Entitled: “The State of Online Gaming” Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC December 10, 2013</ref> to make their decisions.

The issue of unfair advantage is twofold. For one, bots can play for many hours at a time without human weaknesses such as [[Fatigue (medical)|fatigue]] and can endure the natural variances of the game without being influenced by human [[emotion]] (or "[[tilt (poker)|tilt]]"). Secondly, since 2019, the computer program [[Pluribus (poker bot)]] is successful enough at reading bluffs, calculating odds, and adjusting to strategy that it consistently beats professional poker players at 6-player no-limit Hold’em.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Noam |last2=Sandholm |first2=Tuomas |title=Superhuman AI for multiplayer poker |journal=Science |date=30 August 2019 |volume=365 |issue=6456 |pages=885–890 |doi=10.1126/science.aay2400|pmid=31296650 |bibcode=2019Sci...365..885B |s2cid=195892791 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref> {{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Carnegie Mellon and Facebook AI Beats Professionals in Six-Player Poker - News - Carnegie Mellon University |url=http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2019/july/cmu-facebook-ai-beats-poker-pros.html |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=www.cmu.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref> {{Cite web |last=Marr |first=Bernard |title=Artificial Intelligence Masters The Game of Poker – What Does That Mean For Humans? |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/09/13/artificial-intelligence-masters-the-game-of-poker--what-does-that-mean-for-humans/ |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref>

==== House enforcement ====
While the terms and conditions of poker sites generally forbid the use of bots, the level of enforcement depends on the site operator.  Some will seek out and ban bot users through the utilization of a variety of software tools.  The poker client can be programmed to try to detect bots although this is controversial in its own right as it might be seen as tantamount to embedding [[spyware]] in the client software.{{citation needed|date=February 2012}}  Another method is to use [[CAPTCHA]]s at random intervals during play to catch automated bots, although isn’t effective against Real-Time Assistance.

=== House bots ===
“House bots” can pose a conflict of interest.  By the strictest definition, a house bot is an automated player operated by the online poker room itself.  These types of bots would be the equivalent of brick and mortar [[shill]]s.

Both brick and mortar casino shills and online house bots are not supposed to have access to any information that is not also available to any other player in the hand. The problem is that in an online setting the house has no way to prove their bots are not receiving sensitive information from the card server. This is further exacerbated by the ease with which clandestine information sharing can be accomplished in a digital environment. It is essentially impossible even for the house to prove that they do not control some players.

== Artificial Intelligence ==
Like in the games of [[chess]], [[Go (game)]], and many other games, [[artificial intelligence]] systems beat even the best humans at poker.<ref> {{Cite web |last=Intagliata |first=Christopher |title=This Artificial Intelligence Learns like a Baby |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/this-artificial-intelligence-learns-like-a-widdle-baby/ |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=Scientific American |language=en}}</ref><ref> {{Cite journal |last1=Meta Fundamental AI Research Diplomacy Team (FAIR)† |last2=Bakhtin |first2=Anton |last3=Brown |first3=Noam |last4=Dinan |first4=Emily |last5=Farina |first5=Gabriele |last6=Flaherty |first6=Colin |last7=Fried |first7=Daniel |last8=Goff |first8=Andrew |last9=Gray |first9=Jonathan |last10=Hu |first10=Hengyuan |last11=Jacob |first11=Athul Paul |last12=Komeili |first12=Mojtaba |last13=Konath |first13=Karthik |last14=Kwon |first14=Minae |last15=Lerer |first15=Adam |date=2022-12-09 |title=Human-level play in the game of Diplomacy by combining language models with strategic reasoning |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade9097 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=378 |issue=6624 |pages=1067–1074 |doi=10.1126/science.ade9097 |pmid=36413172 |bibcode=2022Sci...378.1067M |s2cid=253759631 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Poker is a game of [[Perfect information|imperfect information]] (because some cards in play are concealed) thus making it harder for anyone (including a computer) to deduce the final outcome of the hand. Because of this lack of information, the computer's programmers used to have to implement systems based on the [[Bayes' theorem]], [[Nash equilibrium]], [[Monte Carlo simulation]] or [[Artificial neural network|neural network]]s, all of which are imperfect techniques. [[Pluribus (poker bot)|Pluribus]], however, perfected poker by only looking ahead a few moves to determine what action to take, rather than attempting to evaluate all moves until the end of the game.

Older AIs like PokerSnowie and [[Claudico]] were created by allowing the computer to determine the best possible strategy by letting it play itself an enormous number of times. For years, this was the approach to poker AI, as opposed to attempting to make a computer that plays like a human. This resulted in odd bet sizing and a much different strategy than humans are used to seeing.

Methods were first developed to approximate perfect poker strategy from the [[game theory]] perspective in the heads-up (two player) game, and then for the multi-player game. Perfect strategy has multiple meanings in this context.  From a game-theoretic optimal point of view, a perfect strategy is one that cannot expect to lose to any other player's strategy; however, optimal strategy can vary in the presence of sub-optimal players who have weaknesses that can be exploited. In this case, a perfect strategy is one that correctly or closely models those weaknesses and takes advantage of them to make a profit, such as those explained above.

AI broke through to superhuman performance in poker during the 2010s, with the following timeline. In 2015, computers solved heads-up limit hold'em via [[Cepheus (poker bot)|Cepheus]]. The breakthrough was achieved using the CFR+ (Counterfactual Regret Minimization Plus) algorithm, which analyzed 3.19×10^14 decision points to effectively solve the game.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kuznetsov |first=Andrew |title=Heads-up Limit Holdem Poker is Solved (thanks to CFR+) |url=https://poker-ai.org/heads-up-lh-poker-is-solved/ |access-date=2025-08-28 |website=Poker AI Blog}}</ref> CFR+ works by iteratively playing against itself and analyzing counterfactual regret - the difference between the expected value of an action taken and the best possible action that could have been taken. Around 2018, [[Libratus]] demonstrated superhuman ability in heads-up no-limit hold'em. In 2019, [[Pluribus (poker bot)|Pluribus]] (a newer version of Libratus)<ref> {{Cite web |last1=Magazine |first1=Smithsonian |last2=Solly |first2=Meilan |title=This Poker-Playing A.I. Knows When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/poker-playing-ai-knows-when-hold-em-when-fold-em-180972643/ |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> demonstrated superhuman ability at six-player no-limit hold'em, the most commonly played single variety of poker in the world.<ref> {{Cite web |last1=Kennedy |first1=Merrit |title=Bet On The Bot: AI Beats The Professionals At 6-Player Texas Hold 'Em |website=[[NPR]] |date=11 July 2019 |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/07/11/740661470/bet-on-the-bot-ai-beats-the-professionals-at-6-player-texas-hold-em |access-date=2023-05-17}}</ref> In 2021, Microsoft released the older poker-playing program, Libratus, commercially, which then beat four professional poker players in a 20-day long poker competition at Rivers Casino.<ref>"AI's Disruption Of The Strategy Gaming Space Proves That Machines Are Getting Smarter." Forbes.
Annie Brown. Nov 10, 2021,04:42pm EST.</ref>

Recent developments have introduced Large Language Model (LLM) approaches to poker AI, most notably PokerGPT. Unlike traditional Counterfactual Regret Minimization (CFR) systems that require extensive computational resources, PokerGPT represents a paradigm shift toward lightweight, text-based poker AI.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kuznetsov |first=Andrew |title=How PokerGPT Is Changing the Game in Online Poker AI |url=https://poker-ai.org/how-pokergpt-is-changing-the-game-in-online-poker-ai/ |access-date=2025-08-28 |website=Poker AI Blog}}</ref> This approach leverages fine-tuned language models trained on millions of real poker hand histories, enabling the AI to make human-readable decisions while consuming significantly fewer computational resources than traditional methods.

== Research groups ==

=== Neo Poker Laboratory ===
Neo Poker Lab was an established science team focused on the research of poker artificial intelligence. For several years it  developed and applied state-of-the-art algorithms and procedures like regret minimization and gradient search equilibrium approximation, decision trees, recursive search methods as well as expert algorithms to solve a variety of problems related to the game of poker. Neo Poker Lab’s website, [https://www.neopokerlab.com neopokerlab.com] is no longer running.

=== The University of Auckland Game AI Group ===
Until 2017, a team from the [[University of Auckland]] consisted of a small number of scientists who employ [[case-based reasoning]] to create and enhance Texas Hold’em poker agents. The group applied different AI techniques to a number of games including participation in the commercial projects Small Worlds and [[Civilization (video game)]].

=== Computer Poker Research Group (University of Alberta, Canada) ===
Until 2019, a large amount of the research into computer poker players was being performed at the [[University of Alberta]] by the Computer Poker Research Group, led by Dr. Michael Bowling.  The group developed the agents ''Poki'', ''PsOpti'', ''Hyperborean'' and [[Polaris (poker bot)|Polaris]].  ''Poki'' has been licensed for the entertainment game ''STACKED'' featuring Canadian poker player [[Daniel Negreanu]].  ''PsOpti'' was available under the name "SparBot" in the poker training program "Poker Academy".  The series of ''Hyperborean'' programs have competed in the Annual Computer Poker Competition, most recently taking three gold medals out of six events in the 2012 competition.  The same line of research also produced [[Polaris (poker bot)|Polaris]], which played against human professionals in 2007 and 2008, and became the first computer poker program to win a meaningful poker competition.

In January 2015, an article in ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]''<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1126/science.1259433|title=Heads-up limit hold'em poker is solved|first1=Michael|last1=Bowling|first2=Neil|last2=Burch|first3=Michael|last3=Johanson|first4=Oskari|last4=Tammelin|pmid=25574016|volume=347|issue=6218|date=Jan 2015|journal=Science|pages=145–9|bibcode=2015Sci...347..145B|citeseerx=10.1.1.697.72|s2cid=3796371}}</ref> by Michael Bowling, Neil Burch, Michael Johanson, and Oskari Tammelin claimed that their poker bot [[Cepheus (poker bot)|Cepheus]] had "essentially weakly solved" the game of heads-up limit Texas hold 'em.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Game Theorists Crack Poker |journal=Nature |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/game-theorists-crack-poker/ |author=Philip Ball |date=2015-01-08 |accessdate=2015-01-13 |doi=10.1038/nature.2015.16683 |s2cid=155710390 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/computer-conquers-texas-hold-em-canadian-researchers-say-1420743623 |title=Computer Conquers Texas Hold 'Em, Researchers Say |author=Robert Lee Hotz |date=2015-01-08 }}</ref><ref>{{cite podcast |work=Quirks & Quarks |title=Poker Computer Takes the Pot [audio interview] |url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-jan-10-2015-1.2895561/poker-computer-takes-the-pot-1.2895568 |date=2015-01-10 |host=Bob McDonald}}</ref>

=== School of Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University ===
T. Sandholm and A. Gilpin from [[Carnegie Mellon University]] started poker AI research in 2004 beginning with unbeatable agent for 3-card game called Rhode-Island Hold 'em. Next step was GS1 which outperformed the best commercially available poker bots. In 2006, poker agents from this group started participating in annual computer competitions. "At some point we will have a program better than the best human players" – claimed Sandholm, whose bot, [[Claudico]], faced off against four human opponents in 2015. 

In 2017 the program's software, [[Libratus]], faced off against four professional poker players. By the end of the experiment the four human players had lost a combined $1.8 million of simulated money to Libratus.<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-31/inside-the-20-year-quest-to-build-computers-that-play-poker | title = Inside the 20-Year Quest to Build Computers That Play Poker | date= 31 January 2017 | accessdate = 2 February 2017 | publisher = Bloomberg | author = Joshua Brustein | newspaper = Bloomberg.com }}</ref>

In 2019, Libratus was replaced by the final version called [[Pluribus (poker bot)]].

== Historic contests ==

=== ICCM 2004 PokerBot competition ===
One of the earliest no-limit poker bot competitions was organized in 2004 by International Conference on Cognitive Modelling.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/Schunn/ICCM2004/index.html | title=Iccm 2004}}</ref> The tournament hosted five bots from various universities from around the world. The winner was Ace Gruber, from [[University of Toronto]].<ref>https://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/2392/2/Carter%20RG%20thesis%2007.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref>

=== ACM competitions ===
The [[Association for Computing Machinery|Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)]] used to host competitions where the competitors submit a piece of software capable of playing poker on their specific platform. The event hosts conducted the contests by operating the software and reporting the results.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

=== The 2005 World Series of Poker Robots ===
In the summer 2005, the online poker room Golden Palace hosted a promotional tournament in Las Vegas, at the old Binions, with a $100k giveaway prize. It was billed as the 2005 World Series of Poker Robots.  The tournament was bots only with no entry fee.  The bot developers were computer scientists from six nationalities who traveled at their own expense.  The host platform was Poker Academy.  The event also featured a demonstration heads-up event with Phil Laak.

=== University of Alberta's Man V Machine experiments ===
In the summer 2007, the [[University of Alberta]] hosted a highly specialized heads-up tournament between humans and their Polaris bot, at the AAAI conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The host platform was written by the [[University of Alberta]]. There was a $50k maximum giveaway purse with special rules to motivate the humans to play well.  The humans paid no entry fee.  The unique tournament featured four duplicate style sessions of 500 hands each.  The humans won by a narrow margin.

In the summer of 2008, the [[University of Alberta]] and the poker coaching website Stoxpoker ran a second tournament during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.  The tournament had six duplicate sessions of 500 hands each, and the human players were Heads-Up Limit specialists.  Polaris won the tournament with 3 wins, 2 losses and a draw.  The results of the tournament, including the hand histories from the matches, are available on the competition website.

=== The 2015 Brains vs AI competition by Rivers Casino, CMU and Microsoft ===
From April–May 2015, Carnegie Mellon University Sandholm's bot, [[Claudico]], faced off against four human opponents, in a series of no-limit Texas Hold'em matches.<ref>{{cite news|title=Brains vs. AI: Computer faces poker pros in no-limit Texas Hold'em|work=UPI|author=Marilyn Malara|date=April 25, 2015|url=http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2015/04/25/Brains-vs-AI-Computer-faces-poker-pros-in-no-limit-Texas-Holdem/6431429965877/|accessdate=April 26, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Rivers Casino's Brains vs AI|url=http://www.riverscasino.com/pittsburgh/BrainsVsAI/|access-date=2015-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203181010/http://www.riverscasino.com/pittsburgh/BrainsVsAI|archive-date=2016-02-03|url-status=dead}}</ref> Finally, after playing 80,000 hands, humans were up by a combined total of $732,713. But even though humans technically won, scientists considered the win as statistically insignificant (rather, a statistical tie) when that $732,713 is compared to the total betting amount of $170,000,000 ($170 million). However, some have determined this claim to be disingenuous.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|title = Brains Vs. AI {{!}} Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science|url = https://www.cs.cmu.edu/brains-vs-ai|website = www.cs.cmu.edu|access-date = 2016-02-10}}</ref> Statistically insignificant here means that the programmers of Claudico can not say with 95% confidence (a 95% confidence interval) that humans are better than the computer program. However, it is a statistically significant win on a 90% confidence interval. This means that the human players are somewhere between a 10 to 1 and 20 to 1 favorite.<ref name="auto"/>

The way the tournament was structured was in two sets of two players each. In each of the two sets, the players got the opposite cards. Meaning if the computer has As9c (Ace of Spades & Nine of Clubs) and the human has Jh8d on one computer, the other of the two players in the set will have As9c up against the computer's Jh8d. However, even with the human players winning more than the computer—not all of the players were positive in their head-to-head match ups.

The totals for each of the players winnings were as follows:
* Douglas Polk: +$213,671
* Dong Kim: +$70,491
* Bjorn Li: +$529,033
* Jason Les: -$80,482<ref>{{Cite web|title = Brains vs Artificial Intelligence|url = http://www.riverscasino.com/pittsburgh/BrainsVsAI/#sm.000hrle2c18s7du3zk31h7wk8qcc2|website = www.riverscasino.com|access-date = 2016-02-10|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160203181010/http://www.riverscasino.com/pittsburgh/BrainsVsAI#sm.000hrle2c18s7du3zk31h7wk8qcc2|archive-date = 2016-02-03|url-status = dead}}</ref>

=== The Annual Computer Poker Competition ===
From 2006 to 2018, the Annual Computer Poker Competition ran a series of competitions for poker programs.  Since 2010, three types of poker were played: Heads-Up Limit Texas Hold'em, Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold'em, and 3-player Limit Texas Hold'em.  Within each event, two winners are named: the agent that wins the most matches (Bankroll Instant Run-off), and the agent that wins the most money (Total Bankroll).  These winners are often not the same agent, as Bankroll Instant Run-off rewards robust players, and Total Bankroll rewards players that are good at exploiting the other agents' mistakes.  The competition was motivated by scientific research, and there was an emphasis on ensuring that all of the results are statistically significant by running millions of hands of poker. The 2012 competition had the same formats with more than 70 million hands played to eliminate luck factor.

Some researchers developed web application where people could play and assess quality of the AI. So as of December 2012 the following top groups and individual researchers’ agents could be found:
* Hyperborean (9 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze)
* Bluffbot (1 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals)
* Sartre (1 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals)
* Neo Poker Bot (1 gold, 5 bronze medals)

==== Results ====

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 70%; height=60px;"
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''2010''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://poker.cs.ualberta.ca/news_2010.html|title=CPRG|website=poker.cs.ualberta.ca}}</ref>
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''Heads-up Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|-  style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''PULPO (Marv Andersen, UK)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean-TBR (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 3. ''Sartre (University of Auckland, New Zealand)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Rockhopper (David Lin, USA)''<br /> 2. ''GGValuta (Mihai Ciucu, Romania)''<br /> 3. ''Hyperborean-IRO (University of Alberta, Canada)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''Heads Up No Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Tartanian4-TBR (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)''<br /> 2. ''PokerBotSLO (Universities of Maribor & Ljubljana, Slovenia)''<br /> 3. ''HyperboreanNL-TBR (University of Alberta, Canada)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''HyperboreanNL-IRO (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''SartreNL (University of Auckland, New Zealand)''<br /> 3. ''Tartanian4-IRO (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''3-max Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Hyperborean3P-TBR (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''LittleRock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''<br /> 3. ''Bender (Technical University Darmstadt, German)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean3P-IRO (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''dcu3pl-IRO (Dublin City University, Ireland)''<br /> 3. ''LittleRock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''2011''' <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://poker.cs.ualberta.ca/news.html|title = CPRG}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebestpokersitesonline.com/poker/poker-bots/|title=Poker Bots Evolution – from History to the Future|date=8 July 2020}}</ref>
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''Heads-up Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|-  style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Calamari (Marv Andersen, UK)''<br /> 2. ''Sartre (University of Auckland, New Zealand)''<br /> 3. ''Hyperborean-2011-2p-limit-tbr (University of Alberta, Canada)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean-2011-2p-limit-iro (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''Slumbot (Eric Jackson, USA)''<br /> 3. ''Calamari (Marv Andersen, UK)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''Heads Up No Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Lucky7 (Mikrospin d.o.o., Slovenia)''<br /> 2. ''SartreNL (University of Auckland, New Zealand)''<br /> 3. ''Hyperborean-2011-2p-nolimit-tbr (University of Alberta, Canada)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean-2011-2p-nolimit-iro (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''SartreNL (University of Auckland, New Zealand)''<br /> 3. ''Hugh (USA & Canada)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''3-max Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Sartre3p (University of Auckland, New Zealand)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean-2011-3p-limit-tbr (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 3. ''AAIMontybot (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic)''<br /> 3. ''LittleRock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean-2011-3p-limit-iro (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''Sartre3p (University of Auckland, New Zealand)''<br /> 3. ''LittleRock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''2012'''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''Heads-up Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|-  style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Slumbot (Eric Jackson, USA)''<br /> 2. ''Little Rock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''<br /> 2. ''Zbot (Ilkka Rajala, Finland)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Slumbot (Eric Jackson, USA)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 3. ''Zbot (Ilkka Rajala, Finland)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''Heads Up No Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Little Rock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 3. ''[[Tartanian]]5 (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''Tartanian5 (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)''<br /> 3. ''Neo Poker Bot (Alexander Lee, Spain)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''3-max Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''Little Rock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''<br /> 3. ''Neo Poker Bot (Alexander Lee, Spain)''<br /> 3. ''Sartre (University of Auckland, New Zealand)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''Little Rock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''<br /> 3. ''Neo Poker Bot (Alexander Lee, Spain)''<br /> 3. ''Sartre (University of Auckland, New Zealand)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''2013'''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''Heads-up Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|-  style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Marv (Marv Anderson, UK)''<br /> 2. ''Feste (François Pays, France)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Neo Poker Bot (Alexander Lee, Spain)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 3. ''Zbot (Ilkka Rajala, Finland)''<br />3. ''Marv (Marv Anderson, UK)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''Heads Up No Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Slumbot NL (Eric Jackson, USA)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 3. ''Tartanian6 (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. '' Slumbot NL (Eric Jackson, USA)''<br /> 3. '' Tartanian6 (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)''<br /> 3. '' Nyx (Charles University, Czech Republic)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''3-max Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''Little Rock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''<br /> 3. ''Neo Poker Bot (Alexander Lee, Spain)''|| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''Little Rock (Rod Byrnes, Australia)''<br /> 3. ''Neo Poker Bot (Alexander Lee, Spain)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''2014'''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |  '''Heads-up Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|-  style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Escabeche (Marv Andersen, UK)''<br /> 2. ''SmooCT (University College London, UK)''<br /> 3. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)'' <br /> 3. ''Feste (Francois Pays, France)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | '' ''<br /> '' ''<br />  '' ''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''Heads Up No Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Tartanian7 (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)''<br /> 2. ''Nyx  (Charles University, Czech Republic)''<br /> 2. ''Prelude (Unfold Poker, USA)'' <br /> 2. ''Slumbot (Eric Jackson, USA)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Tartanian7 (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)''<br /> 2. ''Prelude (Unfold Poker, USA)''<br /> 2. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)'' <br /> 2. ''Slumbot (Eric Jackson, USA)''
|-
| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''3-max Limit Texas Hold'em'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
| style="width:50%" | Total Bankroll || style="width:50%" | Bankroll Instant Run-off
|- style="padding-left: 10px"
| style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px"| 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''SmooCT (University College London, UK)''<br /> 3. ''KEmpfer (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany)'' || style="width:50%; padding-left: 7px" | 1. ''Hyperborean (University of Alberta, Canada)''<br /> 2. ''SmooCT (University College London, UK)''<br /> 3. ''KEmpfer (Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany)''
|-
|}

=== Pluribus ===
The final poker contest was not public. When the [[Pluribus (poker bot)]] program consistently beat professionals at 6-hand no-limit Hold’em, the result was quietly announced on a Facebook post.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/poker-playing-ai-knows-when-hold-em-when-fold-em-180972643/|title=This Poker-Playing A.I. Knows When to Hold 'Em and When to Fold 'Em|first=Meilan|last=Solly|website=Smithsonian}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Polaris (poker bot)]]
* [[Cepheus (poker bot)]]
* [[Pluribus (poker bot)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.computerpokercompetition.org/ The Annual Computer Poker Competition (last played in 2018)]
* [http://cowboyprogramming.com/2007/01/04/programming-poker-ai/ Programming Poker AI] Article by the programmer of the AI for the World Series of Poker Game. November, 2005.
* {{cite web | url = https://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/050713/13ideas.htm | title =Can "pokerbots" beat humans? | publisher = USnews.com | author = Caroline Hsu | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327052421/http://www.usnews.com/usnews/culture/articles/050713/13ideas.htm | archivedate=27 March 2009}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140105223817/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6002298/ MSNBC Article - 2004-Sep]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190130164108/https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ultimate-poker-face Science News: The Ultimate Poker Face. (Archived link.) June 2008.]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/science/14poker.html NYTimes.com: Poker Bots Invade Online Gambling. March 13, 2011.]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20220118163757/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/magazine/ai-technology-poker.html NYTimes.com (archived article), “How A.I Conquered Poker”, Jan 18, 2022]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20230120130445/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/technology/chatbots-turing-test.html NYTimes.com (archived article), “The Chatbots Can’t Outsmart You. Yet.” Jan 20, 2023]
* [http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/technology/cmu-deals-a-winning-hand-for-texas-hold-em-442603/ CMU deals a winning hand for Texas Hold 'em] Article about Carnegie Mellon University poker AI research group

{{Poker}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Computer Poker Players}}
[[Category:Computer poker players| ]]
[[Category:Game artificial intelligence]]
[[Category:Gambling technology]]