AAAI-10: AAAI Annual Computer Poker Competition

AAAI Annual Computer Poker Competition

In recent years, poker has emerged as an important, visible challenge problem for the field of AI. Just as the development of world-class chess-playing programs was considered an important milestone in the development of intelligent computing, poker is increasingly being seen in the same way. Several important features differentiate poker from other games: the presence of imperfect information (due to hidden cards), stochastic events, and the desire to maximize utility instead of simply winning. Hence, traditional AI game-playing techniques do not apply and novel methods are required.

The AAAI Annual Computer Poker Competition, now in its fifth year, showcases state-of-the-art intelligent programs for playing poker. This is the premiere venue for demonstrating poker-playing software systems, as exemplified by the previous years' competitions. The 2009 competition featured 25 poker-playing programs submitted from 7 countries.

Competition Formats

The poker variants considered in the 2010 competition will be Texas Hold'em poker. The competition will build on the success of the previous years' two-player (heads-up) competitions, with both limit and no-limit betting structures, and last year's three-player limit competition. With many interesting challenges in all three categories, we expect this year's competition to continue to spur the development of new techniques.

If you have any questions or comments about the AAAI Computer Poker Competition, we encourage you to address them to the Competition Chair, Nolan Bard (acpc.chair@gmail.com), or to participate in the competition's online discussion forum. David Parkes (parkes@eecs.harvard.edu) will be serving in the role of Arbiter to verify the fairness of the competition.

All of the software needed for the competition is open-source, and the source code, rules of the competition, and other information may be found at the competition website.

The AAAI-10 Annual Computer Poker Competition call for participation is also available as a printable PDF document.