Once the player DLL architecture has been published, we may run a Programming Challenge for the best poker playing AIs but that depends on enough people declaring an interest in it, well at least a dozen.
- For More on Programming Challenges
The rules of Texas Holdem
The game is played for an agreed number of plays. At the start, an agreed amount is declared as the Ante- say 10 chips (representing dollars, units, cents, matches...) and periodically during the course of the game, after a pre-agreed number of plays this gets doubled.Each player starts with the same amount of chips. A player is randomly chosen as dealer and the player to the left of the dealer is called the Small Blind, with the player to his left as the Big Blind. The Small Blind must pay half the Ante to play, the Big Blind plays the full amount.
The cards are now dealt two to each player face down known as hole or pocket cards. Starting with the player to the left of the Big Blind, each player must decide to fold or stay in. If they stay in then they must put in the full Ante amount and either check or raise. If they raise then this increases the amount needed by players to play. When it reaches the Small Blind he/she must call, i.e.pay the remainder (Half the Ante plus whatever extra has been raised) and any players who decide to stay in but are short of the raised amount must pay the remaining amount or fold. This period of play is called pre-flop.
Next one card is thrown away and three community cards placed face up in the centre. This is known as the flop. There follows one round of betting where players can fold, check, raise or match any raises. Next another card is thrown away and a fourth community card (the "Turn") placed face up followed by a round of betting. Finally a 5th card is discarded and the last community card (the "River") is dealt face up and a last round of betting follows.
The play finishes when only one player is left or after the river, following all betting and the cards are compared to see who had the best hand made from five cards out of the sevenn- 2 in their hand plus the 5 community cards.
Ranking
Cards are ranked Ace (high), King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight,Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, Ace (low)- Straight Flush - Cards have the same suit (Hearts, Clubs etc) in a sequence eg A-2-3-4-5.
- Four of a Kind. One of Each suit.
- Full House - A Pair and three of a kind
- Flush - All cards are in the same suit.
- Straight - Cards form an unbroken sequence eg 4-5-6-7-8 or 9-10-J-Q-K
- Three of a Kind. Three cards with the same value.
- Two Pairs.
- One Pair.
- High Card
Test Harness
This is an application that accepts game play instructions from human or bots after providing to those players the information they would be able to see. It must do the following.- Manage and deals cards to all players.
- Play hands by cycling through players and accepting instructions.
- Be able to score and compare best hands.
- Tracks all wins and losses, played cards and manage chips.
- Use a Common interface for Human and Computer players.
- Access visible Information- bets, community cards, other players play.
- Rate its hand preflop, post flop, turn and river.
- Bet accordingly
