CMU AI Poker Tournament
About the Competition
Build an AI poker agent and compete for $6,000 in prizes. Test your skills in machine learning and game theory against other CMU students.
Career Opportunities
Direct recruiting opportunities with Jump Trading for top performers. Network with industry professionals and get noticed by potential employers.
Hybrid Format
Compete online during the main competition. Opening ceremony, closing ceremony, office hours, workshops, and recruiter events all held in-person on campus.
Prize Pool
Competition Rules
Eligibility
- Open to all CMU students
- Teams of up to 2 members allowed
Technical Requirements
- Agents must be implemented in Python
- Use of external libraries limited to approved set
- Additional libraries may be requested for approval
Match Format
- Matches are heads-up (1v1)
- Each match consists of 1000 hands
- Players start each hand with a fresh bankroll
- Winner is determined by total net gain across the match
Tournament Structure
- Teams play matches automatically throughout the day during the online phase
- Match requests can be made to any opponents
- Highest ELO teams advance to the finals on March 22
Competition Timeline
Check-in
Check in to the tournament and talk to our sponsors from Jump Trading.
Competition Begins
This year's game variant and rules, competition framework, and documentation are announced at the opening ceremony.
Lunch (provided)
Get matched with a teammate if you don't have one already.
Office Hours
Get help from the organizing team and our sponsors from Jump Trading on any aspect of the competition, from understanding the rules to debugging your code.
Poker/Game Theory Workshop
Learn about poker, game theory, and basic Reinforcement Learning to prepare for the competition. Room TBD.
Post-Workshop Office Hours
Follow-up office hours to answer any questions teams have after the workshop.
Submission Deadline
All teams must submit their final AI agents by Mar. 21 at 11:59PM. No submissions will be accepted after the deadline.
Closing Ceremony
Final round is held live, winners are announced, and food is provided.
Frequently Asked Questions
What programming languages can I use? +
You can use Python 3.12. Many common external libraries will be available for use. If you'd like to use any others, you can request them in our Discord.
How many people can be on a team? +
Teams can be between 1 and 2 CMU students.
What poker variant will be used? +
The specific poker variant will be revealed when the competition starts. It will be more complex than standard no-limit Texas Hold 'em.
What are the prizes? +
The prize pool will be $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second place, and $1,000 for third place.
Is there a registration fee? +
No, participation in the competition is completely free.
What frameworks are supported? +
You only need to implement a simple interface we provide that tells your bot when it's your turn to act. You're free to use any approach you want - from simple rules to deep learning. For those interested in reinforcement learning, the game engine also implements the OpenAI Gym interface, and we'll provide example code for getting started with RL approaches.
How does matchmaking work? +
Matches will be run continuously with approximately 20 matches per day per team. Teams can request a limited number of additional matches against higher elo opponents each day.
Can I prepare my bot before knowing the variant? +
Yes, you can do whatever you want before the competition, but you will likely have to make significant changes to work with the custom variant.
What resources are provided? +
We provide a complete development framework, documentation, example bots, and office hours with the organizing team. You'll also have access to our Discord community for support.
Leadership
Contact Us
Address
- Carnegie Mellon University
- 5000 Forbes Avenue
- Pittsburgh, PA 15213
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