AI Poker Camp (2024 Summer Beta SF)

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Signup Form

  • After signing up, we’ll be in touch with all details

  • The beta program is free!

When?

6pm-8pm Mondays and Thursdays, July 15 through August 15.

What?

A five-week, twice-weekly course on applied game theory through you writing AIs to play games. By the end, you should be able to write an AI to play poker.

This is a beta test of a course we’re planning to run online in the fall, so it’ll be small. We’ll cap signups somewhere between 16 and 24 students.

Where?

Strictly in-person in San Francisco. Location to be announced.

Wait, really? I can’t make that!

We’re also planning to run an online version of the course starting in late September. You can join our mailing list to learn more when it’s announced.

Who?

  • We recommend students be able to program in Python and perform a Bayesian update (though it’s fine to lean on an LLM for help on either).

  • Knowledge of the game of poker is not necessary. (We are offering a 2 hour Poker Basics workshop on Sun Jul 7.)

What’s the curriculum?

The course is built around six or seven practical challenges – think “kaggle competition for game-playing programs”. These will cover:

  • Tutorial: One-card / Kuhn Poker

    • Topic: Algorithms for solving incomplete-information games.
  • Larger one-card poker formats and other simple games

    • Topic: Scaling up algorithms to larger game trees.
  • Rock-Paper-Scissors against imperfect opponents

    • Topic: Techniques for modeling empirical opponent behavior.
  • Hidden-information version of Probabilistic Tic-Tac-Toe

    • Topic: Modeling hidden information from opponent actions.
  • Texas Holdem with simplified betting

    • Topic: Putting it together!

We’re intending for the Summer Beta to have about the intensity of one (1) college course in applied CS. You should expect to make at least 9 out of 10 class sessions.

Who’s teaching?

Ross Rheingans-Yoo wrote the advanced trading simulations for the Jane Street trading internship program from 2018 to 2021.

Max Chiswick is a former poker pro who has played more than 10 million hands of online poker, and created AI Poker Tutorial.

Ricki Heicklen is a curriculum advisor (but will not be teaching in the SF Beta).

How?

Signup Form

  • After signing up, we’ll be in touch with all details

  • The beta program is free!

Something else?

Get in touch!