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Re:Poker Tournament for LLMs by nabla9 on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @06:17AM (#45731053)
Question:

If you put the currently best poker algorithm in a tournament with mixed-skill-level players, how likely is the algorithm to get into the money?

Recognizing different skill levels quickly and altering your play for the opponent in the beginning grows the pot very fast. I would imagine that playing against good players is completely different game compared to mixed skill levels.

Re:Poker Tournament for LLMs by michalsustr on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @06:28AM (#45731115)
Agreed. I don't know how fast it would get into the money, but an equilibrium strategy is guaranteed to not lose, in expectation. So as long as the variance doesn't make it to run out of money, over the long run it should collect most of the money in the game.

It would be fun to try!

Re:Poker Tournament for LLMs by nabla9 on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @06:49AM (#45731226)
> equilibrium strategy is guaranteed to not lose,

In my scenario and tournament play. Are you sure?

I would be shocked to learn that there is a Nash equilibrium in multi-player setting, or any kind of strategic stability.

Re:Poker Tournament for LLMs by michalsustr on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @07:19AM (#45731414)
In multi-player you don't have guarantees, but it tends to work well anyway: https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aay2400
Re:Poker Tournament for LLMs by nabla9 on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @07:31AM (#45731491)
Thanks.

> with five copies of Pluribus playing against one professional

Although this configuration is designed to water down the difficulty in multi-player setting.

Pluribus against 2 professionals and 3 randos would better test. Two pros would take turns taking money from the 3 randos and Pluribus would be left behind and confused if it could not read the table.

Re:Poker Tournament for LLMs by bluecalm on Tuesday October 28, 2025 @06:30AM (#45731125)
>>Agreed. I don't know how fast it would get into the money, but an equilibrium strategy is guaranteed to not lose, in expectation.

That's only true for heads-up play. It doesn't apply to poker tournaments.