PokerBench: Training Large Language Models to become Professional Poker Players

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhuang, Richard, Gupta, Akshat, Yang, Richard, Rahane, Aniket, Li, Zhengyu, Anumanchipalli, Gopala
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhuang, Richard
Gupta, Akshat
Yang, Richard
Rahane, Aniket
Li, Zhengyu
Anumanchipalli, Gopala
author_facet Zhuang, Richard
Gupta, Akshat
Yang, Richard
Rahane, Aniket
Li, Zhengyu
Anumanchipalli, Gopala
contents We introduce PokerBench - a benchmark for evaluating the poker-playing abilities of large language models (LLMs). As LLMs excel in traditional NLP tasks, their application to complex, strategic games like poker poses a new challenge. Poker, an incomplete information game, demands a multitude of skills such as mathematics, reasoning, planning, strategy, and a deep understanding of game theory and human psychology. This makes Poker the ideal next frontier for large language models. PokerBench consists of a comprehensive compilation of 11,000 most important scenarios, split between pre-flop and post-flop play, developed in collaboration with trained poker players. We evaluate prominent models including GPT-4, ChatGPT 3.5, and various Llama and Gemma series models, finding that all state-of-the-art LLMs underperform in playing optimal poker. However, after fine-tuning, these models show marked improvements. We validate PokerBench by having models with different scores compete with each other, demonstrating that higher scores on PokerBench lead to higher win rates in actual poker games. Through gameplay between our fine-tuned model and GPT-4, we also identify limitations of simple supervised fine-tuning for learning optimal playing strategy, suggesting the need for more advanced methodologies for effectively training language models to excel in games. PokerBench thus presents a unique benchmark for a quick and reliable evaluation of the poker-playing ability of LLMs as well as a comprehensive benchmark to study the progress of LLMs in complex game-playing scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_08328
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PokerBench: Training Large Language Models to become Professional Poker Players
Zhuang, Richard
Gupta, Akshat
Yang, Richard
Rahane, Aniket
Li, Zhengyu
Anumanchipalli, Gopala
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science and Game Theory
We introduce PokerBench - a benchmark for evaluating the poker-playing abilities of large language models (LLMs). As LLMs excel in traditional NLP tasks, their application to complex, strategic games like poker poses a new challenge. Poker, an incomplete information game, demands a multitude of skills such as mathematics, reasoning, planning, strategy, and a deep understanding of game theory and human psychology. This makes Poker the ideal next frontier for large language models. PokerBench consists of a comprehensive compilation of 11,000 most important scenarios, split between pre-flop and post-flop play, developed in collaboration with trained poker players. We evaluate prominent models including GPT-4, ChatGPT 3.5, and various Llama and Gemma series models, finding that all state-of-the-art LLMs underperform in playing optimal poker. However, after fine-tuning, these models show marked improvements. We validate PokerBench by having models with different scores compete with each other, demonstrating that higher scores on PokerBench lead to higher win rates in actual poker games. Through gameplay between our fine-tuned model and GPT-4, we also identify limitations of simple supervised fine-tuning for learning optimal playing strategy, suggesting the need for more advanced methodologies for effectively training language models to excel in games. PokerBench thus presents a unique benchmark for a quick and reliable evaluation of the poker-playing ability of LLMs as well as a comprehensive benchmark to study the progress of LLMs in complex game-playing scenarios.
title PokerBench: Training Large Language Models to become Professional Poker Players
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science and Game Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.08328