Beyond Game Theory Optimal: Profit-Maximizing Poker Agents for No-Limit Holdem

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Yi, SeungHyun, Yi, Seungjun
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Yi, SeungHyun
Yi, Seungjun
author_facet Yi, SeungHyun
Yi, Seungjun
contents Game theory has grown into a major field over the past few decades, and poker has long served as one of its key case studies. Game-Theory-Optimal (GTO) provides strategies to avoid loss in poker, but pure GTO does not guarantee maximum profit. To this end, we aim to develop a model that outperforms GTO strategies to maximize profit in No Limit Holdem, in heads-up (two-player) and multi-way (more than two-player) situations. Our model finds the GTO foundation and goes further to exploit opponents. The model first navigates toward many simulated poker hands against itself and keeps adjusting its decisions until no action can reliably beat it, creating a strong baseline that is close to the theoretical best strategy. Then, it adapts by observing opponent behavior and adjusting its strategy to capture extra value accordingly. Our results indicate that Monte-Carlo Counterfactual Regret Minimization (CFR) performs best in heads-up situations and CFR remains the strongest method in most multi-way situations. By combining the defensive strength of GTO with real-time exploitation, our approach aims to show how poker agents can move from merely not losing to consistently winning against diverse opponents.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_23747
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Beyond Game Theory Optimal: Profit-Maximizing Poker Agents for No-Limit Holdem
Yi, SeungHyun
Yi, Seungjun
Computer Science and Game Theory
Computation and Language
Game theory has grown into a major field over the past few decades, and poker has long served as one of its key case studies. Game-Theory-Optimal (GTO) provides strategies to avoid loss in poker, but pure GTO does not guarantee maximum profit. To this end, we aim to develop a model that outperforms GTO strategies to maximize profit in No Limit Holdem, in heads-up (two-player) and multi-way (more than two-player) situations. Our model finds the GTO foundation and goes further to exploit opponents. The model first navigates toward many simulated poker hands against itself and keeps adjusting its decisions until no action can reliably beat it, creating a strong baseline that is close to the theoretical best strategy. Then, it adapts by observing opponent behavior and adjusting its strategy to capture extra value accordingly. Our results indicate that Monte-Carlo Counterfactual Regret Minimization (CFR) performs best in heads-up situations and CFR remains the strongest method in most multi-way situations. By combining the defensive strength of GTO with real-time exploitation, our approach aims to show how poker agents can move from merely not losing to consistently winning against diverse opponents.
title Beyond Game Theory Optimal: Profit-Maximizing Poker Agents for No-Limit Holdem
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.23747