This page is a web front-end for playing Texas Hold'em against BPP (the Bayesian Poker Player bot).
BPP started life in 1993 at Monash University, at first playing 5-Card Stud, but now trying
its hand at Texas Hold'em. Nathalie Jitnah
created the first version of BPP for her Honours Thesis, with
Ann Nicholson and
Kevin Korb as supervisors. Ann and Kevin still
manage the project on a part-time basis, but many other
students and colleagues have contributed
to BPP as well since its inception.
The rules for Texas Hold'em vary, but here we use the
AAAI'06 tournament rules, defined
for 2 players (called 'Heads Up'). These rules are as follows:
Antes (i.e. opening bets) are called blinds. Not all players put in the same blind. (And in multiplayer
games, only 2 players put in blinds.)
Here, we use reverse blinds, which means the dealer puts in the small blind ($5),
and the first player puts in the big blind ($10).
Hands are divided into 4 betting rounds, plus the showdown:
Preflop (Round 1): Both players are dealt 2 cards face down
Postflop (Round 2): 3 cards are dealt to the board (this deal is called the flop)
Turn (Round 3): 1 extra card is dealt to the board
River (Round 4): 1 final card is dealt to the board
Showdown: Occurs when the hand ends and neither player has folded. Each
player's cards are revealed to see who wins.
Counterintuitively, the dealer makes the first move in the first round. In later rounds,
the other player makes the first move.
Bets are of 2 fixed sizes: $10 in the preflop and postflop, and $20 in the turn and the river (the fixed sized
betting style and limited number of raises is called 'Limit')
In the pre- and post-flop rounds, there can be a bet and 2 raises for the round (not for each player).
In the final 2 rounds, there can be a bet and 3 raises for the round (again, not for each player). Once
the betting limit of a round is reached, the active player must either call or fold.
Winning: A player can win the hand in 2 ways. 1) If the other player folds
(throws in their cards without showing them). 2) If the hand reaches a showdown, the
players' hands are compared. The strength of a player's hand is decided by forming the best 5 card hand from
a combination of the player's cards and the cards on the board. The
hand ranks
are the same as for ordinary poker.