Bet2Bot: Learning by Building Poker Bots

I’ve been working with my student on Bet2Bot, a game where you build a bot to play poker for you. You then test it in large simulations against increasingly tricky opponents, refining your strategy as you go.

Building those opponents has been a learning experience for both of us. We’ve been exploring poker strategy, Bayesian statistics and game theory together, turning new ideas into harder bots for the player to face. Deciding when to bet, what to infer from an opponent’s actions, and how to judge a strategy over many hands gives the mathematics a very concrete purpose.

The fun has been in moving between an idea and what actually happens at the table: testing a strategy, finding its weaknesses, and working out how to improve it.

As the project nears completion, my student is now developing the storyline, using modern game development tools such as Godot to build a story around the poker challenges we’ve created together. I’m looking forward to seeing where he takes it.

Explore the Bet2Bot website.