MIT Pokerbots Engine 2026

MIT Pokerbots engine and skeleton bots in Python, Java, and C++.

This is the implementation of the engine for playing this year's poker variant, where you get 3 hole cards pre-flop, and you choose a card to discard face up after the flop.

Setup Instructions

Our engine runs in Python, and to make setup as smooth as possible we can make use of uv, a powerful tool which handles package management, virtual environments, etc.

NOTE: We strongly recommend trying out uv even if you are already familiar with tools such as pip and pyenv

To install uv, you can use the following:

# macOS or Linux
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh 

# Windows (Powershell)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

Now, after installing uv and cloning the repo, run the following commands inside the repo:

# Create a virtual environment with a recent Python version chosen by uv
uv venv

# Optional: you can also use any Python version of your choice >=3.8, using e.g. `uv venv --python 3.13.3`

# Sync the virtual environment with the given project files (pyproject.toml and uv.lock), which basically installs the dependencies:
# - cython 3.2.3 (needed for pkrbot)
# - pkrbot 1.0.4 (custom library used for hand evaluation)
uv sync

That's it! There is no need to download the necessary python versions beforehand since uv will attempt to find it and install it if necessary.

Now, to finally run the engine, you can use the Python executable inside of the virtual environment (should be at <PROJECT_DIR>/.venv/bin/python) and run engine.py. To change the bots which are run, see config.py.

C++ Specific Instructions

If you are writing a bot in C++, you should make sure that you have C++17, cmake>=3.8, and boost, a versatile library which we use for stream-oriented network communication.

There are many ways to install C++ and cmake on your machine, but ultimately you want to make sure that your versions are high enough with these commands:

cmake --version   # should be 3.8 or higher

# Check either g++ or clang++ depending on which compiler you are using
g++ --version     # should show something like g++ (GCC) 10.x or newer
clang++ --version # should show something like Apple clang version 10.x or newer

Now, to get boost, you can use the following:

# Linux
sudo apt-get install -y libboost-all-dev 

# macOS
brew install boost                      

# Windows (C++ bots must use WSL)
wsl --install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y libboost-all-dev                   

NOTE: For the macOS command to work, you must first install brew, with this command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Now brew should work as needed. If boost is not auto-detected after installing with brew, use

cmake -DBOOST_ROOT=/opt/homebrew -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug ..

Java Specific Instructions

If you are writing a bot in Java, you should make sure that you have Java>=8 installed on your machine.

If java -version fails or shows a version <1.8, install Java using the instructions below. After installing, use java -version again to verify successful installation.

macOS

The recommended version is with brew:

brew install --cask temurin

It is also possible to download manually from: Adoptium.

NOTE: If java is not found after installing (macOS only), use:

echo 'export PATH="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/temurin-17.jdk/Contents/Home/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc

Linux

You can simply run the commands below:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y openjdk-17-jdk

Windows

You can download manually from: Adoptium, install using the .msi installer, and make sure "Add to PATH" is checked.