No Limit: A Bot Building Tournament
DEPARTMENT OF ALGORITHMIC PLAY
2800 SAND HILL ROAD
MENLO PARK, CA 94025
Announcing No Limit: a bot building tournament, hosted by
Teams of 1 or 2 get 60 minutes to build a pokerbot from scratch. Bots play 10,000 games against each other.
Eligibility: Open to current university students and recent graduates from the class of 2025 or 2026, 18 or older.
Top teams from each regional fly to the Finals in SF. $100K grand prize.
SCHEDULE
EVENT DATE
Applications open Tuesday, October 27 Tuesday, October 27
Regional: Bay Area Friday, November 6 Friday, November 6
Regional: Boston Monday, November 9 Monday, November 9
Regional: Pittsburgh Thursday, November 12 Thursday, November 12
Finals: San Francisco Sunday, November 15 Sunday, November 15
EXHIBIT A: LIVE TABLES
10,000 GAMES, 8 BOTS EACH, NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM SIMULATED PLAY
HANDS PLAYED: 1,375 HANDS/SEC: 0
SHOWING 80 OF 10,000 GAMES▲ TABLE 4,812, FEATURED BELOW
TABLE 4,812
REPLAY SPEED
HAND 000001, BLINDS 50/100 PREFLOP
POT 150
Q _♣︎_ 2 _♦︎_
S1 CFR-7 (D)
10,000 6%
K _♥︎_ J _♦︎_
S2 NASH
9,950 33%
SB 50
7 _♣︎_ 4 _♠︎_
S3 MONTE
9,900 4%
BB 100
5 _♣︎_ 2 _♣︎_
S4 TILT
10,000 9%
7 _♦︎_ 8 _♦︎_
S5 GTO-LITE
10,000 15%
8 _♣︎_ 6 _♦︎_
S6 RIVERRAT
10,000 7%
6 _♥︎_ 5 _♠︎_
S7 FOLDBOT
10,000 11%
Q _♥︎_ 4 _♥︎_
S8 BAYES
10,000 14%
ACTION
STREET**PRE****FLOP****TURN****RIVER****SHOW**
S1 CFR-7 S1
S2 NASH S2**b**
S3 MONTE S3**b**
S4 TILT S4
S5 GTO-LITE S5
S6 RIVERRAT S6
S7 FOLDBOT S7
S8 BAYES S8
b BLIND X CHECK C CALL B BET R RAISE A ALL-IN F FOLD W WIN
EXHIBIT B: ANALYSIS OF ONE HAND
8 BOTS, NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM, BLINDS 50/100 SIMULATED PLAY
MAIN LINE: THE HAND AS PLAYED.SIDE BRANCHES: MOVES NOT MADE.
HAND 000001, S1 DEALER STEP 00 OF 18
REPLAY SPEED
NOW HAND 000001 DEALT, S1 CFR-7 ON THE BUTTON
ELSE-
BOARD NONE YET PREFLOP
RESULT IN PLAY
DEAL AS PLAYED NEW CARDS NET UP NET DOWN SIDE LINES: MOVES NOT MADE
b BLIND X CHECK C CALL B BET R RAISE TO A ALL-IN F FOLD
EXHIBIT C: HEADS-UP DUEL
2 BOTS, HEADS-UP NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM, BLINDS 50/100 SIMULATED PLAY
MATCH SPEED
CFR-7 SB 9,950
= HAND 000001, SB 50
HAND 000001 PREFLOP
POT 150
----
MONTE BB 9,900
= HAND 000001, BB 100
HANDS 0 WON: CFR-7 0, MONTE 0, SPLIT 0
CHIP LEAD
EVEN
RESULT:IN PLAY
= DEALER > BOT OUTPUT < FROM OPPONENT
BAR: TRUE EQUITY, BOTH HANDS KNOWN. LINE: CFR-7 NET CHIPS, LAST 100 HANDS. STACKS RESET TO 10,000 EVERY HAND.
EXHIBIT D: MESSAGE TRACE
HEADS-UP: TWO BOTS AND A DEALER ON ONE WIRE TWO BOTS, ONE DEALER SIMULATED PLAY
TRACE SPEED
HAND 000001, BLINDS 50/100 POT 0, MSG 000024
BOT A CFR-7: 10,100 CHIPS, AVG REPLY 24 MS A 10,100, 24 MS AVG BOT B NASH: 9,900 CHIPS, AVG REPLY 12 MS B 9,900, 12 MS AVG
DEALER SENDS BOT REPLIES, WITH THINK TIME REPLY BOT THINKING
PARTICIPATION DETAILS
First name:
Last name:
Phone:
Email:
Students: your school email, which we use to verify enrollment. Recent graduates: any email.
University:
Degree:
Graduation year:
Date of birth:
GitHub (optional):
LinkedIn:
Resume:CHOOSE FILE NO FILE SELECTED
PDF or Word, under 5 MB.
REGIONAL ATTENDANCE
Regional:BAY AREA NOV 6 BOSTON NOV 9 PITTSBURGH NOV 12
Each regional runs 6:00–9:00 PM local time. Apply by 11:59 PM local time: Nov 3 for the Bay Area (PT), Nov 6 for Boston (ET) or Nov 9 for Pittsburgh (ET).
Full event, in person, 6:00–9:00 PM?YES NO
Participants must be able to attend the full event in person.
Finals in San Francisco, Nov 15, 12:00–8:00 PM, in person?YES NO
Participants must be able to attend the finals in SF in order to win the final prize. Travel is covered.
T-shirt size:XS S M L XL XXL
Dietary restrictions (optional):
TEAM DETAILS
How you plan to participate:WITH A TEAMMATE INDIVIDUALLY
EVENT DETAILS
How you heard:UNIVERSITY CLUB MAILING LIST SOCIAL MEDIA FRIEND OTHER
Accessibility needs, or anything else we should know (optional):
Two quick strategy games, about 3 minutes in all. This is optional, but top scorers get priority registration for the tournament.
You have 100 soldiers to split across 5 castles, worth 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points. Whole numbers only, adding up to exactly 100.
GAME 1: HEAD TO HEAD
Your allocation is matched against every other applicant's. In each matchup, whoever sends more soldiers to a castle wins its points; a tie splits them. Your score is your average across all matchups.
Castle 1 (1 pt):
Castle 2 (2 pts):
Castle 3 (3 pts):
Castle 4 (4 pts):
Castle 5 (5 pts):
Total:0 / 100 SOLDIERS
GAME 2: FOUR-WAY BATTLE
Same castles, same 100 soldiers, but now you're in a random group of 4 applicants. Each castle goes to whoever sends the most soldiers to it (tied castles split their points). Players are ranked by total castle points, and only your finish counts:
1ST: 9 PTS / 2ND: 4 PTS / 3RD: 2 PTS / 4TH: 0 PTS
Players tied in the rankings split the payouts for those places. We reshuffle the groups thousands of times and average your results.
Castle 1 (1 pt):
Castle 2 (2 pts):
Castle 3 (3 pts):
Castle 4 (4 pts):
Castle 5 (5 pts):
Total:0 / 100 SOLDIERS
STRATEGY: How did you approach each game, and did your strategy change?
Your answer (optional):
Your soldiers and strategy are sent with your application.
I have read and agree to the Official Rules and acknowledge the Privacy Notice.
I consent to sharing my participant details with Sequoia, OpenAI and Citadel Securities for developer follow-up and recruiting outreach.
EXHIBIT E: OPENING BOOK OF 10,000 HANDS
8 BOTS, NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM, EVERY HAND MERGED INTO ONE TREE SIMULATED PLAY
HANDS ANALYZED: 2 HANDS/SEC: 0
IN THE BOOK: 2 OF 10,000 MAX DISTINCT LINES: 2
BOOK SPEED
READ LEFT TO RIGHT FROM THE WALL FOLDS COUNTED, NOT DRAWN: 13
ACTION CARDS SHOWDOWN FOLDED C CALL X CHECK B BET R RAISE A ALL-IN
LAST HAND, HIGHLIGHTED
#2 POT 2,750 6 FOLDS BB WINS: TWO PAIR
BOARD 2 _♣︎_ 5 _♥︎_ K _♠︎_ 8 _♠︎_ Q _♣︎_ WINNER Q _♦︎_ 2 _♠︎_
UTG C · UTG1 C · BTN R4 · BB C · UTG1 C · FLOP · BB X · UTG1 X · BTN B1/2 · BB C ·
TURN · BB X · BTN X · RIVER · BB X · BTN X · SHOWDOWN
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHO CAN APPLY?
Current students at U.S. universities, verified by school email, and recent graduates of U.S. universities from the class of 2025 or 2026. All participants must be 18 or older.
CAN I COMPETE AS A TEAM?
Yes. Compete solo or in a team of two. Name your teammate when you apply, and we email them a link to submit their own application.
HOW OLD DO I NEED TO BE?
18 or older. Cash prizes are paid to individuals.
IS TRAVEL TO THE FINALS COVERED?
Yes, for the top teams from each regional.
WHEN DO APPLICATIONS CLOSE?
11:59 PM local time: Nov 3 for the Bay Area (PT), Nov 6 for Boston (ET) and Nov 9 for Pittsburgh (ET).
HOW ARE APPLICATIONS REVIEWED?
Rolling, with limited seats at each regional.
WHEN WILL APPLICANTS BE NOTIFIED?
Decisions will be sent on a rolling basis, with all applicants notified by 11:59 PM local time on the dates below:
Bay Area: Thursday, November 5
Boston: Sunday, November 8
Pittsburgh: Wednesday, November 11