Stanley the Poker Monkey

I have successfully recreated a digital chess monkey in poker!

Explanation: For quite some time now, I've had a computer game called Chessmaster that features a large selection of computer players. The computer players range in skill from the Chessmaster himself (whom I could never ever even think about beating in a bajillion years) all the way down to little kids and finally to a monkey named Stanley who makes random legal moves.


In my quest to create a digital poker player, my intent is to create a table of capable digital players and then simulate thousands of games between the players to see which algorithm is stronger. The first step, however, is to create a digital player, and that first player was Stanley the monkey. In any given situation, Stanley randomly folds, checks, calls, or bets. While wildly unpredictable, he acts very quickly, giving me a great base opponent for my simulation. I have moved ahead quite a bit in the quality of my digital players, but no accomplishment was better than recreating the digital chess monkey in poker.

My next hurdle is enabling Stanley to sling his digital feces at you when he loses.