English

Equilibrium solutions of three player Kuhn poker with $N>3$ cards: A new numerical method using regularization and arc-length continuation

Optimization and Control 2018-02-19 v1 Computer Science and Game Theory

Abstract

We study the equilibrium solutions of three player Kuhn poker with N>3N>3 cards. We compute these solutions as a function of the initial pot size, PP, using a novel method based on regularizing the system of polynomial equations and inequalities that defines the solutions, and solving the resulting system of nonlinear, algebraic equations using a combination of Newton's method and arc-length continuation. We find that the structure of the equilibrium solution curve is very complex, even for games with a small number of cards. Standard three player Kuhn poker, which is played with N=4N=4 cards, is qualitatively different from the game with N>4N>4 cards because of the simplicity of the structure of the value betting and bluffing ranges of each player. When N>5N>5, we find that there is a new type of equilibrium bet with midrange cards that acts as a bluff against one player and a value bet against the other.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1802.04670,
  title  = {Equilibrium solutions of three player Kuhn poker with $N>3$ cards: A new numerical method using regularization and arc-length continuation},
  author = {John Billingham},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1802.04670},
  year   = {2018}
}