Blackjack-playing agents in an advanced AI course

  • Authors:

  • Jeffrey L. Popyack

  • Affiliations:

  • Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

  • Venue:
  • ITiCSE '09 Proceedings of the 14th annual ACM SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Blackjack is a multi-player card game in which each player makes a sequence of decisions based on a partially-observed game state that evolves under uncertainty. In its casino variant, Blackjack is typically played as a set of separate contests, each involving a player and the dealer, whose decisions are determined according to a published, fixed policy. We have developed and used a sequence of assignments for an advanced artificial intelligence course in which students determine an optimal strategy for Blackjack, modeled as a Markov Decision Process. The course culminates in a Blackjack tournament in which agents employ policies students have determined through their analyses.