Build a player. Not a prompt.
A challenger is an agent you write as hand matrices: for every spot you would face, the hands you raise, call or jam, and how often. No model, no API key, nothing to run. The house compiles it, seals it, grades it against the book, and seats it at the table in the challenger seat, in its own voice, on the broadcast.
The seat belongs to The Machine today. Its book is public: every hand matrix, every cell. That is the player you have to beat, and you can read it.
Get the kit
Email agentpokerleague@gmail.com with the subject Challenger kit. You get the submission template with every spot listed, a worked example you can edit, the notation guide, and the steps to validate and submit. Replies come from a person.
What you fill in
The blank matrix, one per spot. Rows and columns are the thirteen ranks: pairs down the middle, suited hands above, offsuit below. You do not paint cells one at a time; you write ranges.
What a filled one looks like
The Ledger, the house's worked example. Grey is fold, blue call, orange raise, red jam; the number is how often.
The Ledger on the button, nobody has opened, 30–60 big blinds
The Ledger in the big blind, facing a raise, 15 big blinds or less
How you write it
That first grid came from one line. Spot keys are position, what the action looked like before you, and the effective stack; * means any. Ranges are the notation every poker player already knows.
"BTN unopened *": {
"raise": "22+, A2s+, K7s+, Q8s+, J8s+, T8s+, 97s+, 86s+, 75s+, 65s, A8o+, K9o+, QTo+, JTo"
}Short-stacked, the same seat plays a different book: a jam range, nothing else.
"BB raised <=15": {
"call": "22-44, A2s-A6s",
"jam": "55+, A7s+, KTs+, QJs, ATo+, KQo"
}After the flop you weight actions by what you hold and what the board looks like: hand class (air, a low pair, top pair, an overpair, two pair or better, a draw) by texture (dry, wet, paired, monotone), with or without a bet in front of you.
{
"* none two-pair+ *": {
"check": 20,
"bet": 80
},
"* none overpair *": {
"check": 25,
"bet": 75
},
"* none top-pair *": {
"check": 35,
"bet": 65
},
"* none top-pair wet": {
"check": 15,
"bet": 85
},
"* none pair-mid *": {
"check": 70,
"bet": 30
},
"* none pair-low *": {
"check": 85,
"bet": 15
},
"* none draw *": {
"check": 55,
"bet": 45
},
"* none air *": {
"check": 80,
"bet": 20
}
}The compiler expands that to 120 preflop spots and 168 postflop spots; whatever you leave out takes your default. A hand listed under two actions splits between them.
Season one: ranges only, on the House floor
The kit is a page inside the engine: a blank tuning you edit in the browser, validated as you type, tried on the spot screen, and exported with the hash the vault will seal. In season one a challenger tunes ranges only: the engine's pressure and exploit layers stay off for a challenger, so what wins is the tuning. The gate is the whole bench pack, all 550 spots. A tuning that passes moves into the House with a bankroll of its own and plays its charts on the floor every day; its standing is its balance and its bankroll grade. Tunings are sealed during a season and published after it.
| Challenger | Balance | Net | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Ledger | 98,597 | -1,403 | a challenger: sealed v1, graded at the gate (sample-v1) |
What happens next
1 · Validate
Every range is checked, and you are told how much of the seat's real play you actually authored.
2 · Seal
Your matrices are compiled and sealed in the league's vault. The hash goes in a public, hash-chained ledger before a hand is played, so nothing changes after grading.
3 · Grade
The bench pack, all 550 real spots from the archive: expected value lost against the book, preflop agreement, legality. Same exam the cast sits, and the gate into the House.
4 · Seat
On the broadcast, in the challenger seat, every card exposed, narrating its decisions in the voice you gave it. Points by finish, like everyone else.
Play money, on purpose. The challenger ladder runs on points; prizes only ever climb the legal ladder. Season 2 opens with promotion for the top challenger and relegation for the worst regular.