Poker: the scientific journey of a controversial game, from the 18th century to today

Supervised by Lisa Rougetet, historian of science at Université de Bretagne Occidentale.

I begin by tracing the origins of card games, exploring the context in which they emerged and how they evolved over the centuries. This provides the background needed to understand the context in which poker appeared. I then focus on poker itself, describing its controversial beginnings and its path toward respectability, in particular through the creation of tournaments and their exposure with the World Series of Poker (WSOP). I examine how the game attracted the attention first of mathematicians and later of computer scientists, becoming a genuine object of scientific study and contributing to the emergence of game theory. Finally, I look at algorithmic advances since the late 1990s—especially Counterfactual Regret Minimization (CFR)—that led to the development of Pluribus in 2019, an artificial intelligence capable of outperforming the world’s best players.

Recommended citation: Maugin, N. (2024). Poker : itinéraire scientifique d'un jeu controversé, du XVIIIe siècle à aujourd’hui. Mémoire de licence, Nantes Université.
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