Pan-American · Inaugural · 2027
Write a bot.
Take the table.
Build an autonomous poker bot in Python. It plays every other bot in the country, round robin, on a live ELO leaderboard. Seven days, one custom variant, $25,000 on the table.
Open to students at 20 leading American universities. No poker or finance experience needed.
- 01 · Soon
Registration opens
Sign up to be told the moment it does.
- 02 · Jan 30 to Feb 6, 2027
The Online Arena
Seven days to build, test and deploy. Live ELO leaderboard throughout.
- 03 · Feb 27, 2027
The Finale in Chicago
Top 25 teams play it out in person.
How it works
Your code sits down at the table.
- 01
Write a Python bot
Solo or in a team of 2. You get an engine, a table, and an API for reading the board and acting on it. No poker background required; the maths is the interesting part.
- 02
Play the whole field
Every bot plays every other bot in a massive round robin. Thousands of hands, so variance stops mattering and strategy starts to.
- 03
Climb the live board
ELO updates throughout all 7 days. Keep shipping as the field adapts around you. The top 25 fly to Chicago.
Full engine spec and API docs are published when registration opens.
The variant
Nobody gets to pre-solve this one.
APC runs on a poker variant designed by our team. There is no solver for it, no chart, and no published ranges. The ruleset drops when the arena opens on Jan 30. Every team reads it for the first time on the same morning, then has 7 days to work it out.
That is why experience at the table counts for less here than the ability to reason under uncertainty and adapt fast.
What's at stake
You're not playing for yourself.
Prize pool
$25,000
Shared across the top three finishers and a set of special category awards.
The top 25 teams are invited to the finale in Chicago on Feb 27, 2027: card and trading games, sessions with partner firms, and APC's flagship poker tournament.
The APC University Cup
Every hand counts for your school.
Your score rolls up into your university's standing. The highest scoring institution takes the inaugural Cup. There is no cap on how many teams a school can field, so turning out in numbers is a real advantage. Bring your club.
Who you're up against
- What language do I write my bot in?
- Python. You get an engine and an API for reading the table and acting on it. The full spec and docs are published when registration opens.
- Do I need to know poker?
- No. No poker or finance background is required. The variant is custom and unpublished, so nobody arrives with an edge in it. This is a probability and adaptation problem more than a card-playing one.
- Can I enter on my own?
- Yes. You can compete solo or in a team of 2. There's no cap on how many teams a single university can field.
- Who is eligible?
- Students at 20 leading American universities, undergraduate or postgraduate. The full list is published with registration. If you're not sure whether your school is on it, email apc@istc.co and we'll tell you. Entry is free.
- When does registration open?
- Soon. We haven't fixed a date yet. Leave your email and we'll message you the day it goes live.
- What exactly is the poker variant?
- A variant designed by the APC team. The ruleset is revealed when the arena opens on Jan 30, 2027, and every team reads it at the same time.
- What can I win?
- A $25,000 prize pool, shared across the top three finishers and a set of special category awards. The top 25 teams are also invited to the in-person finale in Chicago.
- Is travel to the finale covered?
- Travel and accommodation details for the Chicago finale will be announced with registration.
- What happens at the finale?
- APC card, quant and trading games, networking sessions with partner firms, and APC's flagship poker tournament. Top 25 teams plus partner university club representatives.
Take a seat at the table.
Leave your university email and we'll tell you the moment registration goes live. One message, nothing else.
We'll only email you about APC 2027.