GTO Poker Simplified: Strategy lessons from the solvers that any cash game or tournament player can apply to their game (The Poker Solved Series)

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For many of you, the introductory explanation of what the app is and does given in the FAQ link above may be all you want. However, questions on our Discord server indicate that some of you want a deeper understanding of the input parameters and assumptions used in developing the app. We are happy to oblige!

You have 7 bluff combos in your river range and decide to make a 2/3 pot sized bet. So you need to calculate the GTO number of corresponding value combos to bet. For 888sport players: if you have unsettled bets on your account, you will be able to withdraw any winnings upon bet settlement. This practical reality led us to develop the exploitative 6-max ranges contained in the app. Since 6-max is common online, but rare live, our baseline was online 50NL. In other words, we used the experience of our team of coaches, along with concrete population analysis data, to modify the GTO 6-max solutions to ranges specifically designed to exploit this population. Again based on player pool tendencies, these exploitative ranges will be effective down through the microstakes, as well as stakes above 50NL. At some point you will run into sufficiently tough opponents that reverting to the GTO ranges should be preferred. One of the results that’s triggered some discussion on our Discord server is that the solver recommends a pure limp-or-fold strategy in the big blind. This was not imposed as an external condition on the solver, it simply prefers to limp fairly wide in this configuration and includes premiums in that range. Applying the GTO poker strategy to your game will take some time, but it will definitely make you a better player. Read on to learn more!The 2 sets of frequencies (A and B) are the most important to remember, because they are the GTO target frequencies to make the opponent indifferent : In the process, GTO-optimized play, O’Kearney argues, will produce consistent profits no matter what stakes are being played. It might not win as much as an exploitative strategy in certain games, but it should remain profitable in all games. In any zero-sum strategy game, a player’s profit comes from the mistakes other players make, and GTO theory is designed to move players closer to that poker nirvana, error-free play. Again, this chart only represents the hands you should open-raise with if the action has been folded to you. Some other charts also show what to do when facing a raise, which hands to 3-bet, which to call, and other situations. The advantage of this strategy is that not a lot of players know how to use it. Therefore, players who implement GTO in their game will allow their opponents to make frequent errors, which will result in more profit over time.

I believe that after reading this book, readers who have developed a thirst for GTO should go on to read or revisit those other books. My personal history with GTO and solvers A young boy enters a barber shop and the barber whispers to his customer: “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch while I prove it to you.” You might wonder what happens when two or more players use GTO at the same table. Well, in that case, no one has the advantage, and there are equal chances for each GTO player to end as a winner.Minimum Defense Frequency : used on the flop or turn, to prevent the bettor to make an immediate profit on his bluffs; same as above, except that it is used as a minimum threshold and is not static (more streets to play, other factors relevant)

GTO only exists in heads up poker, not 6-max." Technically true if you use the definition of GTO as "an unbeatable strategy", it doesn't exist in multiplayer due to collusion. However, Nash Equilibrium does exist, and using that as a baseline is a good starting point. Again, if perfectly replicated it will win at an almost unfathomable bb/100 in any lineup where your opponents aren't all poker experts colluding against you. Of course, in heads up it is literally unbeatable in any way to defeat a GTO player. One of the latest debates in poker has been whether to play GTO or more exploitatively. Dara provides his answer to the issue: “I sit right in the middle between GTO and exploitative. If I am in a tough game I lean towards GTO, but if I am in a soft game I play exploitative. Most of the time I am somewhere in between”. And it’s not easy. Though it might be more accessible than its GTO predecessors, GTO Poker Simplified isn’t for poker beginners, and it’s probably not truly an intermediate-level book, either. It falls on the spectrum between intermediate and expert/pro, and it’s designed for players who already play a lot (and who study their games as well) and wish to take their games in a new direction. More than just range charts These marked deviations from GTO ranges exhibited by our opponents have interesting and profitable implications for us. We will always generate an edge against such players by employing the GTO 6-max ranges described above, but we can often create a greater edge by deviating appropriately from GTO ranges ourselves. C = B : Optimal Bluffing Frequency : the required portion of bluffs in the betting range for a given bet size; always equal to the pot odds offered; used to make an opponent indifferent to calling or folding on the river with his bluff catchers; EV(river call/fold) = 0In my mind, I thought he was at it, he knows I have a weak hand and he is betting to take me off it, so I have to call because he is full of shit. But then I thought he was looking at some old guy he had never seen before and we can’t fold anything, he knows I have a pair and he bet big to get max value. These two conflicting thoughts were going through my mind, he knows my hand and he is trying to take me off it, or he knows my hand and he is trying to get max value. I ended up folding and I asked all the top players I knew what they would have done, half of them said “it’s Nanonoko – he is full of shit you have to call” and the other half said “you can’t even think about calling, it’s three times the pot.” When you are capable of having bluffs and value in every spot, you become difficult to exploit. When you are only ever bluffing or only ever value betting in a spot, you become very easy to play against. Depending on your position in a given round, you will need to use a chart that displays which hands to open with.