Gto Poker Strategy
You might have heard of game theory optimal (GTO) or GTO poker solvers before. You might have also heard that you shouldn't try to play GTO, that you should only play an ABC poker strategy - a simple yet effective that should beat your incompetent opponents. However you would be wrong.
- Gto Poker Theory
- How To Learn Gto Poker Strategy
- Gto Poker Guide
- Gto Poker Strategy
- What Is Poker Gto
- Poker Gto Definition
GTO solvers are basically a super calculator for poker which allows players to set-up a hand scenario and find the optimal solution to that situation. You basically ask the solver a question and it gives you the GTO answer.
GTO - Game Theoretical Optimum This concept from game theory refers to a play that can be considered the optimal strategy in terms of a Nash equilibrium. In reference to poker this means: If you are playing an optimal strategy, it does no longer matter what your opponent does since his play against you will never have a positive expected value. GTO Sensei will be your personal poker coach and help you on your way to becoming a professional poker player through an interactive training process that directly mimics real game conditions. Users can choose a situation to practice and then play directly against an AI, which plays according to GTO solver based optimal strategies. GTO Ranges is a collection (125) of unexploitable calling and raising ranges for No Limit Holdem. These have been calculated with custom software. In order to play an unexploitable strategy many hands will use a mixed strategy of raising and calling.
With a balanced, GTO-based strategy, you will win money in the long run regardless of how skillful your opponents are. GTO in poker stands for Game Theory Optimal. It’s a complex set of rules that helps the player make the best possible move in a game of no-limit. Although the theory of GTO has been discussed for many years, its popularity within poker is peaking right now. A common way to explain how GTO works is based on the game Rock, Paper, Scissors. If you were going to play Rock, Paper, Scissors the optimal GTO percentage to throw each option would be 33%. Throw – Rock 33%.
Has poker been solved and turned into a game like Tic Tac Toe?
There are still limitations to what GTO solvers can do.
For example, they currently only solve for heads-up confrontations. But there’s a lot of benefits to using a GTO solver. They aren’t cheap. And often the learning curve deters people.
This article we’ll weigh up the benefits and pitfalls of using a GTO poker solver. And reveal how to get the most out of using a GTO solver.
Is GTO the best poker strategy?
When it comes to beating poker, the term ‘GTO’ often gets thrown around like it’s the ultimate strategy. The idea of pure game theory optimal solutions (i.e. equilibria) works most effectively when players are playing perfect strategy. However, that isn’t often the case.
I HAVEN’T studied Tic Tac Toe, but I’m confident as the player going first, selecting the middle box as the first move would be optimal.
I HAVE studied poker for years, and sometimes I’m still not sure of the best play in a certain situation!
Poker is a complex game. As human players, we don’t consistently make optimal decisions. Some rarely do!
So what good is an equilibrium strategy when our opponent is deviating far from using an optimal game plan? After all, the importance of adjusting to your opponent and the mantra of ‘play the man’ has been at the crux of winning poker strategy since Cowboys on tilt were drawing pistols in saloons.
Here's a short video that addresses the role GTO plays in the poker world.
The power of GTO poker solvers
Well firstly, there are still certain takeaways from observing a GTO solver work its magic and plot an equilibrium solution. And secondly, solvers do allow you to set parameters so you can calculate an optimal strategy when playing a non-perfect player.
Benefits from eyeballing equilibrium play
Being able to eyeball a perfect strategy is a useful learning aid. It’s not always practical for the specific game type and opponents a player encounters in their regular games. But seeing a perfect strategy being modeled can be very thought provoking.
Especially when a players style of play differs in spots from the GTO mold. Players in a sense are forced to reflect on their own play and question why they exhibit certain tendencies.
Are they exploiting a certain opponent weakness or population tendency? Or is it a bad habit that’s developed that their opponents can capitalize on?
GTO Poker Solver Example
Let’s take cbetting small pairs on the flop as an example. Solvers like to bet very small pairs in a lot of instances on the flop. These marginal holdings benefit greatly from taking the pot down on the early street. They have few outs to improve, and so the board texture usually develops unfavourably for them.
It makes sense to protect them in a lot of situations. But some players might frequently check back the flop rather than cbet figuring they just want to try to showdown with a weak hand.
Identifying these types of smart strategical patterns helps players modify and improve their own play. Here’ a few more examples;
- How is middle pair played?
- Should BB check-raise low boards a lot on the flop?
- What’s the role blockers play in spots?
- Backdoor flush draw play
- When do solvers over-bet the river?
- Should ace high cbet dry flops?
Some of which might be instantly beneficial if incorporated into a players game
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Benefits from locking opponent strategies
Frequently as we observe opponent play we notice tendencies they have. Additionally using a HUD or poker tracking software online will sometimes expose bad habits.
Once you’ve locked on to what you believe to be an opponent weakness, you can configure the poker solver to plot a new optimal strategy based on this information.
This approach of analyzing a GTO strategy for the specific opponent you’re playing against is a powerful tool solver's offer and is usually referred to as ‘locking a strategy’ or ‘setting a strategy’.
It’s the best feature for most solver users because it allows for relevant, specific hand analysis based on the real situations you encounter regularly. And you can gain insight into how a solver goes about adjusting to take advantage of deviations from equilibria.
GTO Solver Example #1 : Video
For example, take the passive opponent that rarely check raises us on the flop. Since we'll get to realize our equity more often, we can cbet at a high frequency. Taking advantage of the fact we rarely get blown off our hand on the flop. Which was the situation a student asked me about recently, as discussed in the video below.
GTO Solver Example #2: Check Raising
Or perhaps you’ve spent some time playing with an opponent and he seems to be cbetting 100% on the flop, poker solvers allow you to input this tendency and work out the best response.
Whilst it might be obvious to some that check-raising a player over cbetting is likely to be a good strategy, solvers provide more than just an ideal fold percentage, call percentage and raise percentage.
Additional insights such as; what parts of your range fit best as fold/call/raise, what raise sizing is best, your equity and EV for the situation, how you should proceed on various turn and river outcomes, and all the while what your opponent’s responses should be to your moves. In fact, the extensive amount of data presented can be a little overwhelming to a first time user.
Players modifying solvers to better represent their opponent’s behavior, frequently express overall improvements in their game from the knowledge they gain.
Seeing how a solver adjusts to different situations prepares players for the next time they encounter a similar situation.
Moreover, solver users tend to get a better handle on how they should be playing their range of hands as opposed to a specific hand. Which makes any player more savvy on the felt. As well as players expressing how they start to see the game more in depth, by being able to visualize a hands decision points as branches on a game tree.
This often assists with recognizing opponent leaks and identifying opportunities to exploit. And serves to place importance on strategy as a whole. Where ultimately, consistently making better decisions than your opponents over time, leads to winning results.
Limitations Of Poker Solvers
Locking strategies requires a little more than the basic knowledge of using the solver and if not executed correctly, it could lead to unreliable results.
Gto Poker Theory
Use of this feature requires you to be able to fairly accurately gauge your opponent’s tendencies. And this is where a considerable ‘human element’ still remains. In fact, from the get go when you are selecting hands to include in your opponents range, and setting bet sizes, the more accurately you can set the parameters in the solver to reflect the game situation the more reliable the calculations will be.
Unfortunately, this often brings about another limitation solvers have, the time it can take to compute. Especially when setting multiple bet and raise sizes. As the game tree gets larger, so does processing time. Whilst simpler solutions might only take a minute or 2, having several betting and raising sizes, as well as the option to lead bet, might take the better part of an hour to process. And that’s presuming your PC is relatively up to date.
For extremely complex calculations, such as running scripts or doing heavy preflop work, people sometimes rent servers or use cloud computing. Or you could let the computer run over night.
To speed up regular hand calculations, compromises can be made. For small concessions in accuracy, considerable time can often be saved. With results still acceptably accurate.
So solvers can provide GTO solutions to the heads-up scenarios you encounter at the table. Calculations that are extremely accurate, and fast enough to be usable.
So which GTO poker software is right for me?
The three most competitive solvers, with positive reviews, are;
- GTO Range Builder- More graphical/visual. Web version only. Lots of educational material (though the content is reported to be quite overwhelming for beginners).
- SimplePostflop- More tabular. Standalone version. Can start the analysis preflop.
- PioSOLVER- More tabular. Standalone version. Preferred by most players for its less complicated operation and functionality.
A discussion comparing the best poker solvers, PioSOLVER and GTORB, can be found in this post and responses on Two Plus Two.
Players new to solvers often have good things to say about GTO Range Builder. It has a web interface and is quite fast whilst some also consider it to be moderately easy to use.
However, my recommendation would be PioSOLVER. It’s operation and functionality consistently gets good reviews. And for some of the more difficult capabilities, there’s always tutorials and videos available, all backed by excellent support. There’s even a Skype group new customers can join.
See how to simulate a hand, analyze the data, and take-aways from using a GTO solver with Acesup from our 26 minute premium content video below:
The price point is also competitive for solvers, with the basic version coming in at $249.
There’s also a pro version for $475 (which offers 2 installs, and scripting capability), as well as an edge version for $1,099. Pricey because it includes a preflop solver.
Can it really help me? Will it be worth it?
If you don’t do study away from the tables and are hoping for a wonder toy calculator that will make things easy for you. It’s unlikely you’ll get anything out of owning a solver. As has always been the case with poker, the more effort you put in the more you’ll get out of it.
And to be able to get a lot out of a solver, you do need to put the work in. From learning the functions and using them properly to interpreting results and implementing positive changes to your game. The onus is on you.
If you’re willing to put in the work, the rewards are definitely there. For cash game players, MTT’ers or SNG players. If you’re a serious player trying to move up in stakes. If you’re focused on winning. The opportunity to expand your knowledge of the game and implement strong winning strategies is attainable.
Use of poker GTO solvers is on the rise but certainly isn’t a ‘main stream’ application to have. In the future, with better technology solvers might be simple add-ons to a lot of the programs most players have become accustomed to using. Like a basic poker equity calculator, such as equilab.
For now, they are still sophisticated applications only a limited number of players have embraced. Getting in sooner rather than later might provide you with an edge over your rivals.
Get the most out of your poker solver
Along with the specific makers having youtube channels with tutorials, most poker training sites also have videos where GTO solvers are used. Coaches often use the popular PioSOLVER to gain more insight when analyzing situations at the table. There are several videos at sites like RunItOnce and several tutorials are part of the PokerNerve library.
Here’s a glimpse at a PokerNerve tutorial. This video demonstrates one of the ways people are benefitting from using PioSOLVER for study.
Conclusion
Despite solvers having their limitations;
- Somewhat cumbersome to learn and use
- Calculations are slow to process
- Pricey for the lower limit player
GTO poker solvers provide studious players with a powerful learning tool;
- Ability to work out GTO solutions
- Calculate optimal strategic responses to situations encountered at the table
Examining GTO solutions allows players to identify and learn strong strategical concepts. Such as how often to cbet, what size, and with what types of hands. How often to check-raise in spots. What cards to barrel on, and so forth.
General takeaways that can help a player improve their overall game plan, and gain a better understanding of what their opponents might be doing as well.
Furthermore, by using the lock strategy feature you can calculate optimal strategic responses to opponent tendencies you’ve discovered.
Exploring specific solutions to situations you encounter against opponents from your regular games. So you can see how to take action and exploit them.
It’s not a quick magical solution. But if you’re willing to put in the effort to learn and get accustomed to using a solver. The reward is having a powerful poker computing device that will help you improve your poker skill. Giving you an edge at the tables.
One of the quickest way to improve your poker game is to take on a course or join a poker training site; if that is something that interests you be sure to check out the PokerNerve Road to Success Course.
Last updated: 07/01/20
For several years now, a lot of the writing and thinking about poker has been about Game Theory Optimal (or GTO) strategies which try to break down the action in poker into mathematically quantifiable steps. Then, using formulas and supercomputers to play poker, they can decide which of these steps represents the right (or optimal solution.)
The hype around GTO has risen to the point that it’s influence can be found nearly everywhere from those who borrow a few concepts here and there to full disciples who swear by it and it alone.
With that said, GTO is only foolproof in a small handful of situations (limit poker, heads up play.) Anything else and too many variables creep into the equation to make it the lockdown strategy that some claim it to be. Plus, if everyone knows what you’re going to do, this can open you to exploits from other poker players.
That’s why we’re going to look at GTO poker and decide if it’s still relevant into today’s poker games.
A Brief Primer on GTO Poker
I am going to take a minute and review the basics of GTO poker. A full discussion of Game Theory Optimal poker, how to use it, it’s origins, strengths, and weaknesses would take a while to really dive into. However, it makes sense to understand a few basic underpinnings of the strategy for the discussion ahead.
First, like many terms, GTO poker can mean different things to different people. I want to look at its roots and how the term first came into being and limit the discussion to that.
GTO came out of a desire to find an unbeatable strategy for playing poker. To accomplish this, researchers across the globe, including at the University of Alberta, tried to simulate two players at a table playing poker and adjusting to each other’s strategies. Over time and a lot of simulated hands, they arrived at a poker strategy that their opponent cannot exploit more than 1% of the time.
Practical, Not Hypothetical
More importantly than GTO coming out of a lab (no offense, University of Alberta team), is that this strategy has been verified by humans in actual play.
The practical experience is important because humans, ultimately, are not computers. This makes this poker strategy just that more credible.
It would be a shame if the perfect strategy is so complex no human could reproduce it (it’s not) or that it required a dispassionate computer mind. Again, it does not and, in the end, GTO poker is something that humans can follow even in the heat of an intense poker match.
A Perfect Strategy?
Finding a poker game strategy that couldn’t be exploited at the table more than 1% of the time sounds pretty great and if you read the basic tenets of GTO poker, it makes sense: raise most of the time, don’t four bet, etc. the machines may be on to something.
However, there are two main problems to our current understanding of GTO poker.
First, it’s may not be the only solution. Right now, our understanding of GTO poker is limited to the University of Alberta, who says that they have found a solution to poker, but they also admit it’s not the only solution out there. There could be other optimal solutions better than what we have, we just don’t know about them.
Who knows what will happen were another optimal strategy be found, but likely it would conflict and even counteract our current GTO poker framework.
GTO May Be Too Specific
Second, our GTO strategy only works in pot limit, Texas Holdem when there are only two players. Anything else introduces too many variables and we can’t yet simulate them all.
How To Learn Gto Poker Strategy
Still, GTO poker adherents have generalized concepts and moved beyond the original research. While this movement has produced mathematically significant results (in other words, you can trust them), it does put into question at least some of the validity of the GTO poker methodology.
Why It’s Not Relevant Today
Now that you have a basic understanding of GTO poker, we can start to talk about why it’s not relevant in today’s poker game. The best reason for its irrelevance is that it’s so widely used.
Yes, that sort of makes me sound like a poker strategy hipster, but let’s say you’re at a table and everyone is going to use GTO poker strategy.
That means that everyone at the table is running the same playbook, doing the same thing, but, more importantly, knows what everyone else at the table is going to do.
The best case scenario to win in poker is to play with perfect knowledge (you know your cards and you know my cards…there’s no guessing.) Playing with everyone adhering to GTO is not quite perfect knowledge, but you can start to make some assumptions about what the other people are doing.
Then you can start to win.
It’s Relevant for the Same Reason It’s Irrelevant
It should probably be noted that GTO poker is relevant for the same reason as above: your opponents are using it. You don’t want to be the person that doesn’t understand GTO strategy at the table because you are costing yourself insight into what everyone else is doing.
For this reason, it does make sense to continue to be aware of GTO and what a good GTO strategist is likely to do. You can then compare what your opponents are doing so that you can guess at their strategy.
Certainly, there’s no reason not to do this much, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow it exactly and give your opponents the same insight into what you’re doing as they are giving to you.
Other Reasons Why It Is Still Relevant
So far, it probably sounds like I’ve been negative on the whole GTO movement and that’s unfair. I am looking at Game Theory Optimal poker several years after it went into practice and looking at it with a skeptical eye. That’s a far cry from it being bad.
In fact, and this is clearly a personal bias, anything that seeks to impose mathematical order on statistical chaos is a good thing.
I respect the team at the University of Alberta for daring to publish papers on poker as part of scholarly research even while being jealous that my college didn’t give me course credit for studying gambling.
If anything, GTO poker is a great first step in the right direction. I’m not sure that there will ever be one right answer to poker strategy, especially in the face of eight or twelve person games of no limit Texas Holdem, but if we can identify three to five solutions, that would not be bad for the game.
Game Theory Optimal Poker is Great for Intermediate Players
As an added benefit, one of things I love about GTO poker is that it’s great for players looking to move beyond beginning poker. I mean no disrespect to those just starting out, but when I began playing, I was more worried about how to bluff, cover my tells, starting to think about position, etc.
Gto Poker Guide
Trying to grasp the mathematics behind poker was well beyond anything I would even consider thinking about due to overload.
Once I moved beyond that, I needed a strategy to hang my hat on. I could go out and by a million books written by various authors who promised to make me millions on their patented, verified, yada yada systems. Or I could turn to mathematics and science and try GTO poker.
For me, that was an easy choice and frankly one that I would challenge a lot of other intermediate poker players to consider. Even if that’s not canonical GTO poker as discussed above.
Conclusion
So, is GTO poker still relevant today? It all depends on the term relevant.
Do I think that GTO poker is something that is valuable for you, the poker player to know? Yes. As long as it’s guiding your opponents actions at the poker table, it is something about which you should become familiar.
Do I think it’s the poker killer app and that you must follow it to the letter? Clearly not if for no other reason that circumstances that gave it birth are kind of limiting.
Gto Poker Strategy
In turn, what makes sense is for you to learn GTO poker, especially if you are not a poker professional with years of experience under your belt. Then, see if it works for you. Does it match you playing style? If so, keep at it.
What Is Poker Gto
If not, experiment a little bit. Do things that go against the GTO poker trends and see if they work out. Remember, if you are following GTO exactly, your opponents know what you are doing. It’s always a good idea to do the unexpected, just be sure that what you do works well for you.