Understanding GTO
Learn Game Theory Optimal (GTO) poker: play unexploitable, balance bets and bluffs, use solvers to study ranges, EV, and optimal strategies
Poker is a game of incomplete information where players make decisions based on their cards, the community cards, and their opponents' tendencies. One of the most powerful frameworks for approaching poker is GTO, or Game Theory Optimal play. In this document, we'll break down GTO poker and how solvers help players understand and implement it.
What is GTO Poker?
GTO (Game Theory Optimal) poker is a strategy designed so that:
- It is unexploitable: No opponent can gain a long-term advantage by knowing your strategy.
- It balances aggression and defense: You mix betting, calling, and folding in such a way that opponents cannot find a profitable counter-strategy.
- It maximizes expected value (EV) against unknown opponents: Even if your opponent is unpredictable, you can't be exploited.
Think of GTO as a “perfect defense strategy.” It's not always about making the most money against weak players—it’s about not losing to smart players.
| GTO doesn't mean you never bluff or always call. It means your bluffs, value bets, and folds are mathematically balanced.
Core Concepts of GTO Poker
Before diving into solvers, we need to understand some basic concepts:
1. Hand Ranges
Instead of thinking about a single hand, GTO considers ranges—all the possible hands you or your opponent might have.
- Example: Your opponent raises pre-flop. Instead of thinking "they have AA," you consider a range like
AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AQs, 77-99. - This allows you to make balanced decisions that work against any hand in that range.
2. Pot Odds and Expected Value
Every decision in poker has an expected value (EV):
- Positive EV: Your action earns chips on average.
- Negative EV: Your action loses chips on average.
- GTO aims to choose actions that have the highest EV against all possible opponent ranges.
3. Bet Sizing
GTO strategies often involve mixed bet sizes:
- Value bets: Extract chips from worse hands.
- Bluffs: Take down pots when your opponent could fold better hands.
- Mixed strategy: Sometimes bluffing, sometimes checking, so your opponent can't predict your play.
How Solvers Fit Into GTO Poker
A solver is a computer program that calculates GTO strategies by solving the poker game mathematically.
1. What Solvers Do
- They simulate every possible decision point in the game.
- They calculate optimal actions for every hand in a given range.
- They produce strategy outputs like:
- Which hands to bet, call, or fold.
- Optimal bet sizes.
- How frequently to bluff with certain hands.
2. How Solvers Work
Poker is too complex to solve manually. Solvers use a combination of:
- Game trees: Represent every possible decision sequence (pre-flop → flop → turn → river).
- Iterative algorithms: Repeatedly adjust strategies to converge on an equilibrium.
- Nash equilibrium principles: A strategy where neither player can improve their EV by unilaterally changing their strategy.
| Solvers don’t “play” poker. They give advice on what a GTO-optimal strategy looks like in a specific situation.
Example: Pre-Flop Solver Output
Suppose you have AKs (Ace-King suited) in a 6-max game.
- Solver might suggest:
- Raise 70% of the time
- Call 20% of the time
- Fold 10% of the time (rare but situational)
- Against a certain opponent range, these percentages maximize your EV whilst preventing exploitation.
This is an example of mixed strategy, a core idea in GTO.
Using Solvers as a Beginner
While solvers produce perfect strategies, beginners can use them to learn patterns:
- Study recommended ranges: Focus on pre-flop and post-flop charts.
- Observe bet sizes: Notice when solvers prefer small vs. large bets.
- Understand balanced play: Mix value bets and bluffs according to solver outputs.
| You don’t need to memorize solver outputs. Understanding why certain actions are recommended is more important for developing intuition.
Key Takeaways
- GTO is defensive: It's about being unexploitable, not always maximizing profit against weak opponents.
- Ranges matter: Think in terms of hand ranges, not individual hands.
- Solvers are tools: They help you see mathematically optimal decisions.
- Beginner focus: Start by studying pre-flop and flop strategies, then gradually add post-flop complexity.
By studying GTO strategies and using solvers as a reference, you can improve your poker intuition and reduce the chances of being exploited by strong opponents.
| Remember: Poker is a game of skill and psychology. GTO is a foundation, but reading opponents and adjusting in real-time are also crucial.