GTO vs Exploitive?

The trend I see these days is just stick to GTO and you will come out on top. But what happens when everyone is playing GTO? Is it still optimal when everyone is doing it. Theoretically, if everyone plays strictly GTO, then everyone should just break even in the end since everyone is playing exactly the same. I personally try to blend the two together. I think GTO is a good basis to stick by, but I will still look for any little exploit along the way. Sometimes that exploit might even be GTO itself, if I notice someone is playing a strict GTO game. How do you play?

I play very simply.
I do not complicate anything and always enjoy the game.

Well, GTO only tells you that you are unexploitable. This means that if your opponent would also play GTO, it would be a zero-sum game (rake aside). It wouldn't pay off for either of you to deviate from the strategy. Since no one plays GTO in practice, GTO is more interesting to determine in which direction someone deviates from the GTO equilibrium (which of course you don't know exactly) and then adjust your strategy yourself. The optimal strategy (from the expected value) would then be to deviate from GTO-play yourself and thus make yourself exploitable.

Nuts2727 said:

if I notice someone is playing a strict GTO game. How do you play?

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How do we know if they're playing a 'strict GTO game'?

My game contains traces of GTO.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Poker Orifice said:

How do we know if they're playing a 'strict GTO game'?

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There is no way to truly know unless you know your opponent personally, but you can make an educated guess from what you have seen.This post was not to convince people to play my way, or that my way is best. It's just to start a fun discussion abotut the old school way of playing vs the new school way.

Goal is to make money by positive EV decisions. GTO or exploitative are ways to play poker and one can play a mix of both.

It will never happen that everyone starts playing GTO. You will always have to adapt to the style of play of different opponents. GTO is needed not to play on it, but to find the weaknesses of opponents and exploit them.

infonazar said:

I play very simply.
I do not complicate anything and always enjoy the game.

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Me either, the most important in any game is have some fun!

Exploit better always, it's more powerful strategy

Nuts2727 said:

The trend I see these days is just stick to GTO and you will come out on top. But what happens when everyone is playing GTO? Is it still optimal when everyone is doing it. Theoretically, if everyone plays strictly GTO, then everyone should just break even in the end since everyone is playing exactly the same. I personally try to blend the two together. I think GTO is a good basis to stick by, but I will still look for any little exploit along the way. Sometimes that exploit might even be GTO itself, if I notice someone is playing a strict GTO game. How do you play?

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At the micros, the GTO is a space, that most of the inhabitants of these micros will never reach. Only an exploit is good here.

And this question is one of the most hotly debated in the poker community in recent years. Almost all the top regs who are currently breaking high stakes spend a lot of time and effort working with poker solvers to develop their strategy, which they have very is close to our current understanding of the GTO game. For poker, the GTO approach looks much more complicated, but the principle is the same. And interestingly, although the GTO strategy for poker exists, it is not yet 100% known. This game is simply too complex to be solved with today's technology, although everything is going to this. Exploit strategy (or play by exploit) is a strategy aimed at taking advantage of the mistakes and tendencies of the opponents' game. Any exploit strategy, the one you're using can be beaten by another exploit strategy, and the whole thing can start to feel like a guessing game. this is one of the main disadvantages of the exploit game - you yourself will expose yourself for the exploit.

Well I don't think that a human can play a purely GTO game 100% of the time. GTO means that if vilain know your opening, shoving and bluffing ranges and you explain your strategy to him he will not be able exploit you. Like in Rock, Paper, Cisor if you play each 33% of the time villain can't do much with this information. But when you deviate from that let's say you have a tendency and play paper more often you open yourself to exploit if he notice this he can play cisor more often. Beside that there's also the bet sizing wich differs from player to player, emotion and tilt control. If there is let's say 2 computer programs which play GTO strictly I think they w'll break even in the long run. But at the poker table vs a human it's different. You should adapt your play permanently vs each opponent, you'll not play a calling station like a reg, a fish like tight player...etc. Adaptation is the KEY. The player that don't adapt will be the loosing one.