Exploitative Play vs GTO – What Do You Prefer?

Game Theory Optimal (GTO) play is important, but in low and mid stakes games, I find exploitative strategies more profitable. Many players have clear tendencies that can be punished. Do you lean more toward GTO or exploitative poker?

Definitely exploitative play! Playing a balanced GTO strategy against a non studied unbalanced player makes no sense, we should be looking for ways to exploit their mistakes. I use GTO as a foundation of what a player should be doing in a certain spot and see how far off they deviate from that, that usually tells me how studied they are.
A good example is a player who C bets 100% of the time with half pot sizing, no matter what the board structure is, no matter how many players are in the pot, no matter what position they are in, etc. They just C bet because they think they are supposed to because they raised it pre flop.

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I lean more exploitative in low/mid stakes. GTO is the base, but if players make obvious mistakes, adjusting to punish them is where the real profit comes from. Use GTO as foundation, exploit as weapon.