Hi everyone!
I’m trying to understand GTO (Game Theory Optimal) better, and I have some questions.
What do you see as the main advantages and disadvantages of GTO?
How do you think about its logic while playing — is it always strictly correct, or are there situations where it’s better to deviate?
Also, how can we combine intuition (“heart”) with GTO (“logic”)? Sometimes my instinct tells me one thing, but GTO says another. How do you find the balance between them?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, examples, or experiences. Thanks in advance!
So, the biggest perks of GTO are that it makes us think of the game like it's a chemistry formula. There's gotta be a balance in our actions, an equilibrium between what we do pre-flop and post-flop. There has to be a balance in our bet sizing, which shouldn't change based on the type of player we're up against. You've probably heard some players talk about this, the exploitative play, which tells us that depending on the type of player at the table, especially the rec players, we should size up our bets pre and post-flop.
Alright, for example, let's say I see a rec fish in the Big Blind who calls and limps way too much and generally isn't playing well at all. He becomes a target I wanna play against, because our winrate goes up big time when we're up against weaker players and playing in position. The rec fish has a 96 BB stack and we're on the button, and it folds to us. We have a 168 BB stack, and this is where GTO comes in. GTO tells us that to stay balanced, we should always open-raise the same amount pre-flop (I'm assuming a cash game table here). So, the open raise in this spot should be between 2.2x and 2.5x. However, exploitative play says that since the Big Blind calls way too much, we should bump it up to 4x, 5x, even 8x or more depending. This is great knowing the player will call, but we gotta consider a few things first:
Are we playing that one specific hand at that moment, or are we playing our entire range? Like, if we have QQ+, AQs+, it makes total sense to size up the open raise to 5x or more. But would we do that with the rest of our range? And what is our BTN open-raising range anyway? The button's open-raising range is all over the place depending on if we're playing micro, mid, or high stakes, and it depends on the table's player profiles. But generally speaking, a generic BTN range is around 30-50% of
hands. GTO, as a way to keep our range balanced and not give away free info to the other players, tells us we open a ton of hands from the button, so we use the same open-raise size regardless of the hand we're playing, since the button is trying to steal the SB and BB blinds at a high frequency.
And we can't ever forget that even though our target is the rec fish sitting in the Big Blind, there's still the Small Blind to consider. There are other players at the table who might be watching our moves and taking notes. The problem is, when we bump it up to a huge size and then show down with QQ+, AQs+, it becomes super obvious that we're sizing up based on our hand strength, and that makes our game weaker. We can't forget that even though our target is the rec, there are others at the table.
I know I'm being a bit long-winded here, but I don't see another way to explain it. Let's say for our entire BTN open-raising range, we're gonna raise pre-flop to 2.2x, whether we have 76s, J8s, J9o, KTo, A7s, KK, or AA. This way, no player will ever know if we're opening to steal or for value. The 2.2x size is balanced for micro and mid stakes, 'cause we're opening so many hands. Now, when we open from UTG, we're not playing to steal—there are still many players left to act (especially at a full ring table) and we'll often be playing out of position, so we prefer an open-raise size between 2.5x, 3x, or even 3.5x, because from UTG we're basically only opening the top of our range; in other words, we're playing strictly for value.
The downside of GTO is that it doesn't work well with weak players, but it's a solid strategy for controlling our bet sizes pre and post-flop. One of the few things we control in poker is how much we bet, and that can be a good thing—considering pot geometry and trying to keep the pot balanced, always thinking that we're not playing just one hand, but our entire range. What would we do on a connected board on the turn? If we had AA or a flush and straight draw? We could
bluff 'cause we still have outs on the river. It's about always thinking we're playing a range of hands, never just one specific hand.
I see a lot of poker gurus saying that when we have QQ+, we should just pile in the chips regardless of the opponent, especially at micro stakes. But we gotta be aware that all hands can miss and all hands can lose, except for a Royal Straight Flush, which almost never happens in a lifetime. Knowing we'll (almost) never have the absolute, undisputed nuts (the Royal), we try to play by balancing our range and our bet sizing.
I find it really tough to mix instincts with theory. Mostly because our instincts are kinda trash when it comes to mind games. I play chess and poker, and I can safely say that most times I follow my gut, I'm wrong. What we call instinct is often just an impulse, a desire to act based on our emotions. And our heart is good for pumping blood, not for thinking. We gotta keep our heart calm, take a deep breath, and think with our brains—that's what they're for.
Besides, we live in a counter-intuitive society. We're not wild animals; we live in a society, and a big part of our actions in practical life should be counter-intuitive. Instincts are good in nature, but we weren't raised in nature. My point is, don't trust your instincts, 'cause we abandoned our instincts a long time ago when we were cave people. Today we have language, clothes, politics, religion, art, money—and none of that is intuitive. Intuition is tied to our survival instinct and our sensory perception of nature. Well, we don't live in nature, and poker isn't a natural game; it's purely social.
Long story short, forget your instincts and always think logically: Who are the players at the table? What are their stack sizes? Who's the player making the most mistakes? Which player at this table can I exploit? Who do I want to play against? Am I betting on the flop on a gut feeling, or because based on my reads or HUD, I believe the player will call when they're ahead and fold when I'm
bluffing? Our actions should be logical; we shouldn't just be clicking buttons and playing on autopilot. Forget instinct and focus on the present, the real dynamics of the hand you're playing.
And don't forget, if you're at a table and you can't figure out which player or players are the rec fish at that table... chances are, you're the rec fish. Our profit in poker comes from playing in position against weaker players. And to know if a player is weaker, we have to observe if they call too much, how they get to showdown, what their stack size is, etc. None of that has anything to do with instinct.
Hope that helps, eh.
