Is Online Poker Becoming Too “Solver-Based” for Recreational Players?

[harshu]

Over the past few years, it feels like online poker has shifted heavily toward solver-influenced strategies. Even at lower stakes, players seem more balanced, more aggressive in the right spots, and less likely to make obvious mistakes.

It makes me wonder:

• Has solver knowledge made the games tougher overall?
• Are micro and low stakes still beatable without deep theory knowledge?
• Or is population still making exploitable mistakes despite the theory improving?

I’ve noticed that autopilot poker doesn’t work anymore. You really have to pay attention to ranges, bet sizing, and player tendencies.

At the same time, I still believe strong fundamentals (position, bankroll management, tilt control, value betting) matter more than memorizing solver outputs.

What do you think?

Is online poker:

1. Much tougher than 5–10 years ago?
2. Slightly tougher but still very beatable?
3. Basically the same — we’re just improving too?

Curious to hear perspectives from both cash and MTT players

 

[fundiver199]

Depends what you mean with "lower stakes". For micro and low stakes tournaments (less than $20), there are still many recreational players, who make big fundamental mistakes like limping preflop or massively overplaying top pair bad kicker postflop. So of your 3 options I would choose 2. "Slightly tougher but still very beatable". It should be said though, that games softened up tremendously during the pandemic in 2020-2021. So if your first experience with online poker was during that specific time, then its definitely much tougher now.