You probably can’t apply the GTO strategy to it’s maximum if you are more hands on player. I am having hard time trying to remember where my hole cards are standing in GTO chart. Some pros indicate that GTO is sugestion, not something you blindly follow. What would you do? Ignore the chart and stand on your decision, or Go Go GTO all the way? As a beginner, I just wonder what would you do to bring a rather good result.
I would not play GTO unless I understood it. I still don;t understand it 100% and perhaps I never will. You can only play what you understand otherwise you are playing blind. If you are a beginner, learn the basics first. Learn pre-flop. Then learn some odds math. Then learn some basic ranging. Then practice until you get comfortable. THEN dig into your study and start learning some optimal. GTO probably won’t make any sense to you unless you have a little experience at the tables, reading flops and have put math odds and ranging into practice.
Poker is very complicated. Every time that I learn something new I realize that it is even more complicated than I thought, so I would not try to learn it all at once.
But as for your question, the more skilled and more balanced our opponents are, the more we should stick to GTO. Thankfully, if we are new to the game, the players at the low stakes are rarely skillful and even less often balanced, so we don’t need to stick to GTO down here in the aquarium. : P We will actually make more money if we exploit Villain’s imbalances than if we play perfect GTO. Of course exploiting imbalances requires that we study each Villain separately.
Certainly, if Hero makes the correct GTO play in a given spot, the odds of winning are the same whether Hero knows what he’s doing or not, but how can Hero make the right move if he makes an error reading the board, or if he forgets that this is a 4-way pot rather than heads-up? In order to make the right GTO play, Hero has to read all of the data correctly before applying any theory.
Every spot think of all of these things ~
1 ~ your hole cards
2 ~ your position at the table
3 ~ number of callers behind, limpers before etc
4 ~ Villain’s position(s) relative to you
5 ~ your stack (measured in bbs - not chips)
6 ~ Villains’ stacks
7 ~ pot, pot odds
8 ~ your stack to pot ratio
9 ~ Villain(s)’ stack to pot ratio
10 ~ action to you
11 ~ possible action behind
12 ~ is someone all-in? (side pots)
13 ~ previous street aggression
14 ~ the board (have you hit and how hard?)
15 ~ your equity
16 ~ Villain(s)’ range (what might Villain have and what chance that they have hit and how hard)
17 ~ Villain(s)’ possible equity
18 ~ our kicker
19 ~ do we block anything?
and maybe a couple more things that I have missed
So you see, sometimes it can be difficult to make the right decision if we overlook one or two of these factors. We need experience at the tables to understand how to read these things. Otherwise diving head first into a book on optimal will be messy.
Learn 1 or 2 things, put them into practice. Get comfortable with them. Then learn the next thing, put it into practice, get comfy, repeat repeat. This will be easier.
I recently spent a poker session listening to a series of Daniel Negreanu videos, in which he commented in real time as he played a live money online tournament. He didn’t mention GTO specifically, but discussed playing an optimal style in which his bluffs were indistinguishable from his bets on strong hands, making it more difficult to exploit him. I think he was also rolling a twenty-sided die, a la D&D, to choose a passive or aggressive approach to playable hands. He said it was the best he had played in some time, although he was cursing up a storm when he lost a pair of hands to inferior holdings and busted out.
I think you can also be unpredictable by switching up your play, occasionally slowplaying a monster or raising from mid or early position with lesser hands. This can work if you don’t consistently c-bet, as opponents might be more willing to give you a free card if they’ve been trapped once or twice.
One of the aspects of poker I enjoy is the limitless array of playing styles. If everyone played according to a GTO chart in order to be indistinguishable in their style, I worry it would become generic and, ironically, predictable.
The question I am always having is “how do you know?”. GTO certainly can give a guide line to optimal betting strategy but it is very extensive to study. On the other hand, following my instinct always got me into troubles. Anyway, I am kind of in the same page as you are. I made some results by patiently analyzing opponents. Thanks for Reply.
Ok, i usually do NOT do this—Napkin_holder—you post some BIG things with charts, stats etc. lol and i have no idea what most of these things mean and i am sure most beginner’s on here have no clue–stop messing with their heads as most of it is useless ang just mixes them up lol…i know you LOVE using yougur’s method of overly aggressive betting etc…Remember playing me heads up in a 100k sit-n-go a couple of weeks ago? you tried that on me lmao and i beat you easily and fast ( if a prize fight, it would have been stopped in the first round)…The thing is awww i am not very good at hold-em and it was easy for me…In a cash ring game, you play like that u better have a rich dad as you will lose a lot of money—i see ppl. online play like that (small cash games) and 90% go broke EVERY time (the other 10% might win, then go broke the next day…P.S. do not give up your day job my friend:).
First, I’ve only ever posted one chart.
If you don’t like what I have posted, what parts are inaccurate and why? Please tell us all. please enlighten us and help out the new players with your wisdom. What I said sucks, so please tell us, which parts specifically and what is wrong about them. You don;t like my info but you won;t provide any yourself. Come on, specifically which parts of my posts are misleading and inaccurate?
Second, gratz on kicking my sorry ass heads-up. You’re not the only one that has done that though, many have and most of them are fish, so you’re not so special.
I am NOT a big proponent of younguru’s wide-aggro style. I asked for help with my terrible heads-up game and that’s the advice that he (and many others) gave so I’ve been trying it out (with no real success), so at this point I’m not really believing it. In fact, I’m beginning to believe that it’s bull, So again, gratz and keep gloating over whooping an admittedly terrible heads-up player heads-up. Do you hang out at the school yard and steal candy from the kids, and does this make you cool?
Please tell me how to play heads-up. Seriously. The folks here that you rail against (younguru and lihiue) have given me advice that is NOT working - AT ALL! I know that you would love to prove them wrong, so do it. Really. Be my hero. Tell me how to play heads-up and prove them wrong. This is your big chance.
Don’t we all think Heads-up is all about your ingenuity? Because there are only you and your opponent, you have very small gab to trick the other player by betting or bluffing. If I were you, don’t worry about loosing. Often the fear of loosing pulls you back when you have a rather good chance. Be confident when you are short stack, and try to widen your range a bit more than usual. I have seen pocket 10 wins over pocket A so many times when it comes to all-in. But it all comes to what your guts tell you. Both you and your opponents are in same shoes. Go and GET HIM!!!
You really shouldn’t be using GTO unless the villans are playing unexploitable poker. But in free and low stakes poker almost no one is playing unexploitable poker. Players open limp, players fold too much to cbets, they play too many hands out of position. So its generally better to focus on exploiting holes in other players games rather than pretending they are playing unexploitable poker.
P.S. " my big chance" lmao-----Bye n LAST advice—stop thinking u know everything and with all the BIG poker words like 5x-3x-vilian-etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. they HONESTLY mean nothing-----just go 2 a casino and play the 1-3 game ( smallest game ) for about 6 hours a day for a couple of weeks----some decent players there n a FEW fish–good place 2 learn n you can buy in for only $100.00-$300.00 and get a lot of experience and it is fun n weekends late u get some drunk fish n can win…I suck at hold-em and play small ( $5-$10 ) at the casino and i do ok as NO 7-studd there * that game i am good at and 7 Stud hi-low probably great at but ppl. do not play it much now…AGAIN, i was not bragging on beating u ( you were the second easiest 2 beat) just trying 2 point out 2 you that it is for only fun here n joking with you…ok, adios, casino time soon:)
You’re a joke n no more replies 2 you lol----Saw u play BAD a few times in tournaments n complain " the boards are bad" etc.. " Talking to nobody" Heads up i can give you a tip or 2 though----check raise a lot-stop raising every pre-flop n then betting the flop even if u do not hit–LAST is kicker—u put me all on with your A-6 (had A-Q ) and i think i called your pre-flop raise of course n then A hits and i check n you go all in-then i call and game over—ok, last advice 2 you----Kicker and check raise n PLEASE stay out of the casinos or real cash game, unless u have a rich dad----Again, i suck at hold-em so maybe my advice is bad:)…Good luck on this fun free site my friend and STOP being mean 2 ppl. and if u put as much time in real work as u do here–hmmm, u might be happier n not so darn nasty —ADIOS my friend:).
As they say, you can’t miss them all.
Thnaks 2u …me dumb…u Smartt! plzz!! no hurt me at tabel!!!11
The obvious answer then is to do the opposite of your instincts. The beauty of a site like Replay is you can try out different strategies. If you haven’t been doing this then you’re missing out on this feature where it really is a no harm, no foul learning experience.
I think everyone should develop different strategies for different situations whether playing for play chips or for real $$.