GTO In Live Poker Games – How To Approach It?

Poker is a game of both luck and strategy. Your best option is to finetune your strategy so that you do not have to rely on luck. The good news is that some simple GTO strategies you can use to improve your game and make more money! This blog post will discuss different approaches you can take when playing live poker games to win more hands and increase your earnings.

What is GTO in Live Poker Games?

GTO is an abbreviation for the “Game Theory Optimal” strategy, and it refers to the best possible strategy based on game theory. Meaning that if we had a computer to play against itself with this GTO poker strategy, it would always win the maximum number of hands.

What is the Importance of GTO in Live Poker Games?

GTO is the “Gold Standard” for poker playing, and mastering it will make you a top player. According to Pokemon Cards Adelaide, Each game has an optimal strategy, mostly simple enough to memorize in a few hours by practising with some friends. As far as strategy goes, once you find the GTO strategy, there is really no ground left to break, and your skill will be tested on other aspects of your game (e.g., how well do you handle variance?). Developing a strong GTO strategy can take some time, but this separates the great players from the average ones.

Utilizing GTO Solutions in Live Poker Games

Theoretically, you can use your GTO strategy in live poker games, and it will still yield results. However, if you have a big stack, this approach may not be as profitable because of the risk of going all-in against a hand that could very well beat yours. Going for a pure GTO solution is also quite dull and uninteresting to play like, so you should instead try to blend your strategies.

How to Take This Approach?

First, find an optimal free software that you can use to calculate how often each possible move will result in winning over the long term (e.g., PokerStove ). Then calculate some basic GTO solutions such as:

1. Randomly fold hands if your cards are not good enough to play

If you have a preflop hand, this means fold any time your cards are worse than 50%. If you get dealt two hands like KK vs. AQ, then use PokerStove to find out which one would win more over the long term (it’s 53.5% for Ace-high). Also, realize that an Ace will be a “random” card in many 3-card flops, and if your opponent doesn’t have an Ace, he will also need to hit his next draw perfectly to beat it.

2. Play tighter than the GTO solution and use “profit-based” solutions

(e.g., fold less, raise more hands, etc.). If you can find a way of playing profitably according to your own rules, go for it! Everybody has different approaches to this sort of thing – some players like tight aggressive play while others prefer loose and passive poker game styles. The best approach is to check what makes the most sense from your point of view!

3. You can also mix GTO strategies with exploitative ones

 This means that if you have a big hand or are getting into an all-in showdown, you will still take the GTO strategy but with added aggression (and vice-versa for when you have a big stack).

The main idea here is to use GTO solutions as your default way of playing (or close to it) combined with some other strategies that are more profitable in certain cases. This will allow you to minimize variance and play well against everybody else. If you decide not to mix this approach with exploitative ones, the profit loss would be huge! The key thing here is to understand that GTO poker strategies aren’t needed if:

4.  You get paid off too often when bluffing

this happens especially at micro stakes where players are terrible bluffs. Instead of trying to maximize results, sometimes it’s best to go all-in/fold right away.

5. Your bets are so small that they don’t make much of a difference.

For example, a $1/$2 game may have bets up to like 4c or 8c, so if you bet 1c as GTO strategy, it’s likely not going to make that much of a difference. Just playfully according to your optimal solution, and don’t worry about doing the math for every single hand.

It’s possible to take a GTO approach to live poker, and it can work, but your profitability will depend on your opponents’ mistakes/laissez-faire way of playing. This is not necessarily the best way to play, so it would be best to use it as an added strategy that you mix with exploitative ones. Also, realize that some players may mindlessly follow a pure GTO solution in real life, so try different strategies until you find one that works for you!