I have been playing Texas Holdem Poker a couple of times a week now for over a year. I’ve been doing well and showing a Profit, however there are some games where I do a lot better than others. As an Exploitative player type I seem to do well at the smaller games where I know all my opponents pretty well, but every time I step up to a bigger game I struggle because my exploitative style doesn’t really work against unknowns. It’s time for me to evolve...
One of the recent developments in the Poker space is this idea of playing Game Theory Optimal. I’ve been aware of it for some time but have always avoided it because I didn’t want to learn how to play like a Robot and I still firmly believe that poker is a game of Human Intuition and Nuance. That said I have realised that I need to improve my “Default” game where I have zero knowledge of my opponents. So it’s time for me to learn some GTO.
I’ve signed up for a trial of GTO Wizard which is advertised as “The ultimate all-in-one GTO study tool”. In the past I’ve used a basic Poker Calculator which can give you a % Win Chance on any given board texture, but this GTO Wizard tool has a lot more complexity. It breaks situations down into Ranges and can calculate what is theoretically the best play in any situation. It also has a cool Trainer where you can practice against a GTO Bot Opponent and get immediate feedback on how close (or far) you are from optimal play.
On my first run at the trainer I got a score of about 44% over 150 hands which means I am still pretty far from optimal play. However its a tool that I can use to benchmark my play and try to get better at playing GTO. I think it will help me evolve my game to the point where I can still play well when my opponents are unknown. Of course I will still rely on picking up Tells to Profile and Exploit my opponents once I get to know them, but playing GTO will be a handy default mode to start tables.
