Updated on 21 Feb 26 by
Barry carter
Poker Expert

Mastering preflop in 2022

Our friends at PokerScientist have a great new free video on how to develop a solid preflop gameplan in any format.





A real treat today as in this new video from Samy89 at PokerScientist gives us a complete preflop masterclass. Everything is covered from the fundamentals, GTO vs exploit, cash games, MTTs, ICM and more!

Using PokerScientist as the template our coach shows you how to maximise your winrate preflop in any format. In particular the deep dive into MTTs and future states is very useful and detail orientated. 

This video, combined with the tools available at PokerScientist, will give you a solid foundation for preflop that will work in 2022 and beyond!

Poker Scientist in a nutshell

The team behind the development of Poker Scientist includes our very own coach Samy89 who's been at the forefront of the education department in our German community, helping our members improve their game through innovative learning methods.

In a nutshell, Poker Scientist is offering users the following features:

  • Improve your understanding of the principles of GTO with a state-of-the-art analysis tool
  • Untangle the complexity of GTO through innovative features like Clustering and Simplification
  • Hone your GTO skills in an interactive training mode against the Poker Scientist GTO bot

10% discount for PokerStrategists

As a member of PokerStrategy.com, you're getting a discount of 10% when buying the innovative GTO solver. Simply use our bonus code PokerStrategy and receive the discount and an upgrade to gold status at PokerStrategy.com.

When buying Poker Scientist, you can choose between three different offers:

The three Poker Scientist subscription plans
Gameplan Bundle Trainer
✔️ Access to Gameplan ✔️ Access to Gameplan ❌ Access to Gameplan
❌ Access to Trainer ✔️ Access to Trainer ✔️ Access to Trainer
❌ Link between Gameplan & Trainer ✔️ Link between Gameplan & Trainer ❌ Link between Gameplan & Trainer
✔️ All possible heads-up spots ✔️ All features of Gameplan and Trainer ✔️ All possible heads-up spots
✔️ Instant GTO solutions ✔️ Result tracking

Furthermore, you can choose between 1-month, 3-months or 12-months subscriptions that come at a reduced price the longer the timeframe. In all cases, the 10% PokerStrategy.com discount is applied on top of that when using our bonus code PokerStrategy in the checkout process.

Get 10% off Poker Scientist with the discount code "PokerStrategy"

What is Poker Scientist?

poker scientist

Poker Scientist

10% discount for PokerStrategists

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Poker Scientist helps you understand the principles of poker as efficiently as possible.

The browser-based software gives you instant access to a GTO gameplan, containing billions of strategies for every relevant heads-up scenario. The gameplan was developed with simplification in mind, with Clustering offering a whole new way of understanding and internalising new strategies.

Poker Scientist's gameplan is calculated using computers that are several orders of magnitude more powerful than any desktop PC. The highly accurate solutions use the optimal number of bet and raise sizings. Solutions with this accuracy are not achievable for the average solver user on their home PCs.

Through two simplifications in the form of Line Elimination and Runout Clustering, Poker Scientist managed to overcome one of the major problems other solver tools have when it comes to learning and developing your own game efficiently.

Altogether, Poker Scientist offers you a GTO game plan with an innovative approach that's going take your poker game to a whole new level.

Check out all Poker Scientist features on our dedicated software page

Made Hand Distribution

Understanding what kind of hands you should hold in certain situations is an essential skill to improve your own game. The Made Hand Distribution feature in Poker Scientist will help you acquire and hone this skill.

It contains 18 different hand categories, with possible categories for example being top pairs, flushes or straight draws, as well as two different distributions:

  • How often a hand group goes into a specific action
  • How likely it is to have a specific hand type in your current range

Check out the following YouTube video by Poker Scientist developer Samy89 to learn more about the feature and how it can help you to improve your game:

GTO Bot with human tendencies

Playing against a balanced GTO bot is a great way to learn, but there's also a lot to learn by training against an opponent with human tendencies. Poker Scientist has developed two opponents with human-like play styles, with one opponent having a tight gameplan, the other an aggressive gameplan.

How does it work?

made hand distribution
The new Training Mode with a tight and aggressive opponent

Both opponents still use a GTO strategy as the foundation for their gameplan. The logic implemented for the tight/weak play styles follows observation of human behavior: a real player increases the tightness of his strategy in more complex situations.

For the tight opponent, the gap between their strategy and the balanced GTO strategy is larger on the river than on the flop, leading to some new behaviors, like a stronger checking range, reduced bluff frequency/value heavy ranges etc. The aggressive opponent does the opposite, making heavy use of blockers to apply pressure, bringing you into tough spots very often.

To see how well you perform against the different opponent types, you can now choose these specific styles in training mode, allowing your to adjust your general game plan and improve your approach against them.

Get 10% off Poker Scientist with the discount code "PokerStrategy"

poker scientist analysis interface
The analysis interface in Poker Scientist
poker scientist runouts ev comparison
Runouts EV Comparison, with runouts requiring an almost identical strategy grouped in a cluster
poker scientist clustering and simplification
Clustering and Simplification, helping you to understand the deepest principles of GTO in a simple manner
poker scientist
poker scientist optimum strategy clustering
Optimum Strategy Clustering, with countless strategies all grouped into a few clusters by a unique algorithm developed by the Poker Scientist team
poker scientist gamification mode
Gamification Mode against the GTO Bot, enabling you train efficiently by being aware of strengths and weaknesses in your game

Get 10% off Poker Scientist with the discount code "PokerStrategy"


Poker Expert

Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2, Poker Satellite Strategy, PKO Poker Strategy, Endgame Poker Strategy, GTO Poker Simplified, Mystery Bounty Poker Strategy and Beyond GTO. In 2025, he won the Global Poker Awards for Best Book and Twitter Personality of the Year.