News: Explained: Why is everyone talking about GTO all the time?

In our regular feature for new players to make sense of current debates in poker we discuss what GTO is and why everyone argues about it.

We have a lot of new players at PokerStrategy.com and we have to therefore remember that a lot of the conversations that experienced players take for granted will sometimes go over their head. So when stories in the poker world come up that only make sense to experienced poker players, I am going to spell out what we are talking about for the newbies.

If you have been following some of the best players in poker for a while you will have at least heard some of them use the term ‘GTO’, either in strategy discussions or as a joke (like ‘what is the GTO drink while watching football?’). One example last week was Charlie Carrel making this video where he declared “Fuck GTO”:

Which prompted this tweet from Doug Polk:

Everytime someone wants to spark up a conversation on GTO vs Exploitative play in poker for the 3967th time I die a little on the inside

— Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) August 31, 2018

So as this is something which newbies would struggle to comprehend, I’ll attempt to explain it here. Before you get some popcorn out at the prospect of me trying to explain the difference between GTO and exploitative strategy, I’m going to give a super quick overview, don’t take this as strategy advice. This feature is not about strategy, instead I’m going to explain why it is such a talking point (because I barely understand the strategy myself).

GTO vs exploitative

An exploitative strategy is one where you identify and exploit a weakness in your opponent’s strategy. If your opponent folds too much, you can exploit them by bluffing more than usual. You’ll make more money by exploiting these tendencies, but the problem is that you yourself become easier to exploit by good players (a good opponent would adapt to this strategy by calling you down with more hands).

GTO stands for Game Theory Optimal and it is a strategy whereby you take lines that are hard for even elite players to exploit. In the above example you would find good balance where your are bluffing as much as you are value betting in those spots, which means that a good player would not be able to easily adapt to your bets by calling you down more often.

Exploitative strategy seems to work best on players with significant weaknesses, GTO strategy works best on unknown players or very strong players.

I’ve given you about as basic an example as I could there and have probably butchered it a little. If you are a new player, it’s probably best to learn other stuff first as GTO really only works in games where the average player is very good. Either way, if you want to learn more, don’t rely on this article, check out our strategy section. Instead, why do we talk about it so much in poker?

'Solving' poker

libratus — AI has now beaten the professionals

GTO vs exploitative poker has been discussed for a very long time among serious players on strategy forums, but a few things appear to have accelerated the conversation recently.

First of all, poker is taking more and more steps towards being ‘solved’ after a number of software developments. While humans may never be able to play perfectly, last year for the first time an Artificial Intelligence programme beat some of the best No Limit players in the world heads-up. Libratus beat four serious poker pros over a decent sample of hands, 20 years after the same thing happened in chess. Also recently was the popularisation of ‘solver’ software like PioSolver, which allows hard working poker players to discover the GTO line in hands they review away from the table.

Also in recent years I think the rise of the Super High Roller circuit (where the best players in the world play in tournaments with $50,000+ buy-ins) appears to have influenced this conversation. In these games the players are usually sat with either the best players in the world or conversely very bad rich amateurs. So the top players in them need to know GTO strategy against their peers and exploitative strategy against the rich business people. This has always been the case in high stakes games, but historically the biggest games have been private, whereas the Super High Roller games are all streamed live for the poker masses, so the conversation about GTO and exploitative strategy is part of the extended viewing experience.

Then you simply have the fact that people like to argue online. Arguing about whether you should take a GTO line vs an exploitative line is like arguing about whether Ronaldo or Messi is better for some poker players. It’s almost to the point where some players worship at the altar of GTO or exploitative strategy exclusively (as with most online debate, it’s remarkable how anything can be tribal these days). It’s just the new way for poker players to argue, just as they may have been arguing about LAG vs TAG 10 years ago.

If you are new to poker or playing small stakes, GTO probably isn’t relevant to you yet and there are better ways for you to improve first. Either way it is something that takes a lot of work and probably nobody can master. However, now you know what the catalyst is for all those poker arguments online.

What other poker concepts do you hear everyone talk about but you have no idea what they mean? Let us know in the comments:

GTO vs exploitative

'Solving' poker

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