This Poker GENIUS BROKE The Solver

[@FindingEquilibrium]

Fun Fact: We ran several custom preflop sims to account for the various 3bet sizings being used by Stefan which significantly changed the postflop strategies, and 100% of Linus' plays were solver approved other than his 3bet with J9h on the flop in the last hand.

[@Stockhandle123]

I don’t understand how you put Linus love on a class of Hands he’s basically a human solver. He can have anything he is as balanced as they come.

[@CCCoNeTiMe]

Guy who's using RTA conforms to solver shock.

[@abadhyamalhotra4255]

Hi, what kind of Flush Draw would be solver approved to 3 bet the flop (since having no flush draws as a 3 bet on flop means your range is capped when the flush hits on turn which is bad). Is it something like 87h for Jumbo Draw ? or maybe a higher nut potential pair like K9h, A9h ?? or maybe nut potential without blocking his draws and not having two overcards like K2h or A2h (zero showdown value to a flop raise) ?? I would think these 5 to 6 flush combos are the only ones that can mandate for a 3bet. is this correct ?

[@benzema111]

Linus uses RTA.

[@TM-ri3ii]

I feel sorry for Stefan. If he was born 1000 years ago he would be leading a ten thousand man Eurasian horde in battle. Instead he's clicking buttons on the internet against Chinese whales.

[@rehorizon]

To some the latter is preferrable

[@MeAndAdiZero]

haha made my day, guy's a savant for sure

[@ignaciopiedra1598]

😀

[@J.Braxton]

Poor fuckin lad. Fuck modernity

[@AllDayIDream]

dead hahaha

[@a-game-poker]

Thanks for great work! as a Stef regular opponent, I can prove, that you understand his logic very well, so you can deposit and fight!

[@alessandrociulla5168]

Whats your ps nick?

[@zini6244]

M 😊

[@leadfrog82]

@@alessandrociulla5168 Avr0ra

[@Demondoink1]

Basically Stefan plays every hand in a vacuum and tries to get the most EV out of his exact hand- whether that be using it as a bluff, a value bet or a call. I played a hand against him where he had the nut flush on a paired board and he just went for stacks using huge sizing's (even though it wasn't really a thing in the solver). I think his goal is just to challenge his opponents and put them out of their comfort zone, instead of being worried about being balanced. Obviously that can leave you exploitable in the process though, which is going to become a problem when you start to play players like Linus that can adapt their strategies very well. Nice video btw and +1 to more of this kind of content!

[@ДиёрНасруллаев-л6б]

btw Stefan himself mentioned in his blog that one of Linus's weakness is him not adapting too much. Granted he said that about 2 (maybe more) years ago, but still.

[@Demondoink1]

@@ДиёрНасруллаев-л6б Yes but it seems like Stefan wants to get in to a battle of exploits, where as Linus is much less eager to do so. If Linus started adjusting his strategies to counter Stefan then it would just become a HU exploit match. So if Linus decides to stick closer to GTO (though i'm sure he makes smaller exploits/adjustments too) then he is locking in his EV, regardless of whether Stefan over/under bluffs etc. Stefan might perceive this lack of adjustment as a 'weakness' in his mind, simply because his style is so focused on playing in that way. Where as Linus probably perceives Stefan's volatile play and unpredictability as a weakness as well. So i guess that is why they play each other- they both think they have an edge!

[@useruser-ot7bz]

@@ДиёрНасруллаев-л6б do you have a link to stefan's blog? super curious to read it.

[@morganwu767]

prime Ivey vibe

[@nathanebenezer3963]

@@ДиёрНасруллаев-л6б pls share the link to his blog thanks

[@sorarestevied]

This video should be titled, "how many stacks can Stefan punt off in a 20 minute video."

[@LennyMaroni]

I've heard from some HS regs that Stefan essentially changes the meta every few months. He'll play for a while, disappear for for a couple months and come back with new meta vs his primary opponents

[@pudelinocacalat2951]

Gotta make money somehow

[@scuffedcomedy4819]

Most likely he solver trains the exact situations vs his opponents stats

[@ДиёрНасруллаев-л6б]

Seems like it, although Stefan is such a boss that he just casually joins any table without any selection whatsoever. I believe avr0ra discussed it recently in HS January 2023 review. Ofc there are some opponents he doesn't play against like Enlight/zas91 aka Viktor Kudinov.

[@UncleBenjs]

Your videos are in a league of their own. So good ❤

[@sudstahgaming]

He's basically combined solver maths with human minds "chunking" ranges

[@Motormikey]

Linus silk shirt theory is way ahead of the curve

[@valuablesandwich]

He just has something figured out that we don't

[@TooMuchInternetTMI]

@@valuablesandwich its in the silk

[@valuablesandwich]

@@TooMuchInternetTMI it seems like that's what's going on

[@SlaytonSlaytonSlayton]

So Linus used the advanced strategy of always having the best hand to beat Stefan. I wish I knew it was that easy.

[@MrDizew]

SO Stefan is basically Charlie Carrel with some GTO Knowledge

[@NoLongerGrilling]

😂

[@ignaciopiedra1598]

😀

[@bookedroomer]

lol

[@felixon8975]

and testosterone 😂

[@CCCoNeTiMe]

😅

[@d_b_]

Is the 50k hand sample @17:46 big enough to say a strategy is working?

[@TheSh_dow]

In a high rake game, is the GTO move not to play?

[@TM-ri3ii]

When an AI tried to beat Tetris it realised that because the game never ends the best strategy was to hit the pause button and never start playing.

[@cadebruce4401]

the silver has to take into account rake or it’ll be way off

[@FindingEquilibrium]

You can provide for the rake w/a solver and find an equilibrium strategy, but there is an argument that the rake causes the game to no longer be zero-sum and you should play more exploitatively to make up for the rake. My general view is that if you have solid evidence of an imbalance you should exploit it, and if you don't, sticking to GTO is probably safest, regardless of rake.

[@Cowtymsmiesznego]

In any game with nonzero rake the GTO move is not to play. Luckily, people are so bad that they'll lose more to you than you'll lose to rake.

[@shepherdofsheeple]

I identify with Stefan’s style albeit in a much less aggressive way but his W$SD to Wins without showdown make perfect sense. It also makes sense that his style fairs poorly against anyone running well. In fact it bodes to the worst outcome possible as he’s essentially maximizing the EV against any opponent running well, however so long that his W$SD stays above water, he should maximize his EV on hands he wins without SD with that curve theoretically mirroring his Net EV curve which it in fact does.

[@shepherdofsheeple]

His style essentially maximizes EV against all bluffs and medium strength hands, only further maximized when running well in W$SD with villains likely calling him with mediocre bluff catchers they wouldn’t normally over call with. Against players like Linus however, I can’t see him being able to sustain. It seems his aggression simply exploits the gap between a human GTO player and a solver. That is going to be profitable against most. Imposing that much pressure continently, I would assume villains fold low nut hands far more often than players either over calling with mediocre bluff catchers or willing to push him off pots with bluffs on any street.

[@jonnyhatter35]

Excuse my ignorance. What does W$SD stand for?

[@elwinvanwees8516]

Won money at showdown

[@Simon-nv5zj]

then you clealy dont identify with his style then if ur much less aggressive LMFAO

[@stephenwoodworth2590]

Deviating from GTO to play max exploitative lines vs imbalanced fish instead of GTO balanced against regs likely accounts for the vast majority of his winrate.

[@UncleBenjs]

Technically, exploitative is GTO, when in the correct situation.

[@prabhakarpatel1724]

Thanks!

[@FindingEquilibrium]

Thank you! I didn't even know this function existed.

[@prabhakarpatel1724]

@@FindingEquilibrium me too, I really like your content. Thank for sharing your knowledge.

[@niels8195]

Is that Muse sample from the intro short enough so it can be used without monetizing/copyright issues?

[@chevantin2423]

ending music so underrated

[@naga3070]

7:04 Looks to me like any other donk. Putting thought into what i see people do frequently at the 1/2 cent tables is not breaking the solver, but just showing me how awfully bad he is at folding, how "good" he thinks he is and how he insists on winning every hand. That is more of an Ego problem than gameplay that needs to be reviewed and learned from. He was just one of the guys that sunran with his idiocy.

[@tsarrast]

Why did you only pick hands he loses spectacularly? In the opening of the vid you said he has good results, winning a lot - so it would be interesting to see hands where his unorthodox plays work out.

[@cameronmason4452]

To show the logic behind decisions that seem bad on the face of it

[@FindingEquilibrium]

I specifically chose hands from this series that seemed to me while first viewing to not be solver approved. It just so happened to be the case that he lost in these hands. I'm pretty sure I've covered hands of his in the past where he was winning big.

[@noThankyou-g5c]

@@FindingEquilibrium Might seem like an annoying question from the guy who asked but given how sarcastic this channel can be sometimes I thought the point of the video was basically just to make fun of him. So I do appreciate you answering

[@FindingEquilibrium]

@@noThankyou-g5c I think it's a fair question because all the results were bad for Stefan, but I didn't even really notice that until after I put all the hands together. Also, I don't really get annoyed at any questions - especially if this is actually coming from the Brian Rast.

[@oliveralexander7234]

@@roamingthereal4060 It’s not about being results oriented, just what is interesting to see. Maybe you’re content to see him get constantly stacked with unorthodox plays but I think for many people it is more interesting to see someone winning (at least some of the time) in an unorthodox way. In general I still enjoyed the video and it was interesting but it came across borderline sarcastic given the title and initial context.

[@reppingl]

Overall, who is the winner when these two play heads up?

[@susymay7831]

More Stefan videos, Please! 🎉❤😊

[@KarinaMerkashova]

Stefan has a telegram channel now, where you can discuss with him not only poker strategies, but also many other intriguing topics. 🎉

[@mariano4313]

Stefan is a genious. Im patiently wating the final street fight: Stefan vs Berri sweet

[@Stefanburakov]

In first hand J4s I think I check call flop but if I check raised I would also check turn and on that river I would go for the 3x pott allin It could be 44 77 46s 56off/suited 67off/suited 68 diamonds, I might be wrong but thats how I would played this if check raise flop. Can also be A6 diamonds and some other diamond combos with the 6 but I guess A6s is 3bet?

[@alessandrotaranto8626]

Hi, u posted about “guerrilla poker” and A-Game, but i actually CANT find the A game channel. How is that possible?

[@SparkySubie]

Anyone got a link to the “ previous video” mentioned here?

[@learningandmotivation5199]

In AK vs J4 hand, you say that EV's for bet vs check OTT is similar, but isn't it the case that for all actions that are mix, if solved to accuracy of 0, all hands have same EV? So in this example, OTT, EV for J4 MUST have same EV for check and bet?

[@BulDurham]

Yes you're right of course, everyone gets this wrong

[@CrushingMight]

Where are these guys playing?

[@speakarabicnow-GBD]

Nice video sir as usuall , quick question , Linus can start deviate from gto and start over calling since Stefan is over bluffing his range and another question the hand the kq Vs 44 isn't it the call on turn is a desaster cz Linus can easily have a ace hight fluhs draw beting for value turn and can start calling donk jam river around 25%??

[@FindingEquilibrium]

In the prior video I made between Stefan v. Linus, it did seem like Linus was overdefending and my guess is that he was exploiting Stefan's overaggression. The tricky issue is that Stefan appears to like polarizing with medium pairs, which can mess you up if you using a "GTO" type of defense against polarization - which is to treat all bluffcatchers the same and rely on card removal to choose which ones to call with. I think you would need to adjust and prioritize bluffcatchers with higher rank and different blocking properties to maximize EV. Regarding the second question, yes its possible Stefan is calling with a bluffcatcher that may be losing to Linus' bluffs, which is probably one of the reasons why the solver is folding, but with the small bet I think Linus still should have plenty of lower equity hands and hands Stefan can draw ahead of HU to possibly justify calling if you wanted to stretch your defense. If you notice, in this particular case, even though the solver was folding pure, the EV for calling without a club was actually relatively low.

[@NoLongerGrilling]

Would LOVE to see Stefan battle Pluribus and see how he fares against it. If he managed to beat that AI or even outperform Linus’s results against it, then we’ll unanimously crown him the 🐐 with his weirdly fishy looking style😅 But if it works, it works 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@jonander5498]

The thing is that linus battled pluribus in 6max, him and other 5 AIs, not HU. And stefan cant do what he does in 6max, his style doesnt shine as much. But I agree with you it would be interesting to see how he performs againts an AI.

[@reppingl]

Are there any recordings of Linus playing against Pluribus? I’ve never heard of that before

[@lucasdesiqueira6122]

@@reppingl in the course overnight monster by alvin teaches poker you have a few videos of that battle!

[@cain2548]

My greatest accomplishments in poker have always been when I play more aggressively.

[@kineahora8736]

lol so we are trying to explain this non-solver success and in every hand we analyze Stefan gets royally f*cked🤣 Stick with the solver like Linus🤣

[@FindingEquilibrium]

It just happened to work out that way I think.

[@kineahora8736]

@@FindingEquilibrium yeah it was funny as hell tho. You are like “Stefan is very successful, let’s try to figure out what he is doing.”… proceed to show him getting murdered on every spot🤣🤣🤣

[@vytenismiliunas9676]

@@kineahora8736 You see the hand and not think about whats going on you can see winrates from 6 hands you can see process of thinking, and this is really interresting process we saw.

[@garygwinn5818]

He puts a considerable amount of financial pressure on people, which tends to take them off their normal game, just not a sevant like Linus

[@looper6394]

can u link jason koons blog? @18:03

[@walmart120]

finally. i love it, even only watched intro.

[@pokerbruh]

You gotta let the man win one 😂 you got him losing every hand and getting stacked in all but one

[@bookedroomer]

got me thinking is this some april fools joke

[@prescriptivegrammarian8721]

Same

[@Buz-Lunch-Punx]

6:45 Nothing like someone spiking a 2 outer on the turn to demonstrate poker theory lol

[@chrisko6439]

One has to assume a pair of 4s is the best hand on a 3-8-8 flop, so he wasn't binking. The runout obviously was unfortunate for his opponent. Calling flop and turn with KQhi seems to be "solver approved", to me it looks just like some random donks are clicking buttons at a freeroll donkament. They are playing exactly the same way, Donk theory optimal, I guess.

[@sharkyjawz1342]

The Hasbullah meta

[@Lokalgott]

I've seen some hands and matches from him, but I think all these hands here were just played wrong at a couple of spots of him

[@centroholisticouniversal]

What I truly believe is they win huge amounts of many from rich whales and recreationals then when they battle each other basicly won't fold almost any hand, that's it

[@FindingEquilibrium]

I don't have all his results, but it seems Stefan also does quite well against other regs?

[@Alexandertygreat]

Just looking at his graphs, all any player playing him has to do is call down alot more, this is a pretty small sample size too, i would imagine he would eventually go bust versus competent players using any sort of tracking software. He calls waaaaaay too lite and bluffs waaaay too frequently.

[@ticenits1926]

Calling is an okay strategy, but you also need to work in some over bets of your own. A good contender would be to just flat out 5x it anytime he makes a check raise or whatever he's betting.

[@Alexandertygreat]

@@ticenits1926 im simply looking at his showdown earnings vs non showdown, hu players graphs look like his alot. But a player that could not be exploited would have closer to 50/50 earnings from showdown and non showdown earnings. Could also be the players he is playing. But doubtful.

[@nathanebenezer3963]

But the problem is he's one of the most competent adjusters. When he was beating limitless initially halfway through the challenge he was bluelining limitless. But in the middle of the challenge he compeltley shifted strategies and started red lining the shit out of him and absolutely destroyed him. That's why you have many of the best players in the world like buttonclickr say Stefan's one of the best in the world.

[@veerabzakarian665]

what do you mean by $5 sub for 100 calculations? where can I do this?

[@Zkittles98]

Linus is just the goat

[@Simon-nv5zj]

amazing how some of the most advanced strats overlap with what I was taught when I first started. BE AGGRESSIVE!

[@krisamagus1]

its fucking poker. Nothing changed. Not a single thing. bet fold and raise, take the pot

[@kkieki]

would have been nice to add hands where this actually works kek

[@FindingEquilibrium]

Check out some of my past vids where I analyzed his play - also in the full session I linked in the description, he does win a number of hands, but they seemed to be relatively standard/reasonable so I didn't run solves for them.

[@crunchtv3821]

Thanks. This was cool.

[@wallstreetpro4472]

This seems like normal thinking to me why am I not playing at these stakes lol

[@ArtificialGamingIntelligence]

I wish your channel switched to PLO or PLO5 instead of the dead game of Hold'em

[@korypeters2059]

Best channel ever

[@Alexandertygreat]

Feel like this is lowkey trolling. Yss im aware the first 3 hands you show he was in bad spots, 3rd hand feels just bad, like horrifically bad.

[@weijingburr2392]

if getting staked by better hands is genius, than i must be one too.

[@NolsMix1]

internal *monologue...dia means 2

[@sashasullivan4875]

Really trying to see his angle but jst seems he is using donk style and variance lol

[@davidholmes892]

posting videos of stefan losing every pot (not trying to be result oriented) yet trying to rationalize how great he is, sounds disingenuous. why not post some videos of him winning so your rationale is congruent w/ his plays(again not to be result oriented). you say he is "This Poker GENIUS [that] BROKE The Solver" yet all the videos i see are him playing like a donkey, despite your explanations of his plays and the fact that he is a crusher(we all know).

[@Dan0rioN]

Wtf is this.. He's making losing plays & your analizing him as a genius?

[@Trizzer89]

How much did he lose to Linus? Linus is wayyy more GTO

[@Simon-nv5zj]

So.......this guy would want to have a very accurate read on his opponents range...............

[@-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..-..]

llinus is a hacker

[@thenosa87]

He’s losing every hand lmao

[@Fdanism]

you might be giving him way too much credit

[@bobbylita1435]

all those laughing at Stefan punting. Bet u cry after 20minutes playing him.

[@matthewjohnson9413]

So...Stefan's assumptions were completely wrong every time. Stefan doesn't know how to target. Got it. At first, I thought this was a serious video. Now I understand it was a very dry joke.

[@FindingEquilibrium]

Poker is a game of probabilities so you just make the best move you think has the highest probability of winning you chips - sometimes you will run into it as Stefan did in this series. I'm not really in a position to criticize his game.

[@thenosa87]

Aggressive Russian, just like Putin

[@unknownchipmagnet3510]

This video makes me never want to play online again... to think I can now sit down at a table with 8 players I've never played against before and all of them have analyzed thousands of hands I have played against other people.... seems/feels wrong. And yes I do realize that is very unlikely to happen.... BUT the odds of having just one player at the table with that knowledge are increasing every day... and ruining the game IMO.

[@buhnedej]

It's like in sports, lets say Tennis. If you want to compete at the highest level and be the best in the world, you will have to practice everyday for many hours for several years, watch hundreds of hours how other players play, etc. You want to play for fun, you don't need to do that. Go to micro stakes, no one there knows what solver even is. It's up to you.

[@aosgood1992]

tracking software has existed for over twenty years, so I wouldn't say it's unlikely. people won't have manually analyzed your hands unless you're a regular, but they'll usually have your stats. isn't this the whole basis of modern poker strategy?

[@cmares5858]

Play on ignition then, anonymous tables.

[@unknownchipmagnet3510]

@@aosgood1992 my point is this... poker used to be a game where you'd have to figure out how your opponent is playing by actually playing against them... but now you can have a team (or just yourself) dissect and analyze an opponents game before ever playing against them... if both/all players have NOT done this then the game is kinda rigged for one or more players. How is this fair??? If you still don't understand my point look at it from a live stand point.... you and I are playing a WSOP event and I'm on the feature table that's being streamed... you get moved there later and even though we have never played a single hand together, you had time during break to watch some of the stream and analyze my game play... small sample size but still same concept with online IMO... whole cams are bad for rec players in the long run IMO because they don't do the "modern day studying" or however you want to phrase it. Hope you can at least understand where I'm coming from. Cheers!

[@enlightenmentseeker1689]

@@unknownchipmagnet3510 unless you are crushing no one cbf'd analysing your game let alone their own. That's the reality.