These GTO Poker Solutions Might Surprise You!!! [PioSolver Analysis]

[@averynw9180]

Outside of tournament streams this is the best study video I've seen. Straightforward, concise, very easy to follow.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

You're too kind! Thanks for your comment! Glad you like it.

[@lukecox4105]

Great video. This is a perfect execution of using GTO principles as a baseline, and adjusting to exploit optimally. I’m going to start using the 20% c-bet sizing vs BB way more often now, as it’s clear that population is likely overfolding and not check raising enough. This spot can be a real money printer, especially on the bubble! I’d love to see similar videos to this in the future.

[@highwaymoses]

Great content Gareth! Straightforward and logical, nicely paced.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you, glad you like it!

[@konstantinostzaferis5318]

I'm commenting for the second time in this video!! Your videos rock man really!! Great analysis as always and the fact that you explain why piosolver takes a certain line makes it all way more digestible,especially for guys that don't know how gto works!

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you!

[@pixelcultmedia4252]

Mind-blowing, I never expected a back door flush draw to have so much equity. I guess it makes sense when you realize that it also reduces their odds of having an actual flush draw.

[@thomasreuben150]

instablaster...

[@CCPlayz2k]

How much does it reduce their odds by? I don’t really understand how it is so valuable. If there’s 13 clubs, two on board and you have one, there’s still 10 other clubs they could potentially have so how does your one club increase your equity by so much?

[@1LevelUpGuy]

I did not understand why 88 was a "nitty" fold! It was an obvious fold.. But, then, that's exactly why I am here :) Thank you for sharing this session with us! The importance of "Holding a club" when there are 2 clubs on the board - is definitely better understood with your such detailed description! Especially helps when you discuss across the range :D Thank you for all the noob-friendly content!

[@MTTPokerSchool]

You're welcome, thanks for the great feedback!

[@sp-gt1mq]

This is why context matters. It depends on the villian. A guy who never vpips and is 3bet leading this board its a fold. This analysis is based on the fact the two players are playing optimal. People arent. And a lot of people have tighted up in sb vs button spots. Theory is great and theres a ton to be learned from solves. Saying we always call with 88 in this spot is a mistake.

[@Pccesar3]

I just came across your channel I've been playing on & off for 3 years, fully dedicated now with your help i believe I can become a pro!!!!

[@MTTPokerSchool]

I love that! Let me know if you have any questions and best of luck to you!

[@Pccesar3]

@@MTTPokerSchool in the micro stakes I'm implementing different strategies like gambling & flipping early + limping my Broadways in early position to trap.... But still it feels like I'm not doing enough. Mainly being results oriented because recently lost 25% of my BR thanks for everything

[@MTTPokerSchool]

I would always try to avoid gambling and flipping early and limping your broadways in early position to trap. You want to use your time at the micros to develop really strong fundamentals. Have you checked out my MTT Game Changer course yet? Might be just what you need. Check it out here: classroom.mttpokerschool.com/

[@Pccesar3]

@@MTTPokerSchool is there any icm secrets u can tell me??

[@MTTPokerSchool]

@@Pccesar3 yeah the secret is you have to run lots of ICM spots to get a good understanding of what's going on.

[@TakenGTs]

I didn't even start the video yet and im too souped! I'm bouta learn so much!

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Let's go!

[@danielb4690]

On the first hand, why is it more profitable to continue with a club in your hand? Is it simply due to the backdoor equity? More likely that you can then bluff the river? How should i be seeing this. Any tips are much appreciated. Great video and kind regards, Daniel

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Good question! We have more equity because we have a club, so sometimes we can win when it goes club-club on the turn and river. We also have more equity realisation in that we can continue on a club turn when we have 8c, but we'd have to fold vs a bet very often if we didn't have it.

[@alessandrociulla5168]

@@MTTPokerSchool i think is has to do with having 2 outs instead of 1 (8 of clubs is not that good)

[@mariusbange]

Hey, interesting video but I have one question: At 21:40 you say AA is an allin, but I don’t get why. I think only AQ and KQ are worse hands which are calling there, while we even block AQ. Could you maybe share your thoughts for that?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

That's a great question, Marius! It's one of those spots that the solver jams because it knows that its opponent needs to call some weaker hands like some Qx and Jx on the river to avoid getting exploited. In practice, however, humans don't tend to bet call Q9 or JT on this river - they don't often lead turn to begin with - so I think it's ok to just call with AA here and not look to go for thin value vs a range of hands that in practice probably don't even call.

[@jb-rx2ig]

44s is a call gto wise preflop? feel wise its a fold after the 3bet..

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Yeah the 3-bet is on the bigger side so while it's definitely a call versus a 3x 3-bet, it's very close against the almost 3.5x and is probably break-even. Good spot!

[@sergiozack974]

@@MTTPokerSchool How did you calculate that its 'definitely' a call vs 3x 3bet ? (I assume we just setmin here with 44 OOP)

[@MTTPokerSchool]

We'd be getting around 2.5:1 so we'd need about 28% equity. In the 40bb 3bet sims that I've run, 44 has 41% equity against the 3-bet range and realises about 74% of that out of position, so that's 30.34% (41% x 74%), more than the 28% equity we need. There are some boards we can continue on without hitting a set... A32, 853 and J52 are some examples I can think of, off hand. Thanks for the great question!

[@MackiaveliPoker]

@@MTTPokerSchool this hand is the bottom of our opening range and we should always fold to 3bet oop. what do you fold if you even continue with this hand ? its gonna be so hard to realize our equity post.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

@@MackiaveliPoker I don't think it should always be a fold to a 3-bet OOP - I showed above why it's a call vs a 3x 3-bet and probably close/break-even/maybe slightly losing against a bigger 3-bet. You can see that we need 31% equity against the 3-bet in the video and we get 30.34% (0.41 x 0.74). 44 has 41% equity against the 3-bet range and realises about 74% of that out of position. We can fold AJo, ATo, KQo, KJo, K8s, Q9s, J9s as a few examples vs the 3-bet. Pocket pairs should always continue vs a 3x 3-bet.

[@stumbras2000]

Great video, please add video how to use Pio Solver 2 to study?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Have you seen my PIOSolver 2.0 tutorial?

[@noysauce]

Nice video, You should do an analysis on the Ivey Dawn A6s v 89s bluff.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you! Do you have a link?

[@noysauce]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaGXgp-OoKl4i5Y

[@woodandgears2865]

When the solver says to take a negative ev play some percentage of the time, it is to make other situations more profitable. It optimizes for maximum profit across all of your range hands in that situation, not just the one you have right now.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

I made this video a while ago, so I can't remember if I talked about it in this one - but it's very unlikely that the solver would suggest to take -EV lines given that it understands that folding is better because folding = 0. Did I say something to the contrary in the video?

[@flowrder93]

Nice video. I even would have appreciated if you had taken the analysis a little further, like see how to react if villain had led that one turn correctly with a smaller sizing. Also, with the very last hand, how we would have had to play on the river, if the turn had been checked trough.

[@kazikartinec]

why for some hands the colour is grey in the browser and what does it mean?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

The frequency that those hands reach this part of the game tree are very small.

[@kazikartinec]

@@MTTPokerSchool thanks man

[@lozgod]

Spots like the 1st one is what makes me skeptical about emulating solver play. What is the purpose of calling with 88 just because you have a club in a 3bet pot facing aggression with 2 overs on the board that favors the aggressors range? PIO isn’t considering he may have a 10% 3bet or 4% or 24% range. Can someone please explain the significance of the club?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

We have to make some assumptions about villain's 3bet range. Here I've gone with a GTO solution. If he's 3betting 4% then for sure our response to his cbet would change and we probably wouldn't call 88 with a club. Solvers are only as good as the information we feed in, so I think you're right to question the solutions given that there's every chance that this player isn't playing close to optimally.

[@lozgod]

Cy-GoR ! I get that part but it’s something like 4% iirc. I don’t see the justification to call vs folding due to 4% more equity when you are already talking about a potentially pretty low share of the pot to begin with 8c8d doesn’t have much more equity than 8d8s because they are both WAWB a range. To justify the equity bump to call flop you’d need to call almost 100% on the turn if it’s a club as well. It just seems like spew unless you have another reason to call based on frequencies. So it could make sense IF you are using the suit (and it’s equity) to make it a balance decision to compensate for villain’s bluffing range. Maybe that is the theory behind it?

[@Gos1234567]

You’re correct,it’s interesting to see GTO scenarios,but remember GTO is like one very aggressive player v another. I see players at 1/2$ and low buyin tournies calling down 2nd pair on a 3flush board because they have the “ace blocker” and all sorts of nonsense calls.Obviously they are trying to play GTO which at lower stakes is just fishy as hell. These GTO wannabes are easy to beat,just value bet large and thin,only bluff with high equity draws,rarely bluff river.just revert to old school and watch these fish call with their little low equity pairs and back door flushes

[@lucbindel6685]

significance of the club is a combination of a slight equity bump making one combo meet the equiity x R threshold to continue and also EV bump because the clean turned/rivered sets will have higher equity and higher implied odds due to the flush not completing. The deeper we are the more the latter has an impact but it does always have an impact if we're discussing a close decision areound the 0EV threshold.

[@arjunbharadwaj8951]

Can you help me learn how to sim on PIO?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Did you see my recent video on how to setup PIO?

[@GADDERZ30]

Is that a call when facing that size 3bet with 4s for those stack sizes? I would fold to that sizing

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Yeah it's probably a fold to that sizing. I discuss my thoughts in another comment here.

[@konstantinostzaferis5318]

Great content Gareth as always! Keep the videos coming!

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you, thank you!

[@1stFactChecker]

As far as the 88 hand, it appears the EV with a club is positive but super thin? Also the EV is only positive when you do give him that large range, so I guess we have to be sure his range is actually that large in this spot. So my question is the hand isn't over at this point, you still have to make a decision on the turn and river, and how many cards are good cards for you, that math isn't telling you how to act on turn and river? Just seems we are playing for this small EV when we will be left clueless on turn and river. But one thing I definitely do like about a call here, is small donk bets are OFTEN draws, but a lot of his draws contain over cards.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Yeah, it's very low EV/super thin. PIOSolver is only ever as good as the ranges you feed in, so if we get his range wrong, the output will be wrong for sure. We don't know what the turn and river cards will be and whether he will continue to bet - the solver is just recommending that we call here as it has enough equity with a club. Thanks for your comment.

[@Gos1234567]

He has to have a very wide range and he would almost cbet his whole range there according to pio/GTO I’d say.Population doesn’t play this way,if you’re ahead it isn’t by much as you can be easily outdrawn,if behind you’re way behind

[@dimitriskontoleon6787]

Yeap you have to call sometimes even with "bad" hands, just because if always folds you show less possible combo to continuously. You played as "show" a possible good hand but with no huge down if goes wrong

[@bigjob7551]

What's the software called.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

PIOSolver.

[@guillermogutierrez9759]

@@MTTPokerSchool I just started studying and I plan to get serious on this matter, I'm starting with 2NL Holdem, what softwares do you recommend me to get? (I have around $300 USD to invest on my education/softwares). I appreciate very much your help and advices.

[@srki22]

In the first hand, if you run Pio long enough, you will see that the difference between mixed strategies (like 88 with no club) is exactly zero, so if your opponent plays GTO, it does not matter what you do with that hand.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Yeah, you're right! There would be no calling on the flop with 88 without a club. I don't think it doesn't matter what you do with the hand though, because calling with 88 without a club is -EV and we don't want to do that. Folding would be 0EV.

[@srki22]

@@MTTPokerSchool What I want to say is that if you run PIO long enough you should get 0EV for a call (if it is still a mixed strategy after a long calculation).

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Right, got it! I ran it to

[@srki22]

@@MTTPokerSchool From GTO perspective the mixed strategy hands should always have 0 difference in EV so it does not matter how you play that hand if your opponent plays GTO. That makes it easier to simplify your strategy against GTO opponents who don't try to exploit you. The explanation of why EV difference is zero for mixed hands is simple: GTO simulations find a Nash equilibrium between 2 GTO strategies. That means that your opponent should not be able to get a better result if they deviate from GTO. But if there is EV difference between call and fold then they could change their strategy to one action only and get a better result which contradicts Nash equilibrium. Now use that knowledge to simplify your range against GTO opponents :)

[@srki22]

For that reason, there is no difference in EV for all hands with mixed actions, and you can get that when you run simulations long enough (or simulation finds that the hand has not mixed strategy)

[@filipevieira3343]

I can´t see the guy raising that flop in the 77 hand without an A. However, to me it depends on the opponent tbh, if it is a reg and I mean a reasonable one I think it would raise without the A sometimes but I see there some connectivity on the 65 and maybe bacause of that he wants to protect his A a bit more... I don´t know, if we want to continue calling the turn too after he check raised the flop, maybe he checks without an A...

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Yeah, it's very opponent dependent. I think it's unlikely that population finds enough of the K7s, K4s, Q8s, Q7s, J8s bluffs as discussed in the video, and might not find the natural bluffs of 87s or 98s enough either. I think folding as an exploit is actually fine here.

[@Gos1234567]

77 is a fold all day long there unless you specifically know the guy has a very wide CR range.If this had been node locked to fit in with a population CR then pio would be folding a lot on that board. Players don’t play anywhere near as aggressive as GTO so bluffcatching or calling light with hands that can be easily outdrawn is just fishy

[@joaquimcoutinho2440]

hey bro. The 88 hand pio calling with 88 and losing because the range of calling to 3bet is super wide and loose. in your sims u should put tha call to 3bet range not the open from btn. cheers

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thanks for your comment. The BTN's range in the sim is the GTO response to a SB 3-bet. The BTN opening range is much, much wider than this (54.5%). You can even see the hands that 4-bet here like AK, JJ, TT, A5s etc that aren't in the sim. I agree that it's very, very wide though and we probably shouldn't be calling this wide against population.

[@joaquimcoutinho2440]

You are right bro. I have the gto ranges and never notice that. But problaby because population 3bet oop 4x - 4.5x and a tighter range, that's why i never defend that range.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

@@joaquimcoutinho2440 yeah I think it makes sense to not defend as wide as I showed here for sure!

[@DrWho2008t101]

thanks

[@MTTPokerSchool]

You're welcome!

[@analogdistortion2906]

The 77 fold is probably really good against human competition. Most don't c/r bluff enough to begin with and if they do it's with the draws you block.

[@analogdistortion2906]

Love the vid, also the last hand where the solver is jamming a bunch on the spade turns highlights a question I have about using solvers for mtts. PIO doesn't know it's in a tourney obviously so it's trying to maximize chipEV without any consideration of bustout risk and whether a less risky line that is similar EV but keeps you in the tourney more often is better. Thoughts?

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Yeah you got it, it's just working in cEV. Pio does have an ICM mode, but the best it can do is for 18 players left. In my experience, the further you are from the money, the closer the play should be to cEV. In high ICM situations like the money bubble, FT bubble and FT, the more you want to factor in ICM considerations.

[@analogdistortion2906]

@@MTTPokerSchool Another thing that I've been wondering about using solvers for mtts is from a theoretical perspective chips aren't money in tourneys they are utility like an army in risk or a hotel in monopoly. Has it ever been proven that we should be playing as close to chipEV as possible in the early and middle stages when ICM isn't much of a factor? If two strategies are really close in EV, but a slightly lower variance one gets you deeper more often with a reasonable stack I could see it being lower cEV but higher tournament EV. When quantum computing gets here I want a version of Snowie that plays trillions of mtts instead of single hands and see what it comes up with. Ok, done geeking out now.

[@johangonzalez848]

great video

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[@vladbcom]

Really interesting...

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Glad you think so!

[@felipefelipa2698]

I swear that if I play like this I would get my ass kicked 😂, I play low stakes though

[@MTTPokerSchool]

It's good to know what the GTO solutions look like though so you can see where to eke out more EV by taking a different line because population (or the specific player you're playing against) doesn't play like the solver suggests.

[@lukeweaver966]

it's not telling you the correct gto response because you aren't calling with those J6s and Q2s hands but because they're included in your range and the computer knows that you have to call with those hands like pocket 8s.

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Who says we aren't calling with those hands? The ranges used in the sims are from preflop solutions.

[@yadoulajavadi-babreh3257]

GTO isn’t correct… and limping that last hand, the 44, would probs be way better. Pretty good video though. Taught me some GTO, and reaffirmed how good I am at Poker lol.

[@lankeled38]

volume too low

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@JM-vk2ru]

Yes but their range is not GTO

[@MTTPokerSchool]

The ranges used in this analysis are GTO preflop ranges - is that what you're questioning?

[@danmartin9086]

Aren't the solutions provided in piosolver based on what to do if the opponent is playing gto? Given this is extremely unlikely, why do you and others insist it being the correct line? Most humans are not capable of full gto implementation only incorporating odd parts here and there

[@TobiasPulver]

He doesn't insist it's always the correct line. In fact he points out how you can adjust given population tendencies. If you understand GTO concepts and lines, you will also better be able to exploit non-optimal play by opponents.

[@nathansnelson2083]

KK ob turn... Makes you wonder, "whatifPIOiswrong".

[@MTTPokerSchool]

Does it?