Game Theory Optimal (GTO) Poker: What is it, Key Concepts, How to Use it

GTO poker is a relatively new poker strategy that’s based on the outputs of poker solvers and mathematical solutions. The strategy seeks perfect balance in all plays, making the player virtually unbeatable at the green felt. 

If you are looking to master game theory optimal poker, this guide will teach you all the basic concepts you need to know. Keep reading and learn more about GTO preflop ranges and optimal solutions for postflop play in different in-game scenarios. 

What is GTO Poker?

GTO poker, or game theory optimal poker, is a poker playing style that is based entirely in a branch of mathematics called game theory. 

The ultimate goal of the game theory optimal approach to poker is to create a strategy that cannot be exploited by any opponent in the world. 

A GTO poker strategy aims to make each play at the correct frequency and with the correct range of hands so as to make the play profitable or at least break even, regardless of the opponent’s reaction to the play. 

Players who are used to playing Texas Hold’em Poker the old-fashioned way may find this approach to be unusual, but the truth is GTO poker is the only strategy that works in all situations and against all opponents, regardless of their skill level. 

However, it is not possible for human beings to play true poker GTO strategy. The strategy is created with the help of poker solvers, powerful pieces of computer software that calculate the optimal decisions and produce outputs based on the inputs provided by a user. 

The best players can do is use poker solvers to simulate numerous hands and try to learn the way solvers “think” about the game. By mimicking solver outputs, players can come close to playing true GTO and crush any opposition.

This approach to poker stands in stark contrast to exploitative poker strategy. The exploitative poker strategy is the one used by most poker players out there, in which they try to exploit their opponent’s mistakes by deviating from what would be an optimal play.

While exploitative poker can work, it opens you up to being exploited in return, as you are making suboptimal plays. On the other hand, with game theory optimal poker, you are never at risk of being exploited, as your plays are always well-balanced.

In fact, GTO poker is based on a scientific approach to the game, whose main goal is to create a strategy that is impossible to exploit. Studies conducted by major universities explored the concept of GTO in poker, with one even claiming to have entirely solved heads-up Limit Texas Hold’em Poker using a GTO approach. 

GTO vs. Exploitative Play: What’s The Difference?

Exploitative play is the sheer opposite of GTO play. The idea behind it is to seek for mistakes in other players’ games and exploit them to your benefit. 

This poker strategy can work like a charm, especially if you are facing poker beginners who have many leaks and continue to make the same mistakes repeatedly. 

However, playing an exploitative style puts you at a risk of being exploited yourself. Since your play becomes imbalanced, other players can make plays to counter your exploits and take advantage of your deviations. 

GTO poker strategy, on the other hand, strives always to maintain balance and make your plays indifferent to your opponents’ responses. Whatever the other players choose to do, you are making a profit in the long run.

The big difference is that exploitative play promises to make you a bigger profit if it works, but there is no guarantee your exploitative plays will work. A GTO strategy, on the other hand, promises consistent but limited profit over the long run, and that’s the safer option. 

The table below illustrates the main differences between the two common poker strategy approaches:

GTO Poker	Exploitative Poker
Balanced strategy	Imbalanced strategy
Does not exploit mistakes	Exploits mistakes
Is not exploitable	Is exploitable
Consistent strategy	Volatile strategy
Consistent profits	Greater potential profits
Best against strong poker players	Best against weak poker players

Exploitative Play Example

Imagine playing in a $1/2 cash game with a stack of $200. The player in the big blind is relatively loose preflop but quite passive postflop, and seems to not go to too many showdowns. From the cutoff, you raise to $6 with J♦J♠, and the big blind makes the call. You go to a flop of A♠K♥7♥, and the opponent checks. With $13 in the pot, you bet out for $5, and the opponent calls. 

The turn is a 9♦, and your opponent checks again. You decide to go the exploitative route and try to get this player to fold a pair of Kings or even a pair of Aces. You bet for $18, and your opponent calls.

The river is the 7♣, and the big blind checks. Your Jacks are probably not good, but they could still be beating a busted flush draw or a pair of sevens with some extra equity. Instead of showing down, you once again bet $50 into a pot of $59, putting your opponent to the ultimate test. 

At this time, your opponent looks back at his cards and confirms he is holding A3. Since he is a passive player, he tends to fold these spots, which is why your exploitative play may very work. On the other hand, if this player realizes you have been bluffing him too often, he may simply decide call. This is the danger of exploitative play, as it relies on assumptions rather than balance and facts. 

When to Shift Between GTO and Exploitative Play

The best players in the world are the ones who understand and use GTO in poker but are also able to shift gears and make exploitative plays when necessary. 

Now that you understand the GTO poker meaning, it’s time to put it into practice. The first thing to explore is when to use the GTO strategy and when to deviate from it and make some exploitative plays based on player tendencies. 

Generally speaking, GTO poker strategy works best in the following scenarios:

• Facing very strong opponents
• Playing against unknown players
• Moving to higher-stakes games
• In heads-up poker

If you find yourself at a table full of players you have never played with, sticking to GTO poker concepts will keep you safe from getting run over. Play a balanced strategy until you have a lot of information about the players you are playing with. 

On the other hand, when facing players you know well from past encounters, it may be time to switch it up and turn on the exploitative strategy. If you know a player 3-bets too loose, there is no reason not to defend wider or 4-bet more. If they fold too much, you can expand your betting ranges across the board. 

An exploitative poker strategy can work well in some of the following situations:

• Facing inexperienced poker players
• In splashy live cash games
• Against players who can’t afford the stakes

In order to be able to play a good exploitative strategy, you will need to understand game theory optimal poker first. After all, how can you deviate from something if you don’t even know what you are deviating from?

Since GTO is the most balanced approach to poker, learning this strategy will also allow you to make the correct deviations in an attempt to exploit your opponents with a real plan. 

GTO Poker Strategy: How to Learn Game Theory Optimal Poker?

Now that you know what GTO poker is, it is time to learn about some basic GTO concepts that you will need if you are to master the strategy. Keep in mind that this is simply an introduction to the concepts, and each concept can be significantly expanded on.

The only way to truly master game theory optimal poker is to spend many hours working with the solvers, but knowing what you are looking for is a great place to start. 

Optimal Preflop Poker Ranges

Many poker players make the mistake of playing too loose before the flop and thinking they can get away with playing any cards they want from any position. However, preflop is the most important betting round in the game, as it sets up the foundation for everything you do in later rounds.

GTO poker aims to balance everything out, which is why playing the correct preflop ranges is so important. If you play too loose or too tight before the flop, your plays across the board will not be balanced enough.

Fortunately, preflop play is also easiest to master, as detailed GTO poker charts are available to give you the exact preflop game plan for each position and each stack depth. Preflop ranges are also the only ones you must memorize by heart and always apply with no deviations. 

Remember that the hand ranges change quite a lot as you move positions and get to a deeper or shallower stack, so you will need to memorize quite a few GTO poker charts. The best way to memorize them is to remember the cutoff hands (the weakest possible hands to play in certain situations), instead of trying to remember every hand in every range. 

Once the flop is dealt, each play you make will shrink your preflop range as you choose hands to value bet with and hands to bluff with out of all the hands you started the hand with. With each passing street, some hands will fall along the way, leaving you with a well-balanced and somewhat tight range by the river. 

Action Frequency

Playing poker the game theory optimal way is all about betting, checking, and calling frequencies. The entire game comes down to frequencies – how often you should do a particular action in a certain situation in the long run. Once you start thinking about poker this way, you will never go back to your old ways.

Instead of thinking about what to do with your particular hand, you will only be thinking about what portion of your range you want to check, bet, or fold and which hands fall into each portion. You will then cross-reference your particular hand with that and make a decision. 

For example, after opening the pot from the button and getting called by the big blind, you see a flop of 9h7h5d. The solver recommends you bet 50% of your hands for a big size, while checking back the remaining 50% of your hands. 

From there, you need to consider what hands make a good bet on this board. Hands like 99, 77, 55, and 86 are the obvious candidates as value, while hands like JhTh or AhKh make for excellent bluffing hands. 

Since your button opening range is wide, and you need to bet 50% of that range, you will want to add quite a few other hands into your c-betting range in order to reach the quota of hands you are betting on the flop.

On each flop, turn, and river, the frequency you should be betting or checking with will change, and you will need to find hands in your range that fit into the recommended frequency and proceed to make the right play. 

Balancing Bluffs and Value Bets

The idea of balancing bluffs and value bets ties in with the idea of action frequencies. In every situation you encounter, you will be betting a certain percentage of the time. Each of these times, you will need to balance your range between bluffs and value bets.

The bigger your bet is, the more bluffs your range can contain. The smaller the bet is, the more value-heavy it should be.

The table below shows the balanced distribution of value bets and bluffs for some popular bet sizes:

Bet Size	Value Bet Frequency %	Bluff Frequency %
33% of the pot	80%	20%
50% of the pot	75%	25%
75% of the pot	70%	30%
Full pot	67%	33%
2x pot	60%	40%

As you can see from the table above, even GTO poker players should still have a value hand more often than they are bluffing every time they bet out. However, their bluffing frequencies are higher than those of most other players. 

Once you know what percentage of your bets should be value bets and what percentage should be bluffs, your task is to find the appropriate number of bluff combos to match the value combos.

For example, imagine you are betting full pot in a situation, and you determine that the value hands you should be betting with include a total of 27 combos. In this case, you should find another 13 or 14 combos of the best bluffing hands to meet the 67/33 quota that keeps your betting range balanced. 

GTO Bet Sizing

Bet sizing is another extremely important concept in game theory optimal poker that you should master along the way. Much like everything else in GTO, bet sizing is also about balance instead of exploitation. 

The main determining factor in choosing a bet size for GTO players is board texture rather than the strength of their hand. GTO strategy dictates that bigger bets should be made when betting on well-connected boards like 8♠7♠5d♦, while smaller bets should be made on boards like A♣A♥7♠.

The solver’s logic here is sound! On the first board, you will bet less frequently and will have a range made of bets value hands and bluffs (polarized range). Your opponent will have many hands that connect with the board somewhat, and a big bet will allow them to fold some of these hands.

On the latter board, you will often be betting your entire range. A small bet makes sense since your opponent’s range will be made up of many hands that won’t continue even when getting great pot odds against our small bet. 

As a general rule of thumb, you can stick to this principle:

• If your betting frequency is high, your bet should be small
• If your betting frequency is low, your bet should be big

GTO poker strategy often includes the use of unorthodox bet sizes, such as 25% of the pot or 200% of the pot, all of which are designed to achieve specific goals on particular board textures. 

Minimum Defense Frequency

Minimum defense frequency (MDF) is a relatively abstract concept but one that poker solvers regularly apply in creating their outputs. The abstraction of it causes many poker fans to often criticize plays they see on TV that are based purely on this concept. 

MDF determines the percentage of hands in your range you must at least call with in order to stop your opponent from exploiting you by betting too often. For example, if your opponent bets full pot, you must defend at least 50% of the time in order to maintain balance and remain unexploitable.

A casual poker player may only want to continue with hands that hit the flop hard, but in doing so, they are allowing their opponent to run over them by betting with all their hands and printing money.

A solid GTO poker player maintains balance by applying the concept of MDF and calling bets with some hands that don’t quite fit into a traditional calling framework, planning to turn some of them into bluffs on later streets and folding some of them out on turn and river.

MDF is calculated by applying this simple formula:

MDF = Pot Size / (Pot Size + Bet Size)

Keep in mind that you won’t always be able to determine which hands fall into the correct percentage of your range in-game, which is why it’s so essential to practice MDF with solvers away from the table.

Here is a table that gives you a quick rundown of what percentage of hands you need to continue with when facing some common bet sizes:

Bet Size	MDF %
One Third Pot	75%
Half Pot	67%
Two Thirds Pot	60%
Three Quarters Pot	57%
Full Pot	50%

How to Use GTO in Real Games

We have been over some basic game theory optimal concepts and ideas and have explained how GTO differs from exploitative play. Now, it is time to see how GTO works in real games and how poker solvers “think” about the game of poker.

We will go over two examples of GTO play in real games and explain the advantages of using this approach at the tables:

Game Example 1

Playing in a $2/5 cash game, you are seated in the small blind with a stack of $700. Holding K♥J♥, you face a raise to $15 from the cutoff. This is the first decision point in the hand, and GTO strategy dictates you should be 3-betting or folding the vast majority of your range in this spot.

A suited Broadway hand like KJs falls well within the category of hands you want to continue with, so you decide to 3-bet. The question of sizing comes up, and you realize that you will be playing the hand from out of position, prompting you to choose a larger sizing. 

You 3-bet to $60, and your opponent ends up calling, taking you to a flop of Th♥9♥6♠. You flop a strong draw on a reasonably connected board. The GTO strategy recommends you go for a big bet with your best value bets and bluffs. K♥J♥ is one of the best bluffs you can have, so you go for a $100 bet into the $122 pot. 

Your opponent calls your flop bet, and you go to a turn of 2♦. This turn does not change anything and there is now $322 in the pot. You have $590 left in your stack, and you want to apply maximum pressure on your opponent with a hand that still has a lot of equity. 

You choose to overbet and go all-in with your draw and overcards. After taking some time to think about it, your opponent folds JsTs face up and lets you win the entire pot without further contest. 

The GTO bet sizing concepts and the right choice of a strong bluffing hand put you in a position to maximize your expected value and win the pot that you were currently losing. If you had a hand like AA, your opponent would still have folded, but winning the pot in both cases is a very favorable outcome. 

Game Example 2

Playing in a $0.25/0.50 online cash game, you are sitting on a stack of $50 in an early position at a 6-handed table. You are dealt A♠5♠, and you raise it to $1.25 following the poker GTO chart you memorized. 

The player on the dealer button re-raises you to $4, and the action is folded back to you. Your hand is not very strong, but GTO dictates that you should always be balancing your ranges by introducing bluffs along with your value bets. Since you would want 4-bet hands like AA, KK, or AK in this spot, you also need to have some bluffs. 

Hands like A2s and A5s make for perfect 4-betting candidates, as they block your opponent from having some of the strongest combos in the game, are suited, and can make the low straight. For all these reasons, you decide to bump it up to $10.50 with your A5s. 

The flop brings J♠7♣2♦, giving you some backdoor draws but no made hand. You are first to act, and you bet $7 into the $21.75 pot, and your opponent makes the call. If they are playing a good strategy, their range has not shrunk too much, as MDF suggests they need to call wide against your small flop bet. 

The turn brings the 3♠, giving you both a flush draw and a straight draw. There is now $35.75 in the pot, and you have $32.50 in your stack. The situation is perfect to go for a pot-sized shove, as your hand is one of the best bluffing candidates you can have. 

You go all-in, and your opponent folds a pair of Nines, allowing you to once again win a pot without having the goods. 

GTO Solvers and Tools

While it is possible to learn some basic GTO poker ideas by reading out guides and other resources, the only way to truly master the strategy is to work with GTO tools yourself. These tools, known as poker solvers, are designed to help players understand the GTO strategy by simulating hands in a virtual setting. 

A solver simulation starts with the user providing them with inputs such as player ranges, stack sizes, board texture, and potential bet sizes. The solver then takes all this information in and provides valuable outputs, which instruct the player on how they should be playing each hand in their range. 

For example, you can input a cash game hand where the blinds are $5/10; your stack is $900, you are seated in the cutoff, you raise, and the big blind calls. The solver will not care about what particular hand you have but will rather give you outputs for all the hands you should have in your range. 

Working with generic GTO preflop ranges, the solver will tell you which hands you should c-bet, check, or check-raise on the board texture you input. This way, you will see GTO poker in action and start learning how the solver applies concepts such as balance, bet sizing, and MDF to create a comprehensive strategy. 

Some of the best GTO tools you may want to look at include:

• PioSolver
• GTO+
• Monker Solver
• Lucid GTO Trainer

Conclusion

This guide covered many of the key concepts of game theory optimal poker strategy and gave you the first bits of information you need on your GTO journey. GTO poker is complex and may take a long time to master, but doing so will make you a nearly unbeatable poker machine. 

Start learning the GTO strategy today, use poker solvers to simulate hands, and join CoinPoker to put your new knowledge into practice at low-stakes poker tables where you can practice with minimal risk and plenty of opportunity for growth. 

FAQ