GTO vs Exploitative Play in Poker: Which is the Better Strategy?

When you start out playing poker, you learn by having fun, but as you progress and learn some fundamentals, most players look for ways to get better. Not just to win more, but to beat the challenge that poker represents, to be better than everyone else at the table.

That desire to improve means studying the game, and here is where things can become confusing. There is so much information, so many strategies, it can be difficult to know what to do or who to listen to. However, there are two basic strategic approaches that most players look to, Game Theory Optimal strategies, and Exploitative Play, but which is right for you?

What is Game Theory Optimal (GTO)?

If you have been playing poker for any time at all, you will have seen the term Game Theory Optimal, or GTO, used a lot. However, while a lot of people talk about it, few really understand what it means.

GTO means playing in a way that makes it impossible to exploit you. That is, other players won’t take your money, the best they can hope for is to break even. The idea comes from Princeton University mathematician John Nash, initially developed in the 1950s.

The basic premise of GTO is that every decision you make in a hand of poker impacts the overall outcome. From initial bet and everything that follows, including choice of hands to play or fold and so on. All impact your win rate. So, with this in mind, by optimizing those decisions, you can balance performance over your games and optimise your win rate. This balanced performance will win you money over time, regardless of how good your opponents are.

The Problems with Playing GTO Poker

To truly craft an optimised approach means understanding the probability of outcome for every decision. However, because No Limit Hold’em is not fully solved in terms of understanding every possible outcome, those probabilities are not fully calculated.

The result is that you can never fully optimise those choices you make, there will always be a weakness somewhere in GTO strategies, and those weaknesses are what an exploitative strategy will seek out.

Exploitative Play in Poker vs GTO Play – What is the difference?

While the GTO strategy seeks to optimize every choice to ensure you come out ahead regardless of what other players do, exploitative style poker players look for weaknesses in their opponent’s game to take advantage of and beat them.

That focus on identifying areas to exploit in other player’s strategies is very different to GTO, and in more ways we may first think.

The Problems with Exploitative Play

The biggest issue with exploitative strategies like this is that by focusing on what other players are doing, and reacting to what they do, then players adopting an exploitative style not only leave themselves open to exploitation themselves, but may be actively creating weaknesses as they play.

The other problem depends on the other players at the table. Inexperienced players may not see how they are being beaten, but good players will catch on quickly, and can then turn that strategy on its head to beat a player using exploitative strategies.

Get the strategy right and it is possible to string together big wins, but get it wrong, and it can result in equally large losses. Where GTP brings consistency, exploitative play brings uncertainty and a wide variance.

How to Play a GTO-Based Style

Although AI is getting close, there is no complete understanding of every possibility and outcome in no limit hold’em, so any attempt to use GTO strategies are going to have some limitations, however, in general, this style of play is carried out by following these steps:

Understand the pot odds that your opponent is facing

Key to GTO strategy is the pot odds, as the goal is to make the likely consequence of calling and folding as similar as possible. For instance, If we are at the river, with a pot of $400 and a $200 bet needed to stay in, then they have a 2:1 odds for a call. When the opponent calls here, that player must be ahead at a minimum of 33% of the time.

Build your bet strategy from those odds

If an opponent is at 2:1 odds for a call, then the GTO strategy will call for the same ration of bets to bluffs for the player using the strategy. That is, 66% of genuine value bets, and 33% of bluffs. The result of these a constant situation where the opponent is largely indifferent about calling or folding, with little difference in outcome available either way.

The mistakes will come

By playing this strategy, the goal obviously is not to nullify the outcome overall, just for the opponent. Instead, adopting this strategy means waiting for mistakes, which will inevitably come, not even the best player is perfect.

Where the opponent makes those mistakes, that is where the larger wins come and how a GTO strategy can put you on top over time.

The Pros and Cons of a GTO-Based Approach

Because it is impossible to play perfect balance with GTO as the game itself remains unsolved from a mathematical perspective, we still have outcomes that cannot be predicted, then there are areas where a GTO strategy can lead to problems. As with anything, there are pros and cons to think about with GTO style that you should be aware of before putting it into practice.

First the benefits:

It is the ideal strategy to build from

Because the GTO strategy means long term success regardless of opponent, it is the perfect strategy to begin with and use as your default approach to the game.

It works against almost any opponent, so puts you in good standing in any poker environment.

You become difficult to exploit

The core mechanics of the strategy make you very difficult to exploit, protecting you against players who use those exploitative tactics. Looking at performance over a longer period, this will ensure that you enjoy success.

It makes you profitable

Because the strategy is based on what is happening within each hand, it is not affected by other players and what they do. That means that against almost anyone, it will be profitable in the long run, if applied correctly.

There are downsides though:

No Limit Hold’em has not been solved

The biggest issue with GTO in no limit hold’em is simply that there are still areas of the game that have not been solved. AI is getting us closer, but until it happens, you cannot play a perfect GTO strategy. Instead, any GTO strategy has some compromises, and the best players will find them.

You leave money on the table

By playing a balanced approach, the GTO strategy offers plays a reliable route to long term success. But by being balanced, it is an approach that cannot take full advantage of exploitable components of an opponents game. Indeed, the strategy specifically excludes reactive play completely.

The result is that a GTO player will ignore some areas where the opportunity for bigger wins comes along, leaving money on the table. This is especially true when playing against less experienced or poorly skilled players who make repetitive mistakes that could be exploited for much greater profit.

How to Play an Exploitative Style

The goal here with an exploitative strategy is to identify areas where the opponent makes repeated errors, and use that to take advantage. So for the first few hands, an exploitative player is trying to find those weaknesses, players signalling the strength of their hand through bet size, or raising the preflop too often.

Once a weakness is identified, this is where the strategy comes in, although because it changes so much, it is not so much a written strategy of what to do, as a broader approach. What a player does to exploit that weakness will depend entirely on what the weakness is. The key point of the exploitative approach is that it requires flexibility. You must be able to see those weaknesses to attack, but then also develop ways to attack them.

Adjusting your bet sizing, bluff ratio and so on must be done during the game, and this is the heart of the strategy. It is complex, and you need a good understanding of the game itself to try it, but it can be exceptionally rewarding when done right.

However, if you don’t adopt the right strategy, or misread a weakness, this approach can be very costly. It also leaves you open to being exploited too, indeed the changes made to take advantage of a weakness can create openings for an opponent.

The Middle Ground: Balanced Approach

With the noted limitations on the GTO strategy in making money, and the potential vulnerability of an exploitative strategy, then a hybrid of both systems will surely offer the best approach for the majority of the time.

It is relatively easy to apply too, just use a GTO poker strategy when there are no suitable weaknesses identified, this will also ensure success on its own as we have discussed, thanks to its optimal play approach.

However, by switching to exploitative strategies when there are opportunities to use them, players can also maximise the potential for winnings from the game too. This way, a player can be incredibly hard to beat, but well placed to take advantage of an opponent’s mistakes.Conclusion

FAQ

What is the foundation of exploitative poker?

Exploitative poker is founded on the idea of identifying and taking advantage of mistakes in strategy by other players. Whether they are betting patterns, the ways they play the pre flop or anything else, these weaknesses can then be exploited

Why is understanding both GTO and exploitative poker essential?

No single strategy is perfect, but if you don’t understand what an opponent is doing, they can be very effective. That is why it is important to know what they look like and how they work, so you can defend either. Playing a combination of the two can be very successful too, and to do that you need to understand both.

How can players exploit their opponents in poker?

By adjusting your own strategy, it is possible to take advantage of the predictability of those weaknesses and force the opponent into bigger losses than they would otherwise experience. Which means bigger wins for you of course.

What is the importance of checking in poker?

Checking is useful in keeping the pot smaller when you are working with a marginal hand, or as a tool for bluffing when you are holding a strong hand. Used sparingly it can be an excellent tool in your arsenal when using the exploitative approach.

How can players maximize profitability in poker?

By minimising opportunities for opponents and maximising the outcomes of your advantages, you can extract the most profit from your poker playing. The best way to accomplish this is to utilise a hybrid strategy that blends exploitative style with GTO strategies.