Becoming a perfectly balanced, game theory optimal player sounds like a nice thing in theory: Your ranges are always protected, nobody can exploit you, and you are bound to profit regardless of what your opponent does. I've seen many students become so enamored with this formulaic, seemingly auto-profiting approach that they stop paying attention to their opponents at all! The underlying misconception is that one just needs to construct their own ranges flawlessly and watch the money roll in.
The poker community is beginning to wake up from this trance. For one, game theory optimal solutions are nearly impossible to implement perfectly in practice due to the sheer number of variables to memorize as well as human psychology that blocks proper execution. More importantly, GTO strategy is a defensive strategy, and while it does win in the long run, it does so unnecessarily slowly and misses many great opportunities along the way. For most students (especially those focused on live poker), going on offense and playing an exploitative strategy will be more profitable and more fun. But how does one deviate from baseline or book strategies, size up opponents properly, and pick the right lines?
The following video explains how exploitative play works and shows you how to crush the three most common poker player archetypes: the calling station, the nit, and the maniac:
Below is a quick summary of the video:
Rules of Exploitative Poker:
1) Profile opponents correctly: It is very expensive to misclassify a player because you'll choose the wrong exploits against them. Be sure to gather enough data to be confident in your player profiles.
2) Determine the degree of mistake your opponent is making: This determines the degree of the exploit you'll choose against the player. For example, your opponent may be on the tight side, but it's a big difference whether he is making a few folding mistakes in the margins compared to only looking to make the nuts. You'll of course bluff the latter player much more frequently.
3) Predict whether your opponents will adjust: This is a big one, especially if you'll be frequently playing against certain opponents. If an opponent does not make the right adjustments against an exploit, you'll be able to increase the frequency and duration of these plays.
How to Crush the Calling Station:
1) Go for more thin value: Hands like top pair with a weak kicker can be used for 2-3 streets of value on many board textures. Middle pair can often start going for multiple streets of value as well.
2) Bluff less often: Give up with your unpaired overcards much earlier against calling stations than against other players. And certainly never berate these players when they call your bluff! You're the one that needs to adjust when they won't fold bottom pair.
3) When you do bluff, choose hands that have high equity (flush draws, open-enders): If you will be called quite often, you need a backup plan. Being able to turn and river big hands in big pots against calling stations is a recipe for massive profit.
4) If you get caught bluffing, show it! You've already spent the money on the play, and the player already caught you. You might as well leave a lasting impression by turning over your cards and setting yourself up for future thin value bets against these stations!
How to Destroy the Nit:
1) Steal their blinds frequently: Premium hands don't come along that often. In the meantime while they are waiting for them, free preflop money is waiting there for you.
2) Bluff them often on scary boards: Many nits lack board coverage on low and medium flops. As stacks get deeper, and when these players are capped at only 1 pair on boards like 5h-6s-7h, it's your opportunity to pile in the money and force them to fold on many turns and rivers. Against a nit's 3-betting range of QQ-AA and AK, hands like AQo and KQo are worthless. Instead, the following range is great for cracking a premium 3-betting range with very little risk of being dominated post-flop (assuming stacks are deep enough):
3) Never pay them off! Until they show the ability to bluff at a sufficient frequency, all your bluff catchers are negative EV against these players. If you can't beat enough of their value range for your given pot odds, just fold!
4) If you get caught bluffing, muck it! No need to leave a lasting impression here and give away the fact that you've been bluffing these players for weeks (and intend to keep doing so). Let's move quickly on to the next hand, it was a mis-click or something...
How to Beat the Maniac:
1) Overfold on early streets: Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. Maniacs thrive when players invest a bunch of money early in hands with weak hands that have little chance of improving and then have to fold later. Don't fall for this trap!
2) Call them down lighter on later streets: Given that you'll have a preflop advantage against these players and are filtering your range quite a bit on early streets, when you do arrive at later streets it's time to put your foot down. Since maniacs are known for over-bluffing, all of your bluff-catchers became +EV and you should be willing to make some discerning calls against these players for big money.
3) Semi-bluff them often: Because their flop and turn barreling ranges contain so much air, semi-bluffs have extra fold equity against these players. An added benefit is arriving at showdown with non-premium hands which will make the maniacs want to play more often with you.
4) Accept all possible outcomes up-front before continuing to play with maniacs: When a maniac sits down at your table and you choose to stay seated, consider that to be the moment you are signing your personal injury waiver form. You have now consented to whatever punishment this player (combined with cruel variance) may inflict on your stack. Some of your biggest wins will come against maniacs, but some of your biggest losses will come against them too, so be sure you are fully accepting all the possibilities up front before continuing to play.
PTO Poker Combines Exploitative Strategy with Performance Training and Mindset Coaching
It's one thing to know what to do, but it's quite another to apply this knowledge properly and execute these strategies in the moment. Sometimes students know exactly what they need to do, but in the biggest moments, their natural conditioning and tendencies continue to block them. If you need help with not only developing the right exploitative strategies but also getting out of your comfort zone to actually follow through with them for big money, PTO Poker has you covered. You can book a free consultation here.
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