Limp-Called Pot as BB
My favorite way to study with GTO Wizard is to approach it experimentally, using the scientific method…
Why Not Shove?
You’re in the money in an MTT but still a long way from the final table. The…
What We Can Learn From Outlier Hands
The worst way to use a tool like GTO Wizard is to simply ‘line-check’ how your specific…
Building Exploits From Showdown
Understanding how and when to exploit opponents at a live poker table is a delicate affair. It’s…
Navigating Nasty Rivers Out of Position
Playing out of position (OOP) is hard. It’s fundamentally disadvantageous to act on each street without knowing…
Crack the Shell of Nut Draw Strategy
Nut draws hold obvious appeal as betting and raising candidates. They benefit from fold equity, sometimes even…
Preflop Raise Sizing: Examining 2 Key Factors
It amazes me that, after nearly twenty years of playing no-limit hold ‘em professionally, I still haven’t…
How to Handle Loose-Passive Limpers
Solver charts and presolved solutions do not offer much in the way of explicit guidance for responding…
Top 5 Mistakes in Spin & Gos
As a Spin and Go poker coach, I regularly encounter common mistakes that players make, affecting their…
An Introduction to Spin & Gos
I was playing Tournaments for the first decade of my career. But after my first child was…
Relationships and Poker
In my more than 15 years of poker coaching, I’ve helped hundreds of clients improve their check-raising,…
Do Multiple Sizes Matter?
Should I work out the other tools or just stick to the crowbar? Solver results can appear…
The Science of Learning Applied to GTO Wizard
The way we were taught to study in schools was flawed and has negatively impacted our study…
Check-Raising a Single Pair
In this article, I will address a question raised by Twitter/X user ’Matt Riley’, who asks, “In…
The Turn Probe Bet
Imagine yourself defending as the BB caller vs BTN preflop raiser in a 100bb cash game pot.…
When To Encourage Multiway Pots in PKOs
I was recently shown this fascinating PKO hand from the GTO Wizard PKO library. Somebody asked me…
Protect Equity and Prosper
When we think about the best hands to bet in a given situation, we tend to consider…
Do Solvers Have Targets?
Targeting has long been a staple of exploitative poker thinking. When you’re value betting against a predictable…
Disciplining Big Blind in Limped Pots
When the BTN open-limps off a short stack, the postflop play against the BB should resemble that…
I’d Rather Be Drawing
Which is the better hand on a K♥8♦5♦ flop: K♠T♣ or 7♥6♥? OK, I’ll admit I didn’t…
The Curious Case of Open-Limping Buttons
Before the advent of solvers, open-limping was considered the province of passive, gambley recreational players who just…
Cleaning Out Sticky IP Callers
A “sticky” player on your left, one who calls your preflop raises too often and doesn’t give…
Defending Against Tiny 3-Bets
Tournament poker is about precision. Cash games, where stacks typically run into the hundreds of big blinds,…
Heads up! Exploiting SB’s Preflop Mistakes
Heads up (HU) tournament play presents unique challenges to the average player. Many tournament players, particularly those…
C-Betting As the OOP Preflop Raiser
Position is an extremely valuable advantage in poker. Most players would describe the comfort zone as being…
Overchoice: Making Sense of Multiple Sizings
Solver solutions with multiple bet sizes often involve a lot of mixing between those sizes, thereby blurring…
River Refinements: When Your Opponent Won’t Check-Raise
One of the biggest strategic differences between playing in versus out of position involves betting frequency and…
Turn Barreling in 3-Bet Pots
There are two articles on the GTO Wizard blog that make good prerequisites to this piece: Principles…
The Right Way To Think About Protection
Suppose Paul the Protector is in a 200bb cash game and opens A♠A♣ in the SB. The…
The Importance of Board Coverage
The first public version of the GTO Wizard announced AI upgrade already has some useful features to…
How To Adjust When Villain Has No Bluffs
“They always have it!” is a common, semi-joking expression in poker to describe the tendency of a…
Adjusting on Later Streets After Exploiting Flop
The key to exploiting opponents profitably is knowing when to stop. I’m not referring to how often…
C-Betting IP vs Passive Poker Players
A preflop raiser enjoys a significant range advantage over a BB caller, enabling them to continuation bet…
C-Betting Against ICM Preflop Ranges
You raise from early position (EP) in a multi-table tournament and the BB calls. Both of you…
The Art of Bluff Catching
Bluff catching—calling a bet with a modest hand which you expect to win only if your opponent…
Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by IP
On some flops, it is simply not possible for the preflop raiser to continuation bet too often.…
Is Limping Pimping?
In a past Discord post, one of our members noted that an upside of implementing a limping…
Exploiting Excessive C-Betting by OOP
A preflop raiser who continuation bets too often is always a potential target for exploitation, but the…
Preflop Button Mastery in PKOs
Playing from the Button presents many unique opportunities in any tournament format, especially in PKOs. Apart from…
The Worst Turn Card
Greetings from GTO land. In today’s article, we will use the Turn Reports feature to gain a…
Navigating Range Disadvantage as the 3-Bettor
Picture this: We’re playing a NL500 6-max cash game, and we’ve won a few pots, now sitting…
Mastering Three-Bet Pots In Position in MTTs
Playing in position against a three-better is a lesson in playing to your advantages. As the defending…
Mastering Three-Bet Pots Out of Position in MTTs
Three-bet pots are scary. Playing out of position is scary. Put them together, and you’ve got many…
The Greatest Final Table in Triton History
Today, we’ll examine one of the most epic final table battles I’ve ever witnessed! Our adventure begins…
Mastering Thin Value Bets in Checked-Down Pots
Valuing your hand appropriately—determining whether it’s strong enough to value bet or so weak you should consider…
Maximizing Value on Monotone Flops
Monotone flops tend to provoke great anxiety among poker players. It’s easy to imagine that your opponent…
How to Defend Against Turn Donk Bets
Responding effectively to donk bets on the turn is tricky;, there’s no getting around that. It’s one…
How and Why You Should Use Turn Donk Bets
Donk betting–taking the betting lead away from the previous street’s aggressor–on the flop is rarely correct and…
How Stack Sizes Change Your Range
In this series, we have looked at factors that can influence ranges in otherwise identical scenarios. As…
How to Leverage GTO Wizard’s EV Comparison Tool
With the advent of solvers, some troubling new turns of phrase have entered the poker lexicon. In…
Should You Ever Cold Call a 3-Bet?
When there’s been a raise and re-raise before the action is on you, you will have to…
When ICM Breaks Down
If you have read my previous GTO Wizard articles and my books, you’ll know I am a…
When Is It Correct To Fold AA Preflop?
One of the criticisms of ICM is that it is boring and robotic. In my opinion, nothing…
OOP C-betting vs Loose Cold-callers
In a previous GTO Wizard article, I asserted that “Playing against an in-position cold-caller is dramatically different–and…
Short-Stacked Play in MTTs
Playing a short stack well is an essential tournament skill. It is extremely rare to win a…
When To Ladder in Tournaments
In my last two articles, I wrote about the effect field size and payout structure have on…
How Payout Structures Impact ICM
Last time we discussed the ICM considerations in game selection, we looked at field size, which has…
C-Betting IP in 3-Bet Pots
When you three-bet before the flop and the original raiser calls from out of position, you have…
C-Betting OOP in 3-Bet Pots
Continuation betting from out of position can be a dicey proposition in single-raised pots. Cold calling ranges…
Dynamic Sizing: A GTO Breakthrough
Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the highest EV…
Dynamic Sizing Benchmarks
Dynamic Sizing is a revolutionary new poker algorithm that automatically simplifies your strategy with the highest EV…
Understanding The Impact Of Field Size On ICM In Poker
When people talk about game selection in multi-table tournaments (MTTs), they invariably talk about the number of…
Defending vs BB Check-Raise on Paired Flops
This is a companion piece to Attacking Paired Flops from the BB; you will get more out…
Mastering PKO Final Tables
Final tables can be the most exciting and rewarding phase of a tournament, and being able to…
Attacking Paired Flops From the BB
Paired flops present unique challenges to both a preflop raiser and a BB caller. The difficulty of…
KK vs QQ vs JJ at WSOP Main Event
With only fourteen players remaining in the 2023 WSOP Main Event and blinds of 400K/800K/800K, Joshua Payne…
Responding to BB Squeezes
You open raise, someone calls, and the BB squeezes. How should you construct your strategy? Once there…
Crushing a Top HUNL Poker Bot
In 2022, Philippe Beardsell and Marc-Antoine Provost, a team of Canadian programmers from Quebec, developed the most…
GTO Wizard AI Explained
We are excited to introduce GTO Wizard AI, formerly known as Ruse, the world’s best and fastest…
GTO Wizard AI Benchmarks
GTO Wizard has combined the power of artificial intelligence with traditional solving methods to bring you high-quality…
Table Management in PKOs
Perhaps the most important strategic consideration in Progressive Knockout Tournaments (PKOs) is making sure you cover your…
Overcalling From the BB
In poker, overcalling refers to calling a bet or raise after another player has also called. Should…
Understanding Which Mistakes Cost You the Most Money
I am fortunate enough to have worked for many years with the mental game coach Jared Tendler,…
Overbetting The Flop in Cash Games
Although most commonly analyzed on turns and rivers, flop overbetting can be a devastating weapon that generates…
Using New Skills at the Poker Table
How many times has it happened to you that you make a mistake only to realize immediately…
Flatting Ace-X Hands Shortstacked
Playing out of position is tricky, but it’s an essential part of tournament play. With so much…
Playing Limped Pots as the BB in MTTs
Success as the BB in limped pots begins before the flop. The BB’s equilibrium strategy at all…
The Absurd Game Theory of Chopped Boards
A “chopped board” in poker is one where the community cards make up the best 5-card hand…
Playing Limped Pots as the SB in MTTs
MTT confrontations between the small blind and big blind force no-limit players into uncomfortable situations, compelling them…
The Art of Learning Poker
In his book The Art of Learning, chess and Push Hands champion Josh Waitzkin describes a training…