How to Become a GTO Wizard

Welcome to the wonderful world of game theory optimal poker! This article will serve as your roadmap to GTO Wizardry.

Mastering poker requires study, practice, and dedication. You can’t learn a new language or how to play an instrument overnight, and poker is no different. Luckily, we live in an age where resources are available to fast-track your progress!

Gameplan to Become a GTO Wizard

With so many resources, where do you start? How do you go from novice to master? We need to build a gameplan:

Starting Out

These articles are perfect for newer members!

Six Reasons Why You Should Use GTO Wizard – Outlines the main benefits and features of GTO Wizard.

The 10 Most Important Concepts for New Poker Players – This article is designed to help you overcome common leaks and improve how you study to achieve long-term success as a player.

GTO Wizard Trainer – Tips and Tricks – Learn how to get the most out of the GTO Trainer.

The art of learning poker – Learn to build your strategy from the top-down, starting with broad ideas and working to refining it over time.

Master Your Tools

The first step to becoming a Wizard is mastering your tools! Watch this video to learn how to use and study GTO solutions.

Building a Training Routine

We recommend building a training routine to get the most out of your subscription and improve as quickly as possible.

A daily routine helps you stay disciplined with your studies. Try it as a warm-up before your session or a cool-down afterwards.

Example Training Routine

This training routine should take between 1-2 hours per day. It utilizes every aspect of GTO Wizard and is designed to be used in conjunction with regular play.

Users with a Starter subscription can forego uploading hands if they’ve reached their monthly limit, and just input interesting hands manually into the Solution browser instead.

Tips for Studying GTO Solutions

GTO can be intimidating to those who are new. Solutions are complex, and there’s just so much data! So how can one go about turning these charts into workable strategies?

Study Ranges, Not Hands!

Trying to memorize every hand is impossible. Poker is simply far too complex. Instead of trying to mix every frequency correctly, focus on the overall strategy! The goal is to understand why rather than what the solver is doing.

Focus on Thresholds

Learning basic thresholds is one of the fastest ways to become a solid poker player. Which hand classes are reasonable stack-offs in this spot? What is the strongest hand class that starts to mix folds here? What’s the weakest hand that can value bet here?

Thresholds guide and sculpt your strategy. Instead of trying to memorize every hand individually, you should focus on things like the bottom of your continuation range.

For example, in this spot (CO vs BB SRP, CO bets 33% pot on JJ4), we should note that a made hand never folds. Open the filters tab in the Solution browser and look for blue lines which indicate folds. This is the bottom of your continuation range.

Study Hand Classes

One useful study technique is to break down the strategy into different hand classes using filters. Then, compare strategically similar boards and review different hand classes to develop an intuition about their strategy. You can also use the Breakdown Tab (press 3 in the Solution browser) to see how different hands behave. You’ll see similar patterns on a lot of boards after a while.

Think About What You’re Targeting with Your Bet Size

Every bet you make targets some part of your opponent’s range. By “target”, we mean those hands are indifferent between calling and folding facing your bet.

The hands you target determine your value bet thresholds. Consider how to get value and what sizing makes sense to target those parts of their range.

So how do we know what hands we’re targeting? Well, you need to look at villain’s response to a bet.

Look at Villain’s Response

It’s important to look at villain’s strategy to see how they respond. Then, ask yourself if their response is realistic and what adjustments you might make against different mistakes.

Looking at their response helps you to understand why the solution works in the first place, understand blockers, and think through your strategy.

Use Aggregate Reports to Study Trends

Rather than studying one board at a time, you can study aggregate reports. Apply filters to study strategically similar flops and look for general trends in the strategy at different points on the flop.

Ask yourself 🤔 “What sizing does it generally use on low paired flops in this spot”? “Why is that”? Try to develop a broader heuristic that explains the cause>effect relationship.

You can also study turn reports for one particular flop. Turn reports are great for developing follow-through strategies.

Use the Ranges Tab to Understand the Big Picture

The ranges tab lets you compare both player’s ranges at the same time. Comparing range asymmetries and equity distributions can be used to understand the motivations behind the GTO strategy. You can compare different hand classes and equity buckets.

Fundamental Poker Math

Poker is intuitive in practice, but mathematical in nature. Humans cannot calculate optimal strategies at the table. However, it’s imperative to learn these fundamental concepts so that you can apply them in an abstract sense.

You should understand that you don’t need to defend wide when your opponent puts in more money relative to the pot. You should understand the basic shapes of ranges and how that influences your strategy. You should know the principle of indifference. You should learn how pot odds connect to the required bluffing frequency.

The goal is to understand these concepts on a broad, abstract level.

Expected value – Every decision you make is underpinned by one common goal – to maximize return.

Equity – Equity refers to your chances of winning a hand if the pot were checked down.

Range morphology – Ranges are easier to understand when you think of them as shapes.

ICM basics – Learn how tournament survival pressure affects your strategy.

Visualizing Implied odds – The value you expect to gain on future streets when you outdraw your opponent.

What are Pot Odds in poker? – This essential risk/reward calculation tells you when a call becomes profitable.

MDF & Alpha – Minimum Defence Frequency is the shield you use to prevent your opponents from running you over with bluffs. Learn how wide to defend in poker.

Mathematical Misconceptions in Poker – Address common misunderstandings and develop a more nuanced understanding of these mathematical concepts.

How to solve toy games – Put it all together by learning how to solve toy games.

Understanding GTO

Why do people want to learn “game theory optimal strategies?” What does that even mean? What if my opponents aren’t playing GTO? (Spoiler, they’re not).

Read these articles to learn more about the goals and nature of GTO.

What is GTO in Poker – What does GTO mean?

What does GTO aim to achieve? – What is the purpose of GTO in poker?

The value of fold equity – Learn about the value of relative fold equity with an experimental approach.

Does your range affect your strategy? – A philosophical theory article about the nature of fixed strategies and where your EV comes from.

Understanding Solvers

Solvers are the engines we use to approximate optimal poker strategies. These articles cover the practical application, nuances, and limitations of poker solving algorithms.

Our solutions – The parameters used for our initial preflop and postflop solutions.

Understanding Nash Distance – Learn about solver noise and how to interpret solver accuracy.

Why doesn’t my solver match GTO Wizard? – Learn about the chaotic nature of solvers and how small input changes can drastically change outputs.

Poker Puzzles 🧩

Combinatorics Poker Puzzle – This simple puzzle is surprisingly tricky, but the solution is elegant!

Videos

Weekly Coaching – Fast-track your progress by watching these coaching videos made by world-class players. Join our coaching seminars every Wednesday!

Check out our YouTube playlist of GTO Analysis deep-dives!