Poker Gto Definition

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I don't have hard proof, since the GTO strategy for poker is not known, but my guess is that the GTO strategy for poker would be able to easily exploit weaker players. For example, if someone decides to add fold AA pre every time to their strategy, they're 100% losing money. GTO (Game-Theory Optimal): This playing style is where you essentially attempt to play perfect poker yourself, which in turn only allows for your opponents to make mistakes against you (which is where almost all of your profit will be derived from). There’s a buzz word in the poker world these days that you may have heard, but many new players aren’t yet familiar with it. That buzz is GTO. GTO stands for Game Theory Optimal. What it means is using an unexploitable strategy, which cannot be countered by your opponent. GTO – GTO or game theory optimal is an unexploitable poker strategy based on mathematics and Nash Equilibrium that has arisen in the last number of years. When playing a GTO strategy you cannot be beaten in the long run, only break even against another GTO strategy. GTO Poker Theories: Mutually Assured Destruction Today we turn to one of the most terrifying lessons of Game Theory which can be applied to poker. One of the real gifts poker has given me is that it has been a great jumping off point to learn things from other disciplines like economics, AI, psychology and Game Theory.

Recently at pokervip.com we have had articles on how we can construct ranges as both the aggressor and the defender using GTO principles. But what exactly is GTO? Should we make use of it? Is it true that GTO strategy is simply a way of playing break-even poker?

What is GTO?

When we hear poker players talk about “GTO” they are using an acronym for “Game Theory Optimal”. Game theory is a branch of mathematics which deals with analysis of strategies in various situations. The dictionary definition might be the most useful so we are completely clear.
“The branch of mathematics concerned with the analysis of strategies for dealing with competitive situations where the outcome of a participant's choice of action depends critically on the actions of other participants. Game theory has been applied to contexts in war, business, and biology”
Game theory is currently being applied to poker in a variety of different ways. The idea is that there is likely an “optimal” solution for playing the game of poker. In fact it has been claimed recently that the game of HU LHE has been solved by the University of Alberta's Computer Poker Research Group (CPRG).
As yet HU NLHE is not even close to being solved. It's 6max and FR counterparts are even more complex and will take far longer to solve. However we can still use our knowledge of game theory to make approximations regarding correct strategy without completely solving the game.

Should We Use GTO?

In many cases the answer to this question will be “no”. A strong understanding of GTO concepts is only really necessary when playing against very tough opponents.
Having said that, GTO is still worth consideration by all players for the following reasons.
  • It helps us to understand what our default ranges should be in certain situations. This will help us to formulate a stronger exploitative strategy.
  • It improves the way we think about the game
  • It improves our understanding of mathematics which permeates the game of poker
  • It helps us to understand what we should be doing in non-standard situations without someone being there to tell us

Defensive vs Aggressive

In most cases we can think of GTO as a defensive strategy and the opposite strategy, exploitative strategy, as an aggressive strategy.
Following GTO is a little bit like hiding in a bunker during a war. We are far less likely to get shot, but we also are not going to be doing that much damage to the other side. If we come out of that bunker we can be much more effective, but we also open ourself up to danger.
So essentially the way we make the most money in poker is to actively try and exploit our opponents' leaks. But in doing so we potentially open ourself up to counter-exploitation.
For example imagine our opponent folds way too much to 3barrels. We should likely be firing that river a ton. We will make a lot of money doing this. However, we are now in a situation where we are technically bluffing the river way too frequently which is exploitable. If our opponent realises this he could potentially start calling down more frequently and exploit the fact that we are bluff heavy. We now lose significantly more money than we would have if we'd played a balanced GTO strategy.
However if stick to our GTO strategy regardless of what our opponent does, we will never get to exploit the fact that he folds too much to river bluffs. We wouldn't be maximising our profits in this case, but at least our opponent won't be able to exploit us either.
Essentially the way we make the most money in poker is to actively try and exploit our opponents' leaks. But in doing so we potentially open ourself up to counter-exploitation.

Poker Gto Definition

Seeing as our opponents are generally highly exploitable and also unaware of their leaks, we should place most of our emphasis on playing as exploitatively as possible. In most cases even if they feel like they are being exploited they won't necessarily understand how to make the relevant adjustment.

But Isn't GTO Just Breaking Even?

It's easy to see how huge confusion arises. This has been the topic of intense discussion for years among players first being introduced to the topic.
GtoPoker gto definition
If we check out the article written here on GTO aggression we can see a simple example where we fire the river with a balanced range. We stated there that our opponent's EV does not change regardless of what he does. If he folds all of his bluffcatchers his EV is 0, if he calls all of his bluffcatchers his EV is 0. How exactly are we making money?
There are at least 2 lines of thought that can help us answer this question.
1. Consider Earlier Streets
Firstly does 0EV really mean our opponent is breaking even here? Imagine that we are routinely cold-calling preflop, calling the flop and turn, and then open-folding the river. (Remember that our overall EV is 0, so even if we call with all of our bluffcatchers, it is essentially the same as open-folding the river). Is our overall winrate going up or down? Quite clearly our winrate is going down overall, despite the fact that our opponent's river EV doesn't change. His EV for the entire hand will be positive.
So the first point of confusion arises when we analyse individual streets without considering the action which leads up to that street. We must also remember that in many of the examples used we are playing against an optimal opponent who reaches the river with a balanced range. We also make other sweeping assumptions such as: we are perfectly polarized and all of our opponent's bluffcatchers lose to our value hands but beat our bluffs. This is naturally a drastic oversimplification.
Poker
There is a chance our opponent makes mistakes on earlier streets and defends non-optimal ranges. Also imagine the situations are reversed and our opponent simply does not bet the river as frequently as he should be. Perhaps he always gives us a free showdown and never takes advantage of the fact that he can “win” by making our range 0EV when he fires a balanced range. It should be really simple to see how our EV is higher in such a situation where we get to fully realise our equity as opposed to none of it.
2. Consider Opponent's Mistakes
Essentially, GTO poker strategy does not guarantee a positive winrate. However what it does do is guarantee a minimum winrate.
Imagine a HU game where we always played OOP. GTO would not be able to guarantee a positive winrate in this situation. However it would guarantee that there is a maximum threshold on our losses. Assuming the same HU game but we were always IP, then GTO can guarantee us a minimum positive winrate.
If we play a perfect game then nothing our opponent can do will take us below these minimum thresholds. However, we can increase on these minimum thresholds if our opponents makes mistakes.
Usually simple thought experiments can confirm this kind of assumption. For example take an extreme situation where we play a GTO strategy except our opponent open-folds every river. Are we making more than our minimum profit thresholds in such an example? Obviously we are absolutely crushing here. We should be able to see that the expectation of a GTO strategy is not limited to our minimum threshold only. It can increases as a result of our opponent's mistakes.
If we play a perfect game then nothing our opponent can do will take us below these minimum thresholds. However, we can increase on these minimum thresholds if our opponents makes mistakes.
Now obviously we would wonder who exactly ever open-folds the river. It doesn't really happen in practice, but we used an extreme example to help us understand how our opponent's mistakes can have an impact on our winrate. It won't take such a drastic form as river open-folds. It will appear in situations where opponents fold hands which are way too strong to be folding. Or they will miss obvious bluffs in the best situations and not fire with the correct frequency. We may end up being able to realise a significant amount of additional equity compared to how much equity our opponent realises when we are the aggressor.

Nash Equilibrium

Again let's start with the dictionary definition of Nash Equilibrium.
“In game theory, the Nash equilibrium is a solution concept of a non-cooperative game involving two or more players, in which each player is assumed to know the equilibrium strategies of the other players, and no player has anything to gain by changing only their own strategy.”
The concept was named after mathematician John Forbes Nash, although he was not the first to begin work on similar theories. If you are interested in John Nash, the film A Beautiful Mind with Russel Crowe is based around his life.
As described above, Nash equilibrium is reached when all players are using a game-theory-optimal strategy. In a heads up situation where two optimal opponents are involved, no-one makes any money. If it's a raked game then both players will trade stacks back and forth and slowly lose money to the rake. This is essentially where the idea that GTO makes no money originates. If both players are optimal this is actually the case.
As the definition explains, no player has anything to gain by deviating from the optimal strategy. If one player tried to make a deviation from the optimal strategy, this would be considered a “mistake”, and his opponent would gain in EV. However not all “mistakes” will cause a loss of EV. This is another reason why the subject of GTO confuses many.

Unprofitable Mistakes

We don't always make money when our opponents deviate from an optimal strategy. At least, not if we continue to play a GTO strategy ourselves.
So to return to the river situation we described earlier. Imagine we face a pot-sized bet on the river. All the standard game-theory traditional assumptions are in place. We have a range consisting entirely of bluffcatchers and our opponent is perfectly polarized and balanced, etc etc.
We mentioned that our EV does not change whether we fold all our bluffcatchers, call all our bluffcatchers, or fold a selection and call a selection. But are all options correct from a GTO point of view? Not at all. We should be defending in such a way that our opponent is not incentivised to increase or decrease his bluffing frequency.
So if we know our opponent is betting 1PSB, he would need to succeed about 50% of the time if he were bluffing in order to break even. GTO strategy involves insuring that he doesn't succeed more or less than this threshold. So we should call 50% of the time with our best bluffcatchers and fold the remaining 50% of the time with our worst bluff-catchers.
But what happens if we fold 100% of the time. Our EV does not change, neither does the EV of our opponent. So how exactly does our opponent profit from our mistake. If he continues to play a GTO strategy he doesn't actually profit from our mistake. Seeing as this is one of the commonly cited examples helping us to understand river play, it's easy to see why players get confused and wonder where our profit comes from. Even if we deviate from optimal play and fold all of our bluffcatchers in this situation our opponent doesn't directly profit.

Exploitative Play Makes the Money

This does not mean in the above situation that our opponent cannot profit from our mistake of folding with 100% frequency on the river. Just as it sounds, if we are folding with a 100% frequency in any situation this is highly exploitable.
But in order to exploit this our opponent has to make an active change to his strategy. We are no longer in a Nash equilibrium because we can improve the profitability of our strategy by making adjustments.
But so long as our opponent does not make the correct adjustment, we make considerably more money playing an exploitative strategy as opposed to a balanced one.
We would start by bluffing more frequently than we should in this river situation to exploit our opponent. In doing so we'd be creating an imbalance in our own game where the correct adjustment would be for our opponent to start calling 100% of his bluffcatchers as an exploitative response. If this situation arose we'd lose more money than if we'd stuck to a GTO strategy. But so long as our opponent does not make the correct adjustment, we make considerably more money playing an exploitative strategy as opposed to a balanced one.

Welcome to Poker 101 for dummies – where beginners learn to play poker.

Poker 101 will give you a grounding in the mechanics of the game and get you started with some winning strategies. Read through the following pages to get an understanding of all poker related info plus lots of extra tips and tricks.

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Poker 101: What We Will Cover

  1. Terminology (below)

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Use the terminology section below as a dictionary – there is no need to read through it now. Refer to back to this page if you come across a word you don't understand.

Check out the next poker 101 page – Basic Preflop Strategy – to find out more.

Poker 101 – Terminology

We will link back to this page throughout Poker 101 for any words you may not understand. Keep an eye out for the hyperlinks!

6-max: A table with a maximum of 6 players allowed to sit down- see 6max vs fullring. This type of game type is more typical to online play. An example of a 6max table shown below:

Ante: An ante is an other forced bet, typically smaller than the blinds which are used late in tournaments to increase the size of the starting pot.


Backdoor: A draw which requires two cards to complete. For example, AK of hearts on a Th6s2d has two backdoor draws – two consecutive hearts for a flush and consecutive Queen and Jack for a straight.

Bankroll management: Bankroll management is a process which all successful poker players undertake. It involves managing the amount of money available for you to play poker to ensure that you have sufficient funds that you do not go broke. See the post on bankroll management which delves into more detail.

Big Blind: The big blind is the forced bet which the player two seats to the left of the dealer has to put in before seeing his cards. The rules fix the big before the game has started. The BB is the minimum bet size for the poker game. For more information see Position is King.

Board: The community cards which everyone shares i.e., the flop turn and river
Blank: A hand which does not change the board or the strength of many of the types of hands players is likely to hold. For example, on a T96 board, a two would be considered a ‘blank.'

Blocker: When you hold a card which your opponent needs to make a strong hand. For example holding the Ace of hearts on a board with a heart flush possibility.

Broadway: The cards from Ten through to Ace are called Broadway cards.

Chase: To call a bet with a drawing hand with the correct pot odds.

Chop: To split the pot between two or more players due them all having similar holdings.

Coin flip or flip: When two players end up all in and their hands have roughly the same equity i.e. it is 50:50 for either to win. AK vs. QQ all in preflop is considered a flip despite QQ having slightly more equity.

Combo-draw: A powerful draw with a lot of outs to win. For example a flush draw and a straight draw.

Continuation bet: The act of following up your aggressive action on the next street. For example, raising preflop and then betting on flop. See more on continuation betting here.

Cutoff (CO): The cutoff is the position to the right of the dealer button (acts before the dealer). For more information see Position is King.
Domination: You are said to dominate your opponent when you each share one card of the same rank but your second card is of a higher rank. For example, AK dominates AQ as it will win a large percentage of the time (71%).

Downswing: A period of a bad run of luck where a poker player finds it difficult to win. A part of poker which every player must expect. The opposite of an upswing (or hot streak). See an example of a downswing below (after 7500 games).

Double Barrel: To bet two streets in a row, for example, bet the flop and follow up with another bet on the turn.
Draw: A draw is when you are waiting for particular cards to help improve your hand. For example, if you have four cards to a flush you are said to have a flush draw. Similarly, you can have a straight draw when you have four cards to a straight.

Drawing dead: When a player can no longer win the pot no matter what cards come on the turn and river. AK would be drawing dead vs. 99 on a 962 board as even hitting two Aces or Kings in a row wouldn't make the best hand.
Equity: the percentage chance you or your opponent have of winning the pot. For example, AA has over 80% equity vs. a lower pocket pair such as QQ or TT. See our pot equity tutorial for more details.

Equity realization: Having equity is great but in some cases with difficult to play hands (for example K8o) you will not be able to realize that equity because the hand is difficult to play. See equity realization for more info.

Expected value: expected value is the predicted value of a particular move (such as calling or raising). It is calculated using the value of each outcome multiplied by the probability that each outcome will occur. For more information see Pot Odds, Equity And Expected Value.


Floating: Calling a bet with a speculative hand with the plan to bluff to win the pot on a later street. Typically this strategy is use to exploit weak opponents who will only bluff once before giving up on the pot and folding to a bet. Floating is more successful in position as you have the opportunity to apply more pressure to your opponent plus you will have more information while action in position.

Fold equity: The percentage chance you have of winning the pot due to your opponent folding to a bet or raise. For more information see this detailed article.

Full ring: The classic Texas Hold'em format. A maximum of 9 players may sit as this table type.

Freeroll: A tournament which is free to enter and offers a prize to the winner(s). A freeroll can also be used to describe when two hands of the same rank are all in but one hand has an additional way to win. For example, both players have KQ and are all in on a JsTs5c board. However, one player has a flush draw to complement his straight draw and thus is said to be freerolling – he can only draw or win, not lose.
Gut-shot (inside straight draw): A draw which has four outs to the straight. For example 76 on A53 board – a four will complete a straight.

GTO – GTO or game theory optimal is an unexploitable poker strategy based on mathematics and Nash Equilibrium that has arisen in the last number of years. When playing a GTO strategy you cannot be beaten in the long run, only break even against another GTO strategy. The use of unexploitable strategies have been accelerated by the use of GTO solvers such as PIOSolver. For more on GTO strategies and solvers see PokerNerves article.

Hero: When discussing the hand online, the player whose cards are known is said to be the hero.

Heads Up Poker: Playing poker against one opponent in a 1vs1 situation. For more on heads up poker see heads up poker strategy- adjusting to your opponent.

HUD (Heads up display): A HUD is a display which is used in online poker which provides information on opponents.

Isolate: To raise with the intention of singling out a single player after they have entered the pot. Typically isolation moves are performed vs. weaker players after they have limped into the pot.

Kicker: A kicker is used to break ties between players when they have hands of the same rank. For example, the kicker for the hand AK on an A72 board would be the king. The king kicker means that AK would be a stronger hand than AQ – in this case, AQ hand is out-kicked. See this article for more on kickers.
Limping: Limping is the act of calling a pre-flop bet when the pot is unopened. For example, a player is first to act under the gun (UTG) and calls the big blind. See this article for why limping is a bad strategy.

Middle position (MP): Middle position is the 2nd position to act after the cards are dealt in 6max (after UTG) and the 3rd and 4th position to act in a full ring game (9 players). For more information see Position is King.

Nuts: The nuts is the strongest hand possible. The ultimate nuts is the Royal flush as this can never lose. However, some hands won't always be possible, and therefore the nuts is referred to the strongest possible hand on the current board. For example, the nuts on a KT9 board without a flush possible would be QJ.

Offsuit: Two cards which are not of the same suit. For example AK with Ace of Diamonds and King of spades (often shortened to AKo).
Open-ended straight draw (OESD): A draw which has eight outs to the straight. For example 76 on A54 board – a 3 8 or will complete a straight.

Gto Definition For Poker

Outs: The number of cards which could potentially improve your hand strength. For example, with QJ on a T92 board, we have eight outs to a straight (4 Kings and 4 Eights) and we have six outs to top pair (3 queens and 3 jacks).

Outdraw: When your opponent had a worse hand than you, but his hand improved to one better than yours on future streets. For example, a flush draw would ‘outdraw' a one pair hand if the turn or river completed the five card flush.
Overcard: this is when you have a card which is greater than the highest card on the flop or turn. For example, AQ has one overcard on a K52 flop and has two overcards on a T52 flop. Overcards are important as they give us an opportunity to make good a hand on later streets.
Overpair: When you have a pocket pair which is larger than the highest ranking card on the board. For example, KK is an overpair on a Q52 flop.

PFR (pre-flop raise): A HUD stat which shows how often a player raises when entering the pot. Typically range from 12-22% for winning players depending on the game type.
Postflop: The later rounds of betting which occur after the flop is dealt. See Texas Holdem strategy for more on playing postflop poker.

Pot Equity: This is the percentage chance that you will win the pot at any given point in the hand. It is how much of the pot ‘belongs' to you. For example with KK pre-flop, you will have approximately 80% chance of winning (equity) vs. QQ. For more information see Pot Odds, Equity And Expected Value.

PLO: PLO or Pot Limit Omaha is a poker game type similar in structure to Texas holdem although you are dealt 4 cards instead of two and are limited in bet size to the pot. Check out PLOQuickPro for pot limit omaha strategy.

Pot Odds: This is the odds that are being offered to you to call when facing a bet or raise. If you are confronted with a half pot bet, you are offered odds of 2:1 (you have to call 1 to win 2). See our poker books page our review of Essential Poker Math by Alton Hardin for all the basics of poker math, including pot odds.
Preflop: The round of betting which occurs straight after the card have been dealt. See Texas Holdem strategy for more on playing preflop poker.

Rainbow: When there is no possibility of a flush draw on the flop or turn due to all cards being different suits.

Rake: Rake is a percentage of the pot that a poker room or casino will take to play for the dealer, services, etc. Rake is how the poker room or casino generates profits from poker games. See this page for how rake works in poker.

Rakeback: This is the refund a poker play may get from a poker room or casino when a certain amount of play has been completed (hours or hands played). Rakeback is similar ‘tax-back' which is returned to good customers of the poker site.

Range: A group of holdings you think your opponent may hold. See poker hand ranges for beginners.

Shorthanded: When the number of players falls below five on a table, it is considered to be a shorthanded table.

Set: A set is three of a kind with a pocket pair in the hole. For example, a set of sixes would be 66 on a KT6 board. Sets are stronger than a standard three of a kind because you cannot be outkicked.

Sit ngo: A tournament which begins when enough players sit down on the table (rather than starting at a specific time of day).

Small blind: The small blind is the forced bet which the player one seat to the left of the dealer has to place before seeing his cards. The value of the small blind is typically half that of the big blind. For more information see Position is King.

Poker Gto Definition List

Suited: Two cards which are of the same suit. For example AK of hearts (often shortened to AKs)

Tell: Unconsciously giving away a piece of information to your opponent. For example, a shaking hand may mean a good holding.
Trap: To play in a manner which disguises the strength of your hand. For example calling preflop with AA instead of raising. See examples of traps here.
UTG: The first player to act after the cards are dealt. For more information see Position is King.


Villain: Often used to denote out an opponent in an online discussion. For example, the villain makes a big call with a weak hand.

VPIP (Voluntarily put in the pot): A HUD stat which shows how often a player puts money into the pot by raising or calling voluntarily. VPIP is a measure of how many hands a player plays. Typically range from 15-25% for winning players depending on the game type.

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That's it for poker 101 terminology. Check out the next poker 101 page – Basic Preflop Strategy – to find out more.