GTO confirmed the lessons O’Kearney had already learned playing professional poker
He developed a method after reading a book on poker theory from Dan Harrington
After battling against tough opponents, he realized elite poker was all about game theory
Solvers eventually revolutionized O’Kearney’s game, also confirming why GTO works
VSO writer and Irish poker pro Dara O’Kearney explains where he discovered game theory optimal and how he applies it to the game. [Image: Shutterstock.com] A new way of playing
For many people, learning game theory optimal (GTO) and using solvers is a mind-blowing experience. They have played poker one way for a long time then are suddenly presented with a new, counterintuitive way of playing. This can result in resistance, especially if the player in question has had success with an exploitative style previously.
For me, discovering solver technology was more a case of confirming the suspicions I had developed over several years as a professional poker player. I learned poker the way everyone did back in the day, which was trial and error. I would see what worked and what didn’t, and the lessons eventually became heuristic about how to play. First discovering GTO
The first inkling I had that game theory could be applied to poker was after I read Harrington On Hold’em . There was a sentence that really jumped out to me where Dan Harrington talked about shoving as a bluff. He said that if you add 33% to your stack when the shove gets through, and if you have 33% equity on average when called, you only need the shove to work 33% of the time to be profitable. I looked at that sentence and realized that you can work out which hands are profitable to shove.
I worked with an equity calculator and a spreadsheet, and created push/fold ranges using trial and error. It took six months and was rendered completely useless when ICMIZER came out.I studied this sheet when I was a Sit and Go grinder and it worked out really well for a while, but then the regulars started […]
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