So in this post, we are going to look into the perks of Exploitative Play versus GTO Play in Poker… Both have their merits and certain players thrive on mastering either side of the game, but which is better?

Let’s look at what both styles mean

GTO is Game Theory Optimal, which in theory is an unbeatable style as our lines in pots will always win more money than our opponents, however, Poker is not a solved game, so being completely Game Theory Optimal is not actually possible.

On the other hand we have Exploitative play, which is when we pick up on other players styles and then combat these tendencies by playing exploitatively, so if for instance, our opponent is bluffing too much, we, in turn, will re-bluff a very high amount to combat this, however this can then lead to us being exploited back.

So, both styles of play can be a very valid way of playing Poker, one is a math-based solid way of playing all our hands and the frequencies set on how much we should be bluffing and the other just throws that out the window and is solely based on our opponents tendencies and looking to exploit these.

What are some of the downsides of both these styles?

GTO setbacks include the fact that because GTO is not actually known and players are just trying to play as close to GTO as possible they will have holes in their game that could be exploited, for example not bluffing enough in certain spots that will allow opponents to exploit them.

Exploitative setbacks include that when you are looking to purely exploit your opponents game you can guess wrong in situations and it can end up costing us a lot of money where we wouldn’t have lost the money if we were playing a more GTO style.

So which style should we be playing?

It is good to have a solid base for our game, so learning a GTO style of play is a solid starting block for all Poker Players, however, it’s not to say that learning to exploit players won’t be a beneficial skill to learn to work into our game. With this, we can learn to know when players are under bluffing and use this observation to make hero folds for example.

What Are Some Good Spots to Exploit

A Good time to play exploitatively might be to look to exploit a specific tendency that you notice from certain players, for instance, if a player always limps their worse hands and always raises their good hands, we should be playing tight against their raises but looking to attack their limps aggressively and win the chips in the middle.

However this is where problems in the exploitative style start to open up because other players that are playing the same style may then look to exploit us, exploiting the limper… and so the guessing game begins, are they just messing with us? Do they have a real hand? This is where we can lose some big pots that we would not have played if playing a more locked down GTO style of play.

So a good way to play is to look to exploit these types of spots, but not too much! This way we won’t be overdoing it so that we get exploited back, hopefully!

Get Grinding and Learn Your Own Style

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