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Poker had come a long way since the early days when most players used to “guess” the best plays. Thanks to poker solvers, we now better understand optimal plays in various situations.
These programs help “solve” poker by providing optimal gameplay solutions.
If you are looking to up your game and learn how to balance out your poker strategy, learning how to use poker solvers is probably one of the best things you can do.
Understanding how a poker solver “thinks” about the game is the best way to learn poker on a high level.
In this article, we will discuss what a solver in poker is, how you can use it to become a better player, and what types of limitations you will encounter.
So what is a solver in poker? In the simplest terms, it is a piece of software that answers the question of the best line to take with different hands in your range in various situations.
To get a poker solver to provide you with such answers, which are known as “solutions,” you will need to input a set of parameters known as “inputs” into your software.
These inputs include:
Once you have downloaded a poker solver and input these parameters, you will proceed to input a flop. At this point, the solver will begin to give you solutions for the flop you have entered.
This means the solver will teach you how to play different hands in your range on different board structures, including flop, turn, and river.
This is quite different from the old way of learning poker, where players only think about how to play a specific hand in a specific situation.
Instead, the poker solver tries to teach you how to play all your hands and balance out your strategy by always having bluffs and value bets in your range, making you unpredictable from every position and on every board.
Of course, these tools can help you build a preflop strategy as well, but it is extremely time-consuming, so you are much better off using a tool like Rangeviewer, which has all of them already solved, than trying to do it yourself.
Poker solvers are very interesting pieces of software. On the one hand, they can offer some great No Limit Hold’em solutions, but on the other hand, they can also take you down the wrong path.
The secret is that to get useful solutions from a poker solver, you must provide it with the right inputs. This means that you will need a good idea of the ranges your opponents play in different positions and situations, which can sometimes be a little tricky.
In reality, solvers never come up with perfect solutions, although they are extremely useful when trying to solve heads-up situations. If you are playing against decent opponents, you can predict their ranges quite well, and thus the solutions given by the solvers will be quite accurate.
It is worth mentioning that some solvers work by assuming your opponents are playing the optimal game from the get-go, so you do not need to input anything. This is a perfect way to learn how that optimal strategy actually looks and can be an invaluable tool in your development.
That said, solvers are mostly useful in heads-up pots since, with more opponents in the equation, it becomes increasingly hard to solve for all variables there are.
The word poker solver makes it sound like you will be using this tool while playing poker, telling you what to do in a certain spot, guaranteeing you win the hand. The reality, of course, is quite a bit different.
You won’t be able to use solvers quickly enough to have them help you while playing, and most sites will ban you if you try doing it in the first place, as this will be considered cheating.
Instead, you will use poker solvers to study poker when you are not playing. You will be able to learn the strategies that solvers produce and hopefully recreate them at a later point.
It’s also important to remember that poker solvers will only tell you frequencies with which you should bet different hands in your range on different boards.
This means the solver could tell you to check a certain hand 50% of the time and go all in with it 50% of the time, and you will have to decide which option to go with.
To avoid being biased, players who use solvers often use randomization in such situations, which is another skill you will need to master if you want to apply the solver strategies in your game.
It is safe to say that playing poker in accordance with poker solvers will be different than you may be used to, and it will take a bit of adapting.
Yet, if you go ahead and master solver-based poker strategy, you will become an amazing poker player who will be extremely difficult to play against and nearly impossible to beat.
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Yes, poker solvers can 100% help you become a better poker player, but only if you use them correctly. What I mean by this is that you should mostly start using poker solvers as you get into the higher stakes games where a balanced strategy is needed and warranted.
At the micro stakes, exploitative poker is always a superior strategy, and you will want to find ways to make the most of your opponents' mistakes instead of playing a balanced way yourself.
Playing around with solvers even while playing at the lower stakes is a good idea, even if just to get a general idea of how they approach the game. However, you should not be too obsessed with balancing out your frequencies when playing against random opponents, as they won’t notice if you are playing in an unbalanced way.
This means you can get away with over-bluffing or betting too much for value in some games, and you should absolutely do it if possible.
Once you have a great grasp of poker basics and are good enough to beat the low stakes, it will be time to start experimenting with solvers more and adopting their strategies.
As you move into mid-stakes and higher, you will probably need the help of solvers to remain competitive and learn how to play a balanced strategy that can withstand the quality of play at such levels.
My tip, however, is to always try and find games in which you can exploit bad opponents and only play the solver-approved GTO strategy when you are facing opponents you can't find a way to exploit.
Poker solver solutions are incredibly complex, and it is highly advisable to dive into the world of solvers very slowly, preferably with the help of someone who already has experience with them.
It can be very daunting to look at solvers without someone to help you decipher what they mean, and you should expect not to understand it all right away.
Another great way to start with poker solvers is to find good poker training that will lead you through a particular software, with several such courses available these days.
In either case, you will want to start slowly and adapt your game over many weeks instead of trying to instantly play GTO poker.
Stick to the skills you have learned over the years and don't change your play too much before you understand why solvers give the outputs they do.
Playing GTO poker may sound like a great idea, but take your time and move at a pace that works well for you instead of blindly jumping to the new idea.
All the best players at higher stakes these days use solvers to study the game, but it doesn’t mean you have to base your game on them right away.
Given enough time and focus, poker solvers will help you dramatically improve your game, so don’t avoid adding them to your arsenal of learning tools but don’t rush into basing your game on their solutions either.
If you have the feeling you need to sharpen up your game then Pokercode is a great place to start. Sign up for a free account and set your first steps towards becoming a better poker player.
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