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Constructing a strategy Constructing a strategy

06-17-2017 , 06:52 AM
I've played poker for years now and I can figure out how to play individual hands reasonably well. Many people play better than me but, if we played a hundred hands together the chances are you wouldn't see me do anything outlandishly stupid.

However I don't have anything resembling a cohesive strategy. I have a fair idea of the best and worst hands to bluff and to value bet in a given spot but I frankly don't know how often I bet for value or as a bluff. I am aware that the theoretical basis for bluffing is that you should make bluffcatchers indifferent to calling by chosing a sizing and a frequency that makes their calls breakeven.

The problem I have is that my game of choice is plo and there are way too many hand combinations to know with what frequency I end up with exact holdings on the river. Additionally on earlier streets the line between bluffing and value betting is not that distinct. Unless there's a straight, flush or full house possible most betting is done with equity, whether that equity comes in the form of draws or pairs/trips etc. So I have no real basis to build a betting strategy on anything other than "Will this guy call with worse/fold better in this spot"

So what I guess I am looking for is some sort of theoretical framework to figure out a reasonable approximation of an inexploitable strategy. I don't want a quick fix, I'm willing to study and put in a couple of hundred hours or whatever it takes as long as it improves my game.

Is there any material you can recommend I read, training site I should sign up for or software I should get that can help me work on building a solid baseline strategy?
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06-19-2017 , 07:41 AM
This baseline strategy, where u make it unprofitable for the opponent to bet, that is GTO. GTO is a strategy that can be used but it is never preferable to an exploitative play. Exploitation is what you are doing as standard, by wondering whether the opponent will call or not. This is the more profitable way to play.

I don't know how much there is out there for GTO in Omaha, but exploitative theory is the same regardless of the game. The next stage in your exploitative training seems to be the understanding of your perceived range. I'm guessing here, but I expect you don't realise that one of the biggest reasons the opponent makes a play is because of the range you are representing. What we can do is manipulate the opponents understanding of our perceived range so as to lure him into making a play that is more profitable for us - basically, you should be following your perceived range as closely as you follow the villains range.
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06-19-2017 , 08:20 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yadoula8
This baseline strategy, where u make it unprofitable for the opponent to bet, that is GTO.
Why do you say things like this?
If you make a pot-sized open UTG with an optimal range, it's still profitable to call or 3-bet with some hands.
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06-19-2017 , 09:05 AM
You mean that if the opponent is playing optimally it is still profitable to play some hands... of course this is true. AA will still beat it in one hand, but on average you will make nothing against them.

All I was doing is explaining to this guy what he was describing. He said that you "should make bluff catchers indifferent to calling" but that's not true. If you want to play GTO you would do that, but that doesn't mean you "should" make the GTO play.
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06-20-2017 , 04:54 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yadoula8
GTO is a strategy that can be used but it is never preferable to an exploitative play.
What about when you don't have enough hands with someone to know what exploitative adjustments to make? Its nice to have a theoretically sound baseline game so that you know what to do in the absence of specific reads. I'm reasonably competent already with the exploitative stuff

I guess the original question could be restated as "does anyone know of any practical way to work systematically towards incorporating gto concepts into my plo game?"
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06-20-2017 , 03:37 PM
You can always manipulate your perceived range to lure the opponent into making plays that you can exploit.

When I sit at a table I generally just go with the flow, playing straight value for a few hands until I start looking either tight or loose. Then, when my perceived range starts to sway one way or the other I begin to take advantage of the opponents wrong understanding of me.

Basically, if you can follow your perceived range in a similar way to how you follow the villains range, there becomes a shed load more opportunities to exploit.
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06-21-2017 , 07:43 AM
Never played PLO, but did some looking into how to study it the same way I studied NLHE the oldschool way.

Basically get Propokertools, pokerjuice and study basic gametheory and its application to poker, and then grind ranges and flops etc to get feeling for frequencies of hands in ranges. I personally don't think that the tons and tons of combos in PLO makes it that much different to study if you got the right tools that enable you to look into the frequencies of combinations in a range, which is how I usually think even in NL instead of just direct combos.


Also pls ban Yadoula from theory section.
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06-21-2017 , 08:20 AM
Care to explain to everyone why?

Can you think of a good reason or are you just going for mindless insults??

The real reason is because I'm more advanced than you and you cant handle it. Do us a favor, ban yourself from the forums if you can't put forward rational arguments.
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06-21-2017 , 08:31 AM
You spew strategic nonsense that never has math included, just trying to make exploitative poker sound rocketscience, when it isn't.



All your posts are basically:

Okay it's hard for me to find bluffs in my range here, lets just use ****ty bluffs as bad V overfolds.
Okay my range is pretty weak here, lets call all of our bluffcatchers here as bad V overbluffs.
Okay my range is here often pretty weak, I'll slowplay more as V bets often into my "weak range".
Okay my range has so many potentialbluff combos that V underfolds, lets bet very thin for value here.

Last edited by doctor877; 06-21-2017 at 08:37 AM.
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06-21-2017 , 08:33 AM
I do use math when needed... I think you'll find my equations are more simplistic than the common ones

And no, I describe exploitative poker in the most simple way possible...

Your chatting nonsense mate. You still haven't explained your problem with my posts here... please, just do us a favor...

Last edited by Yadoula8; 06-21-2017 at 08:57 AM.
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06-22-2017 , 08:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yadoula8
You can always manipulate your perceived range to lure the opponent into making plays that you can exploit.

When I sit at a table I generally just go with the flow, playing straight value for a few hands until I start looking either tight or loose. Then, when my perceived range starts to sway one way or the other I begin to take advantage of the opponents wrong understanding of me.

Basically, if you can follow your perceived range in a similar way to how you follow the villains range, there becomes a shed load more opportunities to exploit.
This is what I am looking to study. I am not abandoning exploitative play. At the stakes I play it would be silly because there are tons of players doing really exploitable stuff. However I want look at game theory so that

1 I have a basis to make decisions when I have no clue how someone plays
2 So I have a better understanding of what actually is or isn't exploitable.

If you don't see the application of looking at these things that's cool but I didn't come here asking if you thought they were useful. I came asking "does anyone know how this is done"
Constructing a strategy Quote
06-22-2017 , 09:33 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by doctor877
Never played PLO, but did some looking into how to study it the same way I studied NLHE the oldschool way.

Basically get Propokertools, pokerjuice and study basic gametheory and its application to poker, and then grind ranges and flops etc to get feeling for frequencies of hands in ranges. I personally don't think that the tons and tons of combos in PLO makes it that much different to study if you got the right tools that enable you to look into the frequencies of combinations in a range, which is how I usually think even in NL instead of just direct combos.


Also pls ban Yadoula from theory section.
I use propokertools and I know about and plan to purchase pokerjuice. Do you/ does anyone know where good material on applying game theory to poker can be obtained?
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