Do it brother. Teach us. Just speak more on the topic itself instead of defending your stance. People who want to learn your exploitative style better aren't attacking you but waiting for you to drop some knowledge. We are patiently checking our subscribed thread box daily waiting for you to write another post.

Whoops, I had a night without the kids and so decided to get somewhat tipsy. It is probably a good thing I posted here, as I went home planning to show you how to play drunken Poker.

I just spent 4 years working full-time on the book. I thought it would only take me 9 months or so, but, mapping out our natural thought-process was somewhat more difficult than I expected. When I started, I didn't even realise that this was our natural thought-process, I didn't realise it was used by everyone, and whenever I worked out some rediculously profound peice of information like that, I had to throw all my work out the window and start all over again. I have only just returned to the tables. My brother who runs a school and staking company has offered me a stack in Indian or Chinese games, but, in all good conscience, I cant take money playing Poker for the sake of taking money. The only reason I've been able to justify playing is so that I can teach you fine folk. Now that my theory book is complete, I've decided to show you how to beat all the different stakes games, which I think is the most effective way of teaching you.

I'm with you good sir. I have spent way too many years arguing with GTO players and I dont want this to thread to turn into a slugging match between GTO and exploitation. I will play some more today. However, even in my drunken ramblings, I was teaching very important stuff. You see, these experienced GTO players make up the vast majority of players, and the vast majority of them cannot comprehend how to play at Level Three. Whenever they witness us making a disguised play, their minds will do anything to make them think that the play was useless. They wont counter the play as they should. They wont see it coming next time. If you disguise your hand against these players you will be able to take their money for many, many years. These experienced players will shout abuse at you, saying things like "You should never have had those cards", "You dont know how to play Poker", they will say the same sort of things they are going to say on this thread. But dont be phased. GTO players are just going mental. I will show you exactly how to beat them.

Wow you are very inspirational and a hero to the poker world. A modern day reincarnation of Heikun Zenji. An Illustrious Zen master who would stop at nothing to attain his goals. His teachers and classmates saw great qualities in him that no one else had possessed before him. I think we can all see the parallels here. You have clearly gone through endless obstacles and suffering to reach this level of mastery. Do you think these GTO players have not put in the necessary amount of felt time to fully understand poker? Thereby following other poker players stratagems without understanding the fundamentals? Like a baby who breathes air but does not comprehend the importance of breathing for staying alive? If these players have not put in enough hours to understand your theories why bother arguing with them? As you know, one day they will either figure it out themselves, or quit before attaining poker enlightenment... as you have.

All I do is defend myself against the GTO players for the sake of those who want to learn. You guys dont seem bothered by them, and so I will ignore them. I will answer your questions though...

Its not that they havent put in enough time, quite the opposite. GTO players have put too much time into memorising strategies and plays before they understand the fundimental theory. The more they trust in these plays whilst not being consciously aware of the theory, the more agressively their minds reject the theory. This is the same for everyone, it was the same for me. It took me a long time to advance, I spent years racking my brain to decifer things that in the end were rediculously simple. For example: I was a professional player for over 3 years before I reached Level Four, which is the ability to "read what my opponent thinks that I think that he holds". This was very difficult for me to learn, once I learnt it my profits soared, and yet, now I translate that same sentance to this "what is the opponent pretending to hold". You can all do this easily, and so you can all already exploit like a master. The only thing stopping everyone is this mind block, caused by something called cognitive dissonance.

Right. Time to play some Poker.

Just wanna say I'm enjoying the hell outta this thread. No matter what anyone thinks either way, you're putting your money where your mouth is (as long as you don't walk away from this thread at some point). You should post a graph at the end of every session, of the session and one of your overall since the challenge started. Fun stuff.

Starting Stack - $81.53
Final Stack - $94.24
Playtime - 7.5hrs
15bb/100

Today sucked. Cooler after cooler. My winrate took a big hit. I'm down to 35bbs overall.

The quality of Reg improved today. I forgot that this happens. Every weekend there are more weak players which brings out the better Regs. These Regs started playing back at me!! They also shouted loads of abuse. "You lucky b******", "You suck at Poker". I made one poor guy tilt real bad. I didn't mean to. He randomly started going mental at me whilst fruitlessly trying to take my stack. It's real important that you keep your head when you play Poker. A few years ago I taught a teenager all the exploitative levels in one training session. He understood it all, he was capable of great things, but he also tilted badly so his career never got off the ground. I've seen loads of professionals fall to tilt. So control those emotions, or use them to drive you forward; If you cant stop screwing, use the darkside to sharpen your concentration and obliterate anybody who dares to mess with you.

The Regs who were playing back at me gave up their chips easily. They thought that, as I was playing over 30% of hands, I must have been bluffing against them all the time and so they called me down way too light. They also started 3betting my weak range. Once they start doing this you usually have to tighten up when they are still to act. They wont notice that you are tightening up before them and so you can make some good money off them by showing up with stronger hands than they expected.

Today I came to realise that in these games there are two main types of players who 3 bet often. You have the cowards and you have the fools. The cowards instantly bow down to 4bets, and so 4 bet the s*** out of them. The fools will call the 4bets with terrible hands. Hands like QJ, or AT, or 77. These hands suck in 4bet pots because we can easily own them with bigger Ax, bigger PP's etc. What worse is that these foolish guys were often calling my 4bets with these hands OOP! Never do that!!! If you are even 3bet by a guy who has position on you there is little you can do but fold. Defo dont go calling 4 bets OOP with anything less than AA. These 3betters will have a good go at you, but at these stakes they really are bad players and so are easy to abuse provided you are not phased when they attack. You have to keep your head and make calculated moves. Work out what they are doing with their hands; are they Cbet bluffing everytime they miss on 3betted flops? Are they instead check-folding when they miss the flop? It's not usually a good idea to let them keep the initiative so even if you are IP you do want to be 4betting them about as often as you call. If you do call the 3bets, they will often just check and give up on the more scary boards, so do be weary if they are betting a scary board. If they call your 4bets or your 3bets, these micro stakes players usually either fold to the Cbet on the flop or get in stacks when they hit TP. This means free money for us anytime we have a big hand, and it is easy enough to rob them when we have nothing by using those standard Cbets and the barrels on the good cards. None of these guys were 5betting me with anything but the nuts, which gives us a free reign. None of them will change their strategy as soon as we see what they were doing, so watch closely to take the advantage. These aggressive preflop players can seem intimidating, but dont worry about them, work out what they are doing and destroy them.

My stats today were about the same as usual down here.
3bet 6%
I usually prefer to just keep the pots small in these games. Especially with hands like AK. I can always raise it up once I know that I've won. By the end of todays session I was thinking that I would benefit from a few more 3bets. Now that I am getting samples on players I'm able to see how they will react to the 3bet which is starting to make it more appealing. Without that information, I just wouldnt bother 3betting often.
4bet 5%
I was 4 betting with about the same number of hands that I was 3betting with. These were definitely not the top 5% of hands!! They were either nutsy cards or random cards. The pots will usually end once I 4bet bluff, or they will end when I Cbet bluff on the flop, so I dont really care what I hold. I try to pick the times when the villain is weak, rather than the times that I have some strength. Against players who 3bet me often, I do defo 4bet those big hands as is standard.

https://imgur.com/a/cgKy6

Starting Stack $94.24
Final Stack $86.95
Playtime 2.5 hrs
-29bb/100

Today I lost. I played pretty well, but, sometimes, no matter how well you play, no matter how much better than your opponents you are, you will simply lose. That's Poker. I expect that the worst kind of losing streak I could have in these games would be about 20 buy-ins and today I lost 3.5. Strangely, this was still demoralising, not very demoralising, but a little. It's understanding theory that stops me from losing my head when the cards go against me. Once you understand all the factors involved in Poker, you are able to see when you got unlucky, or when you got lucky, and this stops tilt from effecting you nearly as much as it effects someone who doesn't understand how the game works. In my early years, I would never be quite sure whether I had gotten unlucky, or whether I made some kind of mistake. Insecurities would play on my mind and I would start trying to win every pot. I would make silly moves against hands that beat me. I would throw my chips away. But today, I just got unlucky, and so carried on.

I could have lost a lot more. In one hand, I 3bet my AA and was called by a player who was OOP. Usually in this spot I will make a killing. But sometimes... The flop came KQ2, I Cbet and he called. A voice in my head said "I bet this guy has KQ". The turn came a blank. I considered things as I always consider them: I considered his entire range and what he might do with the different hands he could be holding, and how much money I will make/lose against them when I take the different actions: If this guy does have KQ, and I bet the turn, I am giving him my whole stack. If he has only the Q, he will fold to my bet and I will make no more from him, but, if I check, I will look pretty weak, he will still check the river but I will put in one more bet and I think he might well call. If he has only the K, he will probably bet the river and I might decide to raise his bet and go for stacks after all. If he has something like TJ, or doesn't have anything, he will bluff the river and I will make more money from these hands too. On average a check looked like the best play and so I went for it. If a 2 comes, or if that blank card pairs, I will go for stacks for sure, but for now I decided to control the size of the pot. As it happened, the river came a blank and he bet. His bet was bigger than I thought one pair would bet, and so I decided not to raise it, and instead called. He showed KQ, and I lost only half a stack.

This is the same thought-process I always follow. I describe it accurately in my book. In short: I consider what he will do with his range in the future, and how much money I will make off that range in the future, depending on what move I make. I know that his actions are governed by his understanding of my strength which is why it is also important to pay close attention to not only his range, but also the range it looks like you hold.

Today was a bad day. I had a strong full-house and got beat by a better full-house on a board which had 4 flush cards on it! My big hands didn't pay off. And so I lost. Tomorrow will be better... I bloody hope it will be better anyway! It's about time someone silenced those GTO fools.

https://imgur.com/a/qeHb9

(I cant get these images to work???)

Here you go.

Starting Stack $86.95
Final Stack $78.92
Playtime 3hrs
-23BB/100

I actually starting feeling like my old self today. Pushing the boundaries of the game. Designing drastic and devastating strategies for each of my opponents. I was taking lots of notes, concentrating acutely and relishing all challenges. I still lost though.

Most of todays losses were in EV, but I got unlucky in other ways too. My total winnings is down to a predictable 15bbs. This is what I expected to make in these games. However, I have been getting real unlucky. Now that I have seen what these games are about, I suspect I can take something like 30bbs on average.

I lost $10 to one extremely weak player. He was playing 65% of hands, which isn't insanely bad, but he also; Pot Cbet every flop, turn and river. Called any half decent hand to huge bets preflop. Raised like a mentalist and never folded to raises. If I was sat IP I would have played a very straight forward game against him - Calling his bets and waiting for top pair or better. This time though, he sat on the seat to my left, which made my strategy more extreme - I, pretty much, only opened betting with hands I wanted to 4bet jam with; AJ, 99 and better. The rest of my half decent hands I limped and let him attack, and attack, and attack. If I missed the board I folded, if I hit I called or raise. On average, with this sort of strategy you will rinse this sort of player in minutes, but today he couldn't stop beating me. I got it in good everytime I 4bet but everytime he won. When I let him attack me I called him down dangerously light and everytime he managed to pick up some turn or river card that beat me. It was unlucky, but you have to expect this sort of thing to happen against this sort of player.This sort of player is a very high variance opponent. What I mean by that is, you have to be willing to go for stacks with all kinds of hands to maximise your profit. If he is betting all streets all the time, that means he is doing it with all 65% of hands, and so you dont need much to call him down. This is the best strategy I could adopt, but today I was unlucky. A lot of players, GTO players mostly, will tell you that you should tighten up against this kind of guy, play only the strongest of hands and then you will be safe. I say that those GTO guys are pussies. 2nd pair is plenty enough to get stacks from this crazy dude, so I'll play 89 happily. These crazy players have a timer on their heads. Someone is going to take their money. So get in there! Make sure its you who takes the cash! And, errrm, try not to lose 5 stacks to them.

Its been a week since I started this challenge, we've had some highs and some lows, things are going OK, but could definitely be better. Here is my overall graph for you.

This.

Starting Stack $78.92
Final Stack $74.02
Playtime 7 hrs
-4bb/100

I got banned from the forums by the GTO management! The GTO mods have been trying to discredit me and my logic for years but they could never disprove anything I said and I never broke any rules. Now they've decided to simply ban me for nothing. These guy have gone full crazy on GTO. Check this out, Twoplustwo publishing have decided to stop making books now that they have completed their GTO series. They say that there is nothing left for players to learn!! And so they are ducking out of the training game... I'm going to make my own exploitative publishing company. I've spent years writing this book which describes how we think through plays, and next comes the playbooks. If you want to write one do let me know! I dont know how much longer I have here on these forums. Hopefully I can see this challenge through.

I dont just have the mods, the management and the huge GTO population against me, I have devil himself. GTO is like the antigame, it destroys all games by sucking the profit out of it whilst corrupting the players so that they can see no strategy but GTO. This thing is insanely dark, and is used by economists more than anyone else. Have you seen a beautiful mind? Do you know the circumstances by which Nashes Equilibruim was discovered!? The whole story of this thing is disturbing to me as a Buddhist, and I intend to render it obsolete. Funnily enough, my name translates to "Hands of God". This is blatantly my destiny! Lol.

My bad luck at the tables has been demonic, but I still have faith. I've minimised my losses as much as possible - In one hand, a tight player opened betting on the button and I was sat in the SB with TT. The GTO play here would be to 3Bet. But I used the exploitative thought process and decided against it. I looked to his range, looked to the future decisions and the money I was set to win/lose and decided the call was the best move. If I had raised, he has three options: He can fold and I make only a very small amount of money. He can call, and this leaves me in a big pot OOP against a tight player who has a strong hand! If J or higher came on the flop my hand is looking terrible, by the flop my hand will probably be second pair or worse. This is not a good situation. If the villain doesnt call or fold, that leaves only the re-raise, the 4bet, and again this is a horrible situation for me. GTO says I should jam over his 4bet, but this guy is tight and that will lose me lots of money. And so, I opted for the call. If I call, all kinds of good things can happen. The player behind me could raise, then if the tight dude calls I jam. That'd be awesome. The most likely scenario is that we see a flop. And this dude is tight! He is very likely to slow play his hand if he has me beat enabling me to keep the pot tiny. He isnt likely to go mad with bets so I can happily soak up a Cbet with my innevitable second pair. Most players will expect me to 3bet with my TT which means that it is disguised. Holding a big disguised hand against the tight players button opening range, now that is a good situation to be in. So I took that line... We reached the river. He showed QQ and I lost only 1/5 of a stack. A GTO player would have lost the lot.

I was dodging monsters all day but many I couldnt avoid. My AA lost a huge stack to 53 in a 3bet Pot when he hit the river! Same dude beat a different AA with 78 for a stack, again hitting on the river. My AK lost a race against KK. My QQ lost to Aces. I dont remember half the coolers I had today, and I dont care to look them up, all I know is that it seemed constant. It got rediculous enough for me to start thinking that there was little point in me playing. I even lucked out with JJ against KK to make my EV line hide the full truth of this downswing. I felt myself starting to lose faith, and so I took a little break. Taking breaks is important and will save you lots of money. You need to come to know your emotions, know when you are starting to tilt, and then get out of there.

Here is my full graph to date -



The EV line is deadly but the reality is far worse than that. I still think I can win this challenge. Its going to be close, but I'm still confident. Lets hope this weekend goes well.

What do you mean you got banned? How are you posting if you got banned?

You got banned for spamming.

If you hadn't broken any rules, you wouldn't have been banned. See above.

If you think you were banned unjustly and would like to post again, you can contact management here:

https://www.twoplustwo.com/contact/?action=forum

Creating a new account to rant and rave about mods and management will just get you banned again.

With a new account.