This doesn't mean that you need to learn GTO to beat the micros. But it sure as **** helps.
This depends on where in the micro's you actually mean. Just from experience, I a player would not beat 10NL Blitz on ACR without knowledge of, and ability to utilize, GTO-type concepts.
I think this is a rather fascinating debate honestly. It also brings to question optimal raise sizing in LP. It can go both ways
1. Raise small utg to reduce opponent edge playing in position vs us
2. Raise large utg to reduce opponent odds of playing in position vs us
3. Raise small OTB to reduce variance with our wide range
4. Raise large OTB to maximize value in position
Personally I opt for option 2 and 3.
With option 2: the more players in the hand the worse our equity is. It's hard for someone to gain an edge if they're up against a better hand. So we tighten our range and tax them for playing against us. It does set up rather unfavorable situations where we're doing a lot of guesswork, but thats really only a problem if opponent has the balls to bluff us. Realistically there's not much anyone can do to beat us when we're holding AA other than get lucky, and calling big raises every time in the hopes that you might flop a draw is not a winning strategy.
With option 3: if we want to maximize value IP we could raise larger ourselves. Play big pots with an advantage. The only problem with this is opponents will be disincentivized to play OOP against a large size, especially since their range should be wider thus reducing their preflop equity.
For these 2 reasons historically we are taught "raise big OOP, raise smaller IP" since it plays perfectly into our hand range.
Just wanted to add im a huge advocate of forcing players to make mistakes. Calling a minraise from an UTG opener is never a big mistake. Conversely folding to a big raise OOP is also not a big mistake.
For those reasons I feel like we arent punishing players for their mistakes using the aforementioned strategy. If we raise big UTG and raise small IP then we force people to make mistakes by calling off too much money vs our strong range and playing too loose OOP.
