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Message: [QUOTE="John A, post: 6714453, member: 88730"] Ok, so ty for that post. This is something I hear all the time, and it's probably a good place to start because the root of any theory is important to understand. If that root has flaws, the branches of the following logic from it will exponentially be flawed. I'm going to say something unpopular. [B]If you're learning poker, GTO play should not be your baseline.[/B] Why? I'll try and explain via an analogy. If I'm trying to be a car mechanic, for example, and I want to learn the absolute best way to fix the absolute best top end engines that exist on the market today, and I go to school, and I study hard and learn how the in's and outs of how to fix the absolute best engines that exist. And then I go and open a shop, and I'm ready and prepared to fix the absolute best, top end engines, and all of my customers roll in with hyundai's and old Pontiac engines (no offense to any of those owners :)), I'm going to be lost. Now, I'll know how to use my tools, I'll know how to fix some of the things, but my skill set won't be appropriate for the customer base I have. You studied the wrong thing, but it won't be immediately apparent that you did until you slowly start losing customers. And in the case of poker, it's so much more abstract it's difficult to understand how much EV you're actually leaving on the table when you take inappropriate balanced lines or bet sizes w/ your ranges, when you shouldn't be doing so. Poker players are your customers. And your customers are humans... not computers. You need to understand these things first, as a baseline in order to smash the games you're playing, and then... when you understand these (or to some degree in parallel), you learn GTO as an ideal theory, NOT as a baseline. 1) Correct pre-flop ranges. 2) Proper c-betting flop texture strategies. 3) You and your opponent's approximate equity vs your opponent's range. 4) General player personalities, and how these personalities tend to adopt strategies (ie, think about the game of poker). 5) Signs of opponent losing and winning tilt (they are different). These things need to be your baseline, and they are, I hate to say this, but even more difficult to learn than GTO play. But that's where I'd start, and then build out from there. While doing this, it's perfectly fine to look at how a solver would handle a situation, vs the line you or your opponent took. But look at that in terms of theory, and not necessarily what you should do in a game, [B]UNLESS YOU HAVE ADEQUATE HISTORY W/ AN OPPONENT AND THEY ARE A GOOD PLAYER.[/B] Solvers got popular because top pro's started using them and doing training videos around them vs other top pros, and then software companies promoted them as the absolute essential tool every player needs. And that's just simply not true. They are great and important tools (that's why I developed one over 10 years ago), but they aren't applicable to micro and small stakes games. [/QUOTE]

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