Are GTO and Solvers Useful at Low Stakes?

“F#ck Solvers”: The Summary of wilsyo’s Opinion

As a 20-year-old low stakes poker grinder who introduced himself as Kyle Butler, wilsyo confessed to struggling with his enormous GTO knowledge when facing not-so-enlightened opponents:

“But these creatures at the table… they do not care. They mock me. 5 people limp, I raise to 15BB, but they still all call me… I flop top pair top kicker. But by the time flop action is on me, the frat boy on the table already 3-bet jams over two OMCs

The OMC limps under the gun with aces, then limp-calls my 3-bet like it’s 2004 and proceeds to slowroll me while telling a story about his dog at showdown. Across the table, a maniac in a hoodie 4-bets 9-4 offsuit because he “felt like it” and spikes two pair on the flop and crushes my Aces on a K94 board. My solver didn’t predict this. GTO Wizard never warned me about vibes.”

For your information, OMC means Old Man Coffee — a specific type of player who is tight, passive and quite straightforward in their play. Think of maniacs are the opposite.

So, after battling against real imperfect people instead of mathematically ideal opponents for hours, wilsyo questioned his choice of strategy and direction of poker development:

As a result, he decided to say goodbye to GTO and publicly proclaim solvers bad for low stakes.

Why Some People Are Against GTO Play at Low Stakes

The average opinion under wilsyo’s post can be summarized into one thought: GTO isn’t applicable in games where people do not consider it at all.

Low stakes, especially live, are affordable for a lot of recreational players who pay for buy-ins by spending their entertainment money. These people, with the rare exception, are weak players who just want to have fun or try their luck for a couple of hundred bucks. The mathematical side of poker, optimal strategy, even ranges are white noise to them. They’re here to relieve stress and have a good time at the tables.

Exploiting based on your observations of your opponents’ tendencies is still the best option when it comes to low stakes, as GrnMeansGO explained to the topic starter in the comments:

However, as GrnMeansGO continued, this doesn’t mean that solvers and GTO are completely useless for low stakes players, you just need to use them in the right way:

How to Use GTO to Level Up Your Game at Low Stakes

First of all, remember that solver approved formulas and charts aren’t concrete, as lifeleavesscars said. They’re used only to know the best play vs the best play:

So, you should follow these guidelines if you want to try achieving the perfect play at low stakes:

1. Study hands in solvers with specific attention to the field’s deviations from the optimal baseline. You should know what GTO says to understand and adjust to how bad your opponents play.
2. Use solver outputs to uncover your own mistakes and leaks, but also to understand the game instead of trying to gain information for memorizing. You can’t memorize every decision for every situation but by trying to do so you increase the risk of mixing diverse information into one soup of errors. Stop wasting your time, energy and headspace on something literally useless.
3. Consider following GTO principles when you meet other professionals at the table but remember that they also can make mistakes.
4. Do not rely on solvers output when it comes to multiway spots. They are often too complicated and unpredictable in development to be solved.
5. Edit ranges and betting frequencies to make them as close to the reality of your game as possible. Do not expect that the solver knows how your opponents play, you should enter this information manually.

And finally: forget GTO completely if you are sure that your opponents do not even hear about optimal play or game theory. For beating them you should solely follow their patterns and rely on exploiting their weaknesses.