GTO Wizard Introduces Preflop ICM Solving

Study ICM at Lightning Speed with GTO Wizard Preflop ICM Solving

The biggest money in tournaments is played for on the later stages, when ICM has the greatest impact. This is also the part of tournament poker that players understand less well than Chip EV.

The reason is simple: ICM calculations used to take tens of minutes. To solve a single ICM spot, players had to enter all the data, start the calculation, and then go do something else — like run to the store. And that’s not an exaggeration. Just a couple of years ago, calculations really could take that long.

There was another major limitation: if you changed any parameter, such as stack sizes, and ran the solve again, everything had to be calculated from scratch. That’s another 30 minutes or so. There was simply no room for experimentation.

GTO Wizard AI can now solve these situations in seconds. Even after changing parameters, redistributing stacks, switching from a regular tournament to a satellite, or modifying other settings, the calculations remain just as fast.

How to Find GTO Wizard Preflop ICM Solving

Go to the Study section, click Change in the top-left corner, and select Preflop ICM is Live!

What Settings Are Available in GTO Wizard Preflop ICM Solving

The solver supports the following tournament formats: regular tournaments, satellites, and KO formats, including KO, PKO, and TKO. Payout structures can be customized manually.

The solver supports tournaments with fields of up to 4,096 entrants and spots with up to 9 players and stacks as deep as 250bb. Stack sizes and antes can be adjusted manually.

Presets are available for some of the most popular tournaments across different poker rooms. For example, you can select the $1K Sunday Supersonic on PokerStars or the $2,650 The Venom on WPN. There are currently presets for 8 poker rooms and several dozen tournaments.

The same hand can now be solved using both ICM and Chip EV, allowing you to see exactly how ICM changes the decision.

You can use standard sizings from a preset chart or enter your 3-bet and 4-bet sizings manually. And regardless of the setup, a single spot takes about 1 second to solve.

Hand History Imports Make Studying Hands Easier

Analyzing hands you’ve played online is now easier than ever. GTO Wizard can import stack sizes, bounties, and antes directly from hand histories. Once you upload a hand, simply set the payout structure and the number of players remaining, and the spot is ready to solve.

Nodelocking and Exploit Modeling

A balanced GTO solution is only directly applicable against opponents who play perfectly according to ICM. In real games, that’s rare. More often, a chip leader puts too much pressure on the table, while a short stack overfolds. These tendencies create an edge that should be taken into account.

GTO Wizard goes beyond equilibrium solutions. With Nodelocking, you can lock any player’s strategy and then calculate the optimal counter-strategy. Player Profiles are also available, allowing you to model exploitable opponent strategies.

There’s another option as well: Frequency Locking. Instead of manually defining a range, you can simply adjust the desired frequency with a single slider, and the solver will determine the corresponding range for you.

For example, how much wider can you open if the players behind you overfold? What should your reshove range look like against a chip leader who 3-bets too aggressively?

What’s Not Supported Yet

The new system has some limitations.

At the moment, preflop trees allow a maximum of three players to reach the flop. This is the same limitation already used by Multiway Preflop Solving for cash games.

Spots where a fourth player makes an overcall or overlimp are not supported yet. GTO Wizard plans to add support for more overcallers and overlimpers in future updates.

Why Late-Stage Decisions Matter

Most MTT regulars study Chip EV strategies. These strategies are designed to maximize your chip stack, but they don’t account for the full monetary value of your tournament life.

GTO Wizard has previously shown that relying exclusively on Chip EV in the later stages can lead to significant losses, especially around the bubble and at the final table.

At the final table, a single hand can involve tournament equity worth many times the original buy-in.

That’s why late-stage decisions can have a disproportionate impact on your overall results. You reach these spots less often, but the cost of a single mistake can be comparable to the results of many regular tournament sessions.

Early Bird Ultra Pricing Ends October 15

When GTO Wizard introduced the Ultra subscription, the company announced that its special Early Bird pricing would remain available until the release of Preflop ICM Solving.

That update is now live, so the deadline is approaching.

Early Bird pricing ends October 15, 2026 at 1:00 PM CEST.

There is no price change on the day the Early Bird period ends. After the deadline, standard Ultra rates will apply to new subscriptions and renewals.

Signing up for an annual plan now saves at least $720 over the course of a year.

For monthly subscribers, switching to an annual plan before the deadline saves $1,560 over the next 12 months compared with staying on a monthly subscription at the standard rate.

Existing subscribers keep their current Early Bird rate until their first monthly or annual renewal after the deadline. Their current paid billing period remains unchanged.

Annual subscribers can also prepay for another year at the Early Bird rate of $229 per month directly in the app. This option is available until October 15 at 1:00 PM CEST, and the additional 12 months will be added to their current subscription.

Preflop ICM Solving is available with the Ultra subscription on the Tournament plan.

The ICM Solver is available for free for spots with up to a 10bb effective stack.