New year, new book
This week saw the publication of my sixth collaboration with esteemed poker writer Barry Carter, or seventh if we count ‘Milestone Satellite Strategy’, a short e-book that has now been consolidated back into ‘Poker Satellite Strategy’.
We pick up where our fourth book, “GTO Poker Simplified,” left off.
The latest addition to the O’Kearney/Carter family is ‘Beyond GTO: Poker Exploits Simplified’. In a sense, it picks up where our fourth book, “GTO Poker Simplified,” left off. This book attempted to explain game theory to the lay audience and how it can be applied to poker. Basically, I sought to answer the question:
“If two players were playing the perfect, unexploitable game of poker, what would their strategy look like, and why?”
I think this is a vital question to understanding how poker works. Even if we (and more importantly our opponents) will never play perfectly, having a good basic idea of what the strategy should look like is vital to understanding not only how to avoid being exploited, but also how to exploit opponents who offer our leaks. It can be clearly identified.
Go further
This new book goes further by answering the following question:
“If we identify a particular leak in the opponent, what is the absolute best counter-adjustment we can make from a GTO strategy that exploits that leak to its fullest extent?”
This is something players have been discussing for a long time. Sometimes the answer is quite obvious, for example, if one player bluffed too much, just call all the hands that beat the bluff. Sometimes the exploit is less obvious: for example, if our opponent doesn’t check the raise properly, should we bet more frequently (to make him roll when we don’t have any), or less often (to try to get more money)? Streets of the future when we have something)? When we bet, should we use a smaller size (to make our bluffs cheaper) or a larger size (to extract more value with our stronger hands)?
This is something our new friend, the solver, can answer better than any human ever could through a feature called “node lock,” which basically means telling the solver: “Forget which GTO strategy our opponent should play, if he were playing instead Given this particular strategy (bluffing too much, not checking the raise enough, etc.), what strategy should we turn to that makes the most of them?
The solution will then calculate the new strategy. In some cases, the exploits are not surprising and merely confirm what old-school exploit players thought and did, but in other cases they are completely surprising and sometimes something no human being could have ever thought of.
The core of the book consists of 21 chapters dealing with these specific leaks, all solutions approved
We started the process with a session where I went through all the most common leaks I see weaker players doing, live but also online. Then we narrowed the list down to the most important ones. We have further reduced its size by removing most of those programs where exploits are clearly evident. That left us with 21 leaks, so the core of the book is 21 chapters on these specific leaks, all solutions approved, on how best to exploit your opponents.
Andy Black agreed
As self-publishers, Barry and I rely on a lot of others to help with the books themselves and to promote them. We are very happy with this latest book. We both think it may be our best yet or at least our most useful, and a lot of that is due to our advanced readers.
The advanced reader whose comments I was concerned about was Andy Black. Since he’s pretty much an exploitation master, I was nervous that he wouldn’t find much value in this book, or perhaps question the whole approach to using solvers in this way. Andy and I started an in-depth conversation about GTO vs. exploitative poker about two years ago. Over the course of this conversation, we have brought our positions closer together, but there are still some gaps, at least in focus.
In this case, there is no need to worry. Not only was Andy full of praise for the book, he spontaneously wrote this introduction:
“Having just boarded a flight from the Emerald Isle to the USA for the WPT World Championships in Las Vegas, I’m feeling a nervous excitement of anticipation for the battle ahead. Thousands of different players with their own unique playing styles, all starting with the same amount of Chips no matter their history or maybe they’re trying to collect some cash in side games. Hometown heroes and stars, young and old, rich and poor. It’s epic.
In fact, every poker game is like this. The key question for all of us is how do we play better so we can win.
Dara and Barry’s writers have changed the goal posts to allow lucky readers to stretch their imaginations to understand and find the obvious weaknesses of poker greats.
It allows the reader to delve deeper into the reality of poker, Deeper than the basic GTO does
By identifying where chips are won or lost by either frequency, size, or both, it allows the reader to delve into the reality of poker, more deeply than the basic GTO does. They both keep you honest and push you to not just look like a good poker player.
All types of poker are exploitative, and trying to find ways to get chips as easy as possible is the essence of true poker.
Phil Hellmuth is the greatest proponent of the “easier chips” philosophy. His entire being is inclined towards getting as much certainty into as many hands as possible so that he can survive and thrive. He often avoids marginal situations because he often finds clearer ones.
Beyond GTO is similar in importance to Doyle Brunson’s supersystem in that it begins a more detailed codification of how great people benefit those who entertain…
Phil wouldn’t love to play with you so much if you’d read this book, and Doyle would probably look down appreciatively, enjoying a shared moment of love for the beauty of a never-ending game of poker to hitherto unknown celestial bodies.
If you’ve come this far, why not go a little further and combine the wisdom between these covers and start dreaming a little bigger and not be the butt of the joke:
What’s the difference between a poker player and a cheese pizza?
The cheese pizza is enough to feed a family of four.”
“Beyond GTO: Simplifying Poker Exploits” Available now on Kindle and in paperback on Amazon (other outlets will follow soon). Barry and I also create a set of videos about specific vulnerabilities that are available for free Our YouTube channel.
