Poker solvers for dummies: part 2 (solver types)
There are many solvers in the market, and they are not all the same. Which solvers should low / mid stakes players use, especially if you haven't tried solvers before?
Part 1: Basics of poker solvers
Part 2: (you are here)
Part 3: The easiest solvers
Part 4: Adjusting to opponents
Part 5: Post flop and ICM
As we discussed in our last newsletter, poker solvers are applications that provide you the optimal play for (most) poker situations. It can be an incredible tool for improving your game, even if you play low / mid stakes, as long as you use them correctly.
So which solver should you use?
There are two primary types of solver applications. “Native” and “web-based”. To better explain, imagine I asked you to calculate the following:
234 * 976
345 * 765
147 * 642
It would take you some time to figure each of these out. Now imagine instead, I gave you this answer sheet:
234 * 976 = 228,384
345 * 765 = 263,925
147 * 642 = 94,374
Now you can give me the answers pretty much instantly.
“Native” applications calculate each poker scenario every single time you request a hand, just like the first set of problems with no answers. “Web-based” applications have already processed a lot of the most common scenarios, and can just look up an “answer sheet”, so to speak, to give you the solutions quickly. In technical terms, web based solvers store the solutions in a database, which it can quickly fetch data from whenever it needs.
You might be asking, well why doesn’t every solver just use an answer sheet? Imagine instead I gave you ten million problems + answers on sheets. Now, it would take you a very long time to find the specific problem that I asked for, and also you’d have to be carrying around millions of pieces of paper. So similarly, there are so many possible hand situations in NLHE that it would be impossible to store them all and give you back the answers in any reasonable amount of time, not to mention the enormous cost for storage.
So for this reason, native app solvers can provide more complex solutions and give you more options to tweak (such as adjusting your opponent’s hand ranges), but need a lot of processing power from your computer. Web based solvers can get you the most common solutions pretty much instantly, but the two biggest limitations of web based are:
They currently only solve for two players at a time post-flop (you cannot run solutions for more than two players post-flop)
You cannot adjust your opponent’s hand range. This means you must run the solutions with whatever the solver decides is your opponent’s hand range (which is always what it deems to be optimal).
Another difference, and this is a big one: native applications need to be installed on a computer, like a desktop or laptop. Same as installing say, Microsoft Excel, or a video game you downloaded from the internet. Web based solvers can be accessed from any web browser (such as Chrome, Safari, or Firefox), even on your mobile phone, without needing to install anything. If you ever wondered what “cloud based software” means, this is exactly what it means 😊
Web based solvers are incredibly useful when you just want to quickly check a spot on your phone after playing a hand at the casino. For this reason, as well as for overall simplicity, I would recommend web-based for players just starting out with using solvers. So let’s jump into this type first.
The best in class right now for both completeness and simplicity is GTO Wizard. It has one of the best interfaces and is simple to use, and at this point has been in the market long enough to have its accuracy judged. It’s also used by many professionals, so has good reputation and track record.
Let’s take one of the questions we asked in the last newsletter: What should I do with A7o in the SB vs a CO raise at 100bb deep?
Who guessed that A7o is a pure fold? What else is surprising from the result? A8o is almost entirely a fold. But A8s is almost entirely a 3bet. So remember: come with questions, and then explore the spot more deeply by looking at other hands that are a fold vs a call vs a raise. This is the best way to learn from solvers.
There is much more to do in GTO Wizard, and you can view all the features on their website. You can use the app for free up to 1 postflop spot a day, analyze 5 hands a month, and use practice mode for 10 hands a day. I would recommend everyone start with free and play around, get used to the interface, and watch some of their video tutorials on how to use the app. And don’t forget to come with questions you want to answer, like we discussed in the last newsletter.
For most of the hand analysis I will do in the Not Pro Poker newsletter, I will be using GTO Wizard (as I use it all the time now anyway).
Honorable mention goes to Odin Poker, which as of now is less complete than GTO Wizard in spots to solve, but does have a nice visual interface for setting up hands. Odin also has a free plan if you’d like to give it a try. They also have tutorial videos directly on their website.
There is also a new kid on the block for a web based solver, which blends the power of a native app solver with the speed of a web based solver, and that is Deep Solver, which has been on the market for a little under a year. They seemed to have figured out a way to process hands in the cloud instead of on your computer, so you can access this solver directly from your web browser. This gives you more complexity than you can get from a GTO Wizard or an Odin, with more speed than you can get from a native app solver. For now, I would still recommend everyone start with GTO Wizard, as Deep Solver is more complex to use, and also to give it more time on the market to prove its accuracy. But this has a ton of potential and seems like a huge innovation for poker.
Up next: we’ll take a look at native app solvers, and other types of solver-like tools
Coming soon: adjusting for opponent’s ranges, postflop play, and ICM
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