Poker solvers are always right - here’s how to use them
Many poker players use two lines of thinking:
How does the solver approach this spot?
How do humans approach this spot?
They make a good point, but there’s a flaw in their logic. The solver is always correct.
The mistake is using only the raw solver output to improve your strategy.
They use solvers for GTO-based studying, and review hands or footage to learn to exploit your opponents.
You take your safe preflop ranges, your bet sizes, plug in the flop, and then study.
Quickly you realize that your opponent wouldn’t have played his hand the way.
As the hand goes deeper into the game tree, especially on the turn and river, blindly copying solver output can actually hurt you.
At that point, your poker instincts might be more useful.
But what are poker instincts actually? They are essentially a node-locking machine.
You take the basic strategy, then make assumptions about how your opponent deviates from them. Based on those deviations, you build a counter strategy.
A solver can do the exact same thing, but far better. The trick is accurately estimating how your opponent plays differently. You’ll never get it exactly right, but you don’t need to.
You are already guessing when you do it in your head. With a solver, you can actually illustrate exactly how to adjust.
For beginning and intermediate players, solvers are best used to sharpen fundamentals.
Learn pre-flop ranges. Learn where to range-bet and where to mix. Identify different bet sizes, and which types of hands to use.
These basics takes you extremely far. Some of the world’s best players, like LlinusLLove, have perfected a fundamentally strong, theory-based strategy.
Players like Stefan win by creating chaos. They drag you into parts of the game tree you’ve never studied, accept their own mistakes, and count on you making bigger ones.
It’s a high-risk, high-reward approach that only expert-level players should attempt.
Here’s what I recommend once you’ve built a solid foundation:
Focus on a few key spots and solve them in detail.
Model how your opponents or the player pool actually make mistakes.
Create detailed exploitative strategies against different levels of mistakes
For example, in a button vs big blind scenario, don’t use a standard big blind defense range.
Use the one you believe your opponent really plays. Preflop defense is generally strong these days, so there isn’t much to gain there.
But post-flop, especially on the flop and turn, you can build much better counter-strategies.
This is where node-locking comes in.
Look at your opponent’s statistics and notes. Estimate how he plays differently from the GTO output. Node-lock that into the solver.
Suddenly, the optimal strategy might change significantly. A solver will tell you exactly how to exploit your opponent, so you don’t have to make vague guesses.
You can call it the fundamentals of exploitation.
Be careful, though. It’s tempting to use the solver to justify mistakes. Plugging in a hand, node-locking until the solver agrees with you, and pretending your play was correct.
That gets you nowhere. Instead, apply node-locking consistently across every street, identifying where opponents deviate from theory and how you should adjust.
The deeper you go in a hand, the more important this becomes. Every action deviates you further from GTO.
Say you raise preflop, c-bet range on a dry board, and your opponent defends well—most players do well until the turn and river.
But in unusual, less common scenarios, they start making serious mistakes right away.
Solvers are always correct. They do exploit opponents—if you tell them how the opponents make mistakes.
They are far more powerful and exploiting your opponent than a human player who comes up with adjustments on the spot.
Don’t simply study fundaments with solvers and make up exploits in-game, or at the dinner table with poker friends.
A solver can reveal adjustments that boost your win rate in ways pure instinct never could.
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If you are serious about becoming a high-stakes pro and want to play the biggest games in the world, contact me and let’s talk.