ModernGrinder

@18:45 This is a really good point. Everyone preaches not being results oriented and then the overwhelming majority of their discussion with others turns out to be about results. So counterproductive.

@23:20 See, this is part of the problem with me. I was pushed hard, at an early age, to be emotional and show my emotions. No doubt, this wound up laying the foundation for a lot of trouble in my life as I got older. Especially in poker. Once emotion takes over, it does matter how intelligent you are: It's whitewashed and you're basically back to primitive decision making.

Chris Pimmer I really do appreciate your words. I'm not married, I have no kids, no debt...nothing like that. I have my old man in the nursing home and then my mother, thankfully. Everyone else is either estranged or long gone at this point. So, you're right: I go from rock bottom to "decent or ok" but honestly - it's not bad today. I have my freedom to do what I want, a few bucks in my pocket, a good hobby here, and probably quite a bit of time left on my hands in life. Who knows...maybe I'll find a way to get great at this or something else.

Over the years, I've often been encouraged to write a book about some of my experiences. It might just be time for that, too. But I really want to work on my poker game and theoretical understanding of such at the moment.

Chris Pimmer To answer your question: Past experience. I had, many times, took my ambition and motivation and exhausted it on total changes seemingly overnight. Obviously, these attempts failed and left me even more tired and frustrated than before. This time, considering all that I'm going through, I really had to spend the time it takes to change things brick by brick. I knew I had no more room for error and that it was time to do life right...even in the face of horrible occurrences. They happen.

I stopped drinking, too. It's like 10 months now. In the past, that's how I'd deal with the worst of my emotions. I just couldn't make the U turn you mention. No matter how hard I tried. In this case, at this age, I had no choice but to face things sober, raw, and directly. And I'm building the foundation well this time so that whatever future structure I place on top, holds firm and keeps me well balanced.

This video is targeting a player like me precisely. I'm 41 and have been playing on and off for 10 years. Now, there are a lot of factors in life that were going on around me that were completely outside of my control and in retrospect, made progressing at this game long term nigh impossible. I just had absolute chaos in my world. And then, I had an unspeakably bad past year. Lost people, pets, a place to live, etc. Removing that entirely: I've made a ton of mistakes in poker. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of losing money, a terrible pattern of "quitting" for periods of time after bad sessions. My emotional foundation was nonexistent. Especially over the past year, out of necessity, I've slowly chipped away at everything in my life from the ground up instead of trying to take on change in one huge bite, as you discuss in the video. When you add up all of the little changes over time, you do see how big of an accomplishment it is and start noticing that you've developed actual good habits. They're just a natural part of your behavior now. Regardless of if I do good or bad at the tables, the stability and progress in my own life outside of poker can remain static if I just stay disciplined.

I'm about to start putting in a lot of volume over the holidays. I've been studying a lot (especially here on RIO) and learning how to use solvers on a more advanced level. I'll continue to study alongside my play and be focused on my own (and other's) hand histories. I may even pick up the Elite to GTOWizard so I can upload hands for analysis. That's like...invaluable to me.

Thank you again for these videos and keep them coming, please!

Frankie Carson https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showpost.php?p=58354601&postcount=13920

Frankie Carson
I totally get it. I and others have asked about this from the developer of GTO+ and he just basically passes it off as unnecessary and what happens preflop doesn't matter once the flop comes down in a GTO sim. Obviously, if both GTOWizard and PIO 3 allow all that they do preflop, that's clearly the best combo on the market. It's just pricey. $549 for PIO 3 Edge and $129/mo for GTOW Elite.

Francesco Lacriola

Thank you for this. I'm going to spend a little time remembering what it was like playing like 2nl and 5nl when I had almost no money at one point. I would fight for every single blind because I had to. Here, I'll begin applying that same attitude while properly rolled for 25nl and 50nl. Scrape for every inch.

Paul Gough I've stopped and took stock of where I am twice in the past three months now. As I get back to hopefully being able to do this fulltime, I've been more responsible with my life and money than ever before. I start December overly rolled for the stakes I'm currently able to handle and the option open to buy into a live 1/2 whenever I feel ready ready for it. No extreme rush. I'm going to continue to study on here, work on my game, and myself as a person.

Peter has already coined this term on some of his youtube content. True EV.

The thing I never have been able to fully wrap my head around is why do we open so wide from the SB? Why is it so important that we grab that 1 BB, or at least attempt to?

As an aside: I think GTOWizard could do a lot better when it comes to the depth of the trainer, as well as it's interface. This is really barebones compared to a lot of the competition out there, especially when you consider the $129/USD per month that the full sub costs.

Good thread. I agree that there's a huge lack of awareness on this issue and that's PIO's fault, basically. Whatever features they have that trump the competition, should be touted heavily. As it is now, their site is extremely barebones compared to something like GTOWizard.

As I've asked in a video discussion thread earlier: Can you input preflop ranges, sizings, frequencies, etc with PIO 3?

You can tell PIO what the preflop actions and sizings were before beginning to construct the postflop tree?

As for the video itself: You explained some complicated subject material in an easily digestible way. I got a lot out of this and will be looking into some more of your videos.

This was a very timely video for me to watch as I've had a couple of blow up sessions at 50nl and 25nl and as a result, have stayed away from playing and have just taken care of myself and studied for several days now. You remind me of a lot of things here such as taking the rake into consideration, how to apply our understanding of blockers and unblockers, as well as river bluffing.

All of your videos here on RIO have been great so far. The content is always appreciated.

I have taken a few days off from playing or studying and feel refreshed. Of course, I'm upset at myself for letting my mental game slip to such an extent but the increased #'s of 25nl and 50nl from what I was playing prior (10nl and 20nl) were just too much for me. A couple of bad nights scared me away due to how quickly you could be down $100-200+ and how large and volatile overall swings could be through volume.

I was also playing 50nl and one site and 25nl on the other which I don't think helped matters. I was spewing at 25 in a lot of spots because the pots seemed small after 50nl volume. I'll have to either turn on and get used to using big blinds instead of $ or figure something else out so that I'm especially attentive to the pot and stack sizes at different stakes.

I'm going to piece myself back together here, study a bit, and work my way back to the tables again.

That's the #1 thing that holds me back from advancing deeper into the game: Tilt. I have so many bad habits built up over the years, and my life has been beyond emotionally taxing (and is atm, too) so when I sit down to the tables it manifests itself. It's amazing how I can play a solid, profitable game for weeks straight and then one little thing starts an avalanche that just totally drains any profits I've made, destroys me psychologically, and forces me to get away from the game for a bit. It's always held me back and I still haven't been able to find a solution.

The one positive to this, and maybe it's even more valuable than money in some cases, is that my mental game away from poker is drastically improved. Drastically. I handle stress and manage my emotions infinitely better than I did ten years ago before I started playing this game. I mean, I'm not even like the same person and although poker isn't entirely responsible for that...it's definitely partially responsible.

I just can't keep it together at the tables every time I start climbing stakes.

Chris Pimmer
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

Chris Pimmer Thanks for writing me back here. This is also a great reminder for me to keep an eye on my timebanks. That last session, I knew they were low and I just didn't have the discipline to stop slightly down. I had to push it and ...three BI's later I finally pushed back for the day.

I had been doing very, very well over the past month and then came across a session where I ran into some standard variance, dropped a BI, and then turned it into three on pure tilt. I really got upset at myself over this and stopped playing to analyze things for a handful of days. I'm feeling good enough to return to the tables with more understanding of myself and what leads to my own tilt, and this video has been a great warmup alongside my solver study!

Mass procrastinator and negative thinker here. I've made tons of strides on this over the past couple of years in life but, of course, it still tries to rear it's ugly head when it comes to poker because money is directly involved. I'm working on it. Hard.

@15:30 Are you always 4! QQ here in the BTN vs a SB 3!? You said easy stackoff but once SB 5! shoves, isn't QQ just -EV? What's the best you're hoping for him to have here? AK? AQ?

@19:55 I don't know about this being an other easy call here. JJ, TT, 66, 44, JT are all in v's range here. You say that against his range, we're doing well. How so?

@29:50 I agree with a fold to any raise on the bottom left with A9, although I like your river bet in the first place. Love the 25% sizing.

@6: Of course...the small blind. I'm starting to see why you guys limp the sb at higher stakes. I'm just starting to put in good volume at 50nl and sb vs bb is such a common spot, sometimes it's nice to not bloat the pot pre oop. And even gives us better chances at winning the blinds at times, too.

@9:30 Thanks!

@4:00 This is naturally a great way of dealing with emotional distress off the tables, too. A lot of intelligent people just temporarily lose it all when they begin to get emotional.

@24:30 This all basically sums up the mindfulness and meditation exercise and it's something that I have been gradually learning over the past few years. Emotions come and go but they only have a negative bearing on us or our surroundings if we let them. And, of course, we wouldn't badger a small child or animal for a simple mistake. We would feel natural compassion for them and try to help them avoid making the mistake in the future. Why should we treat ourselves any differently? This is all especially helpful for me because I was pushed extremely hard (too hard) in athletics at a very young age and some of the negative effects of that have hampered me at the tables for years. As said, only recently have I started to really gain control over myself and my emotions so I can objectively sit back and make intelligent assessments and decisions.

I used to do these mindfulness and meditation exercises in acting school forever ago. I'm going to start incorporating this into my daily routine not just for poker, but for life.

I've said it more than once lately: I absolutely need to keep an Elite here or I'm missing out. This is the kind of content you have here on RIO that simply blows the competition away. I've been using PT4 for years and am actually digging into it deeper than ever currently. The statistical analysis you do using it is helpful for me in learning how to use it on a more professional level moving forward.

@14:15 It's really not that mind blowing when you lay out the spreadsheet and start to explain the why. Right - GTO kid is betting range and trying to exploit us because he thinks we're going to be too passive. X/r'ing him 1/4 times really doesn't seem too out of line when you think about it in that context. For the record: I'm 41 and use software and technology obsessively. I love it.

@17:56 "The funniest shit in life is true, Bro" - Very wise words. All of the best humor is what it is because there's truth to it. That's why stand up comics who tell stories about true events and how they perceived them are always better than guys who get up there and "tell jokes".

@21:10 Is this PIO 2 or PIO 3 you're using here? I see the pricing for PIO 3 and compared to the monthly Elite for Wizard, it's obviously a steal. For someone like me coming up in 25nl and 50nl right now, getting ready to play live 1/2, do you think I'd get more value out of PIO 3 and setting up my own sims than I would out of using Wizard's top tier cash game sub? I'm currently using FlopzillaPro and GTO+ as I haven't renewed Wizard yet this month. Or is that just it: FlopzillaPro and GTO+ are good enough for me that I don't need PIO, as well? Thank you. I'm still trying to iron this one thing down as far as what solver I spend the most time and money on.

@22:55 It's not just to blow v off his equity - it's to begin establishing a x/r'ing range that is polarized. We're trying to set it up so that when he fights back, it's a nut combo of ours that he's running into. We have to x/r him enough so that we can have both value and air/low middling bluffs in the range we've constructed. Err...I think.

@28:00 Nice explanation of blockers. I've learned a ton about blocking and unblocking from these videos just in the past week or so.

@12:40 Why randomize at all? Why not simply mix according to your intuition built from solver work, as well as the current dynamics of the table and other factors?

@25:15 I again love these deep dives into stats and db analysis. Numbers don't lie and they give us great direction.

@32:00 When it comes to these situations where we end up 3betting and 4betting certain combos and being called only to have to face a large pot oop, why not just avoid many of them entirely? Are we really leaving more on the table than we're saving by just playing super tight when we know we're going to be oop and facing pressure postflop?

@39:20 This is another thing I've always struggled to understand and quite frankly, solvers don't really clear it up because they contradict a lot of human instruction I've seen. So HJ opens in a 6max game and it's folded to us in the SB with 55-99. Just fold them all? Why not call and see a flop cheap if HJ is a weaker player? I understand we might feel uncomfortable 3betting them from the SB but flatting a 2x RFI? What's the problem if BB is weak and doesn't squeeze enough? 78s, 89s, 22-44...tough to just lay these down here. There are a lot of aggrofish at 50NL.

@43:10 Why is K6s and K7s such a thing with solvers? Why not K9s instead?

I really enjoyed this video and getting a chance to see the Skype training. I've seen a ton of videos over the years and this one stood out as especially valuable. Some of it was over my head but content like this helps me push the envelope of my own training and grow as a player. You have a new follower!

Luke Johnson

@45:50 This is a common spot that I find myself in, often with AKo itself. 3 or 4b pot, oop, miss the flop, and now formulating a strategy to play vs BTN is difficult for me. I'll have to dig into my solver work deeper to make sure that this becomes more intuitive. In any event...I like your strategy and baseline that you outline here. I know hero is BTN, but it's actually BB's spot that I find troubling. I wonder how the hand would have gone if big blind simply shoved the turn instead of checking and we never even go down the tree we do. Would BTN have found the call with TPTK?

@6:00 Why do you guys limp at times, especially from the SB? It's hammered in our heads from day one not to limp but I see solvers and better players are incorporating effective limping strategies in different spots and I'm clueless as to what the true rationale is. I guess once the blinds reach a certain value it's mathematically sound to pay half a bb to get into the pot? Should I ever be doing this at 50NL, rather than just raising 3x sb vs bb?

@9:30 How do we know they're capped, though? I mean, I need to renew my sub to Wizard but in mw pots, oop, I'm almost always checking my monsters until someone bets. Check, check, and then people start stabbing at the river and I begin going for raises/value.

@13:00 I struggle understanding how to get value in this exact spot. I've been, once again, almost always checking to IP on the river to induce. Extremely helpful for me to hear you go through your thought process here. Nice hand.

@23:00 I like the chess match that you're verbalizing here. I can understand this level of play but sometimes have a hard time recalling the process while in the middle of hands.

@40:00'ish Wizard amazes me. It's like the whole game laid out right there in front of you.

Another just absolutely solid gold Elite level video. I don't have PIO but I have GTO+. Nonetheless, when you guys produce videos like this I try to replicate the situation in FlopzillaPro and GTO+ and then save it so I start building a library of sims, as well as learning how to use the more advanced features of the solver, as well.

I've subbed to GTOWizard and may do so again at any time. In the meantime, I'm not minding these PIO deep dives, at all. Who knows...maybe I'll find myself grabbing PIO 3.0 one day, too.

As for the video itself: You're teaching a lot about bet sizing here and this is really such a complicated and important aspect of poker but I'm starting to really follow the material more. Not only am I fixing my own betsizing mistakes, I'm identifying when other players do blunder, too.

@ ~13:50 You say that losing to T8s is just the way this one goes. I have to remember not to over play hands trying to win every pot. Sometimes the best play is to simply lose the least.

@ ~16:30 98s has to fold here because even if they spike the T on the river, they can't sustain a medium to large bet in their face from OOP. I would imagine.

@ 19:50 You keep referring to the "AI". Does PIO 3 incorporate AI into it's algorithms like GTO Wizard does now? Do they suggest bet sizings on each node, and readjust after you change the node or do you have to input all actions in the tree in order for the solver to take said action? Does it need to be connected to the web while running it?

@ 30:15 I think the solver has discounted most flushes from BB's range at this point due to his previous actions. Board doesn't interact with his range well and yet...he almost does have to call mathematically.

@ 45:50 This is a really interesting spot with AKo in the BB.

@ 53:00 I like this exercise where we question different things about our style of play to help define who we are as a poker player. Once we've done that, we can begin to craft certain lines according to our image as well as try and tailor hands to the type of pots that suit us. I never really thought about the game like this before.

I see you have a video that precedes this one which basically starts things off with PIO. I'll make sure that I watch it. In all reality, just watching the solver work and discussion by coaches is immensely helpful.

Trinity Thanks again for the heads up about the product. I contacted them on their discord and they assured me that everything is fine. Admittedly, this isn't the first time I've had to override Defender when trying to run something totally innocuous.

The title here doesn't disappoint. Much is covered in this one ~40 min video and as is common now on RIO: You learn a lot about using GTO Wizard, too.

You cleared up quite a bit of my confusion over equity distribution here, as well. Thanks for this video, your previous body of work here on RIO, and whatever you have next in the pipeline.

Question: Do we tend to do more overbetting IP than OOP? Or does nut advantage basically trump position?

Overall, this video teaches us about more than just overbetting. One of the better Essential videos I've seen in some time.

When I went to download it, I got the Windows Defender warning. Are you sure this is ok to dl? I mean, it certainly seems like it. Their website is rather impeccable and I see other people online mentioning using it.