Corporate to Poker - Developing a Masterplan
Posted by GTO Grinder
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GTO Grinder
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Poker Journals
Corporate to Poker - Developing a Masterplan
Hi all!
Welcome to my journey to develop my game to beat NL100 on Zoom in 2022.
Some notes on my background:
- male, late 30s
- Corporate career traveling around the globe (London, Miami, New York, currently based in Zurich)
- Well on the way to financial independence in 3-4 years
Motivation:
- Love the game
- Develop a hobby and distract from corporate topics which are always in the back of my mind
- Get input from experienced players
- Share results (accountability) and develop a strong mental game
- Build connections to successful grinders
- Fan of twitch.tv/Ceegee87
Approach:
- My background as a Project Manager forces me to develop a structured approach (see below)
- Get input from the community on how to study efficiently
Additional notes:
- I might start grinding NL100 Zoom while studying, probably already being a small winner if I play my A-Game (which is not often the case)
- I build an Excel / VBA tool ("GTO Ranges and Flop frequencies") to support the study process (see below) which I will use next to GTO wizard to visualize my ranges and the GTO ranges of Villain and the frequencies on certain board structures
This is the tool I developed in Excel with all the GTO ranges from GTO wizard and the different frequencies on certain flop board textures.
[Preflop & Flop Helper]
The next step is to develop a study concept which is probably one of the most important pillars. I will grind the RIO videos on this topic and hope I get some input from the community as well. My next post will cover this subject.
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Good luck!
Thanks, I need it!! :-)
Before I develop my study concept, some high-level thoughts and what I will be facing in the next months/years in terms of complexity which I need to digest:
Flop spots
12 SRP spots (eg. UTG vs BB SRP,...)
15 3BP spots
15 4BP spots
= 42 spots in total excluding multiway pots and non-GTO spots
Board categories
- Rainbow / Disconnected
- Two-Tone / Disconnected
- Monotone / Disconnected
- Rainbow / Connected
- Two-Tone / Connected
- Monotone / Connected
= 6 different boards categories which share similar dynamics
Board textures (estimations)
4 A-high board textures
3 K-high board textures
3 Q-high board textures
2 J-high board textures
2 T-high board textures
1 9-high board texture
1 8-high board texture
1 7-high and worse board texture
= 17 board textures that share similar dynamics
Total
42 Spots * 6 board categories * 17 board textures = 4284 different situations on the flop
--> This will be a damn long grind
After watching some of the elite videos around study concepts and thought processes (TheJericho2, Mark Lammers, Peter Clarke), below my first attempt to develop a consistent approach on how to study certain spots:
Looks like you have a solid note taking system prepared. I might steal this template ;)
RoleTide I will certainly change it 50 times, it's just a first attempt and I'm by no means good enough that anyone should copy what I'm doing but maybe there are some elements that make sense. :-)
I started studying the first spot and already learned a few new concepts which I mention in the notes. I am quite happy with this first attempt, at least I believe I can translate the GTO Wizard strategy into concepts after putting some time into it and think it through.
BUvsBB SRP
Board category: Rainbow / Disconnected
Board texture: A-high
I will focus on this specific spot for the next few days, analyze flop / turn / river plays and then grind the spot in GTO wizard for a while until I feel comfortable unpacking the different concepts ad-hoc at the table and close the spot with an overall strategy description. At the moment this takes quite a significant amount of effort but I hope that I will get better over time and the concepts become more intuitive.
I see you using the 6 tiered system to breakdown the range. Have you tried the equity bucket filter Wizard provides? This might help speed up your breakdown of the range.
RoleTide Damn, I wasn't aware that this exists, this is amazing. I will definitely use this moving forward and skip the tiered system, thank you so much for the hint, this is golden, I can't thank you enough for this.
Edit: My first go at it is soooo much better than before. I believe this will accelerate the learning process significantly.
After a few hours of additional study time and a 90 minute grind in GTO Wizard I basically understand the dynamics on the different flop textures and I can approximate the bet size and frequency for the vast majority of hands correctly based on the underlying concepts. Feels good to see how the GTO strategy is built on different board textures and how it follows the core concepts. The breakdown function in GTO Wizard is certainly a game-changer for me.
Updated the summary for this specific spot

Key concepts I learned:
- For offsuit combos one of the key metrics to determine the bet frequency seems to be the ability to block the best backdoor flushes, at least within that specific hand.
- The GTO Wizard strategy evolves around the basic concept of a merged, mixed or polarized betting range. Once I understand which strategy GTO Wizard is actually applying, it becomes much more intuitive how certain hands are played. I never considered that this applies to specific board textures but it is kind of obvious in hindsight.
- Backdoor potential consists of Connectedness and Suitedness (kind of obvious but I never really considered Connectedness in the past)
Update:
- Protectedness is indeed an important concept in Poker
I still need to get a better understanding of which concepts apply to offsuit combos. Sometimes it feels counterintuitive and the strategy is significantly different than for the suited counterparts.
Next up: Further grind in GTO Wizard to nail down the flop strategy before I jump into the turn strategy.
Nice to see the hard work paying off! Keep up this pace and you will be getting deep into the game tree in no time.
Thanks, it actually feels good to see how GTO Wizard follows clear concepts. I hope I can manage the overall complexity moving forward. Feel free to criticize in case you think I make incorrect statements of something is going in the wrong direction.
Thanks again for the hint regarding the breakdown, this makes my learning process so much cleaner and faster :-)
One thing to think deeply about before getting too deep is how you want to approach your flop cbet sizing.
1.) You can split your range and mix sizing for complexity.
Or
2.) Use the “preferred” sizing for the board texture and run your own sims with that sizing.
Both methods require a good bit of time. Option 1 creates a more complex strategy, but it is more difficult to replicate in game. Option 2 simplify’s the game tree making it easier to replicate in game, but you need to run your own sims with PIO or GTO+. Of course you can do a combination of the two where you split your range in some situations/board textures while simplifying it in others.
Personally, I started the year with option 1 and got overwhelmed. I have shifted toward option 2 since I have a full time job and family. There is just no way for me to dedicate the time needed studying Wizard to split range.
Below is the summary of my findings on how to play weak & trash hands in this specific situation on this specific board category and board texture OTF:
BUvsBB SRP
Board category: Rainbow / Disconnected
Board texture: A-high
- Generally, the frequencies for Trash and Weak Hands follow the overall range frequencies (kind of obvious but a good starting point nonetheless). Meaning: "The more we bet, the more we bet."
- The overall bet frequency for the range matches almost exactly the bet frequency for the sum of [Weak Hands] + [Trash Hands] (excluding draws). Good to keep in mind given that the average player probably won't bet enough, especially with large sizings.
- The bet frequency for trash hands is moderately higher than the bet frequency for weak hands as the strategy "always" (exception below) bets hands with less equity more frequently ("bluff efficiency").
- The above-mentioned concept applies to what I call "subranges". Example: All suited Qs within a range represent a "subrange" within that specific range. The less equity a hand in this subrange has the more we bet.
- The concept of backdoor potential (connectedness, suitedness) distorts the concepts mentioned above. The more backdoor potential a specific combo has the higher the bet frequency.
- Offsuit combos represent their "own" subrange and are independent of the suited hands. The above-mentioned concepts apply. However, strong suited blocker effects are getting very important within specific hands to select the higher frequency combos.
- The frequencies for offsuit hands are generally lower which is intuitive given that the above-mentioned concept of backdoor potential applies which has a negative effect on the bet frequency.
Applying this thought process in GTO Wizard seems to lead to quite good results when trying to determine the bet frequency for [Weak Hands] + [Trash Hands].
RoleTide Good point. I used to run simulations with PIO in the past and absolutely hated it as it required so much effort which I considered "wasted time" since the process of creating and running the simulations didn't add any value.
Question: Is the GTO wizard strategy completely off when I ignore the split ranges and continue with only one size or is it still somewhat accurate compared to a pure strategy solved with PIO?
I wouldn’t say that it is going to be super far off. Just understand that when Wizard mixes between 33B30% and 75B20% of the time that its frequency is going to be a little lower compared to you running your own sim at 33B. So when you choose the smaller size you get a slightly higher frequency with solver and when you choose the larger size you will get a slightly lower frequency. The frequency doesn’t get messed with too much when Wizard takes a more dominate bet size like 33B40% and 75B10%.
When doing deep dives into a board texture, I think it is worth the time to run your own sims. Particularly with 3bet pots. I am not sure about your pool but I have a bunch of nitty Regs that are 18/15 with 6% 3bet and a bunch that are more open Regs that are 25/20 with 12% 3bet. Wizard can’t tell you how to adjust to the two player types. At low to mid stakes, exploiting the player pool is a big part of increasing our profits so it is worth the time.
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