Cheers, at 23 i'd say a good default strategy would be to bet the value aces and TT-JJ, check QQ,KK plus the weaker blocker aces - there won't be as many of these in this situation because I don't get to 3bet light often.

27 - I think that's a dangerous pattern of logic that is easy to get stuck with - the fundamentals of opening sizing suggests that the tighter the range (given the same parameters) the larger the sizing. eg. we should raise more hands for a minraise playing HU than we would using a 3x strategy. Also on an FT with ICM implications we are even less incentivised to attempt to induce action with any hands other than the premium pairs, and I cannot advocate for an overall strategy that involves consistently playing those hands in a dramatically different manner to the rest of your range.

Thanks for those comments Jeffrey - I would have to say it's too dangerous to go making assumptions like that about my 4b range always being really tight there for eg. - sometimes it will be but sometimes the opposite could be true (often it will simply be balanced!).. that's my job as a poker player, to figure out what assumptions different people might be making. Any time we make generalisations about our opponents' play always being perhaps extremely inflexible or unbalanced, we should first be certain that we are giving the opponent the proper level of credit they deserve and that there isn't some degree of superiority/ego bias clouding our judgement.

I would say GTO's popularity now is a reflection of players dumbing down that bias, giving their opponents more respect and seeking the refuge of unexploitability - the people that don't develop that sort of maturity and keep thinking that they know "people never bluff here" or these sorts of thoughts and having them dictate their play tend to be the ones that can't beat the games these days, so it's been a natural evolution to see this new mentality in those still in the games now. Also, in keeping with this series, this is a predominant emotional factor IMO that leads to players playing poorly in late game MTTs - too much assuming that they are a level above their opponents and can make all sorts of major exploitative adjustments without seeing how their opponents are actually exploiting them in many cases.

Maybe that sounds a little contradictory - I do think it's possible to be a step ahead of many opponents in certain situations (hence the art of mtts video).. the skill is in understanding your opponents' personality and interpreting from an unbiased perspective. All that is to say that, yeah, I don't think getting in AJo as a standard is a good idea :).

thanks - in general it would depend extremely heavily on the tendencies of the players involved in the hand as well as the grander picture. although truthfully i don't think i would have one here.