This video came at the perfrct time for me. I know that exploit play is very important to the bottom line. My problem is when I make an exploit play and it doesn't work. I develop substantial doubt about my abilities and exploit play in general. I will solver check the spot and see that my play was very anti gto and I will combine that with the fact that it didn't work in game and I will shut down exploit play for several sessions and try to stick to gto. My doubts and fears get the better of me.

For example, in a live setting recently I determined a players specific betting patterns were weak. I determined he was a straight forward player and I knew when his range was capped. I attacked a river spot by bluff raising a hand with very bad reverse blockers that gto says to never bluff. He called with a pair which I determined was as strong as his rng was and I knew that his bet sizing indicated a willingness to fold. I was wrong and solver says I was wrong. There were 3 instances of this in one session with 3 different opponents all based on my reads. I simply got looked up each time.

Now I doubt everything about what the hell I am doing at the table. Is it proper to pull back on exploit play and stick to relying on what the computer says, or is this failure just a part of it and I should keep plugging along taking exploit spots if I feel they might work?

In one spot it was top pair. However the other two spots were trips and the nut flush. Both spots the opponent was at the top of his rng and both spots involved me having the nut advantage (or so I believed). All 3 spots were vs different opponents. Does it matter that I ran into the top of their rng? Does it change the analysis I should do or the dynamic involved?

Hey Tyler, good video - I enjoy the deep dive of detailed concepts and your summary/note taking is also great. I learned a lot :)

As someone who has struggled with non-intuitive bluffs in the past, I think it's also helpful to consider that these hands are often indifferent between betting and checking the flop/turn. And the reason they are indifferent is because checking them is not particularly high EV either. For example, a trashy hand that has just an overcard might not seem like a particularly high EV turn bet, but it does not check back for much EV either.

Hey Tyler great video man thank you

Video introduction about the fish that was jamming the river

Reminds me of a player in my pool, he is a short stacker usually buys in for 60-80bbs at a time. What was happening when I looked at the hands I played against him, like vs my c bet when I’m pfr in srp, he was folding or raising, pretty much never ever calling. And when I check to him he would bet like 2x pot, and then just jam on the turn. He would do this a lot vs a lot of the regs.

So what I did yesterday was I’m just going to check some more of my value hands to him on the flop and let him go crazy.

low and behold I’m in the co open 2.4 AA

He flats in the button,

Flop comes J72 rainbow,

I check

Villain bets 2x pot

I call

Turn was a 3x

I check

He just jams for like 10x pot I flat and he had 86s lol

I wouldn’t do this vs other players just vs this specific guy.