Game Theory

I have heard mention of game theory more than once, and have done a little research into it myself. What is the importance of game theory in regards to making us play better and making us more money?


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Tbh, as a Maths graduate, I think game theory can significantly get one's game to the next level and increase the winning by a lot. However that's the extent of what I know, just the theory, so I can't help you much on this. In practice you can try Cashinpoker.com where the high stake poker pro there implements some game theory into his game

A thread about this popped up last year on 2+2

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/hoss_tbf-all-top-players-use-game-theory-distributions-bluff-ratios-etc-1270184/

Its certainly helpful to anyone's game but will only really become useful against opponents who know what they're doing, so higher stakes from around 200nl. From what I understand it works off of exploitation and making a decision that minimizes loss, which is not necessarily the most profitable option

Also: Mathematics of Poker by Bill Chen

triplesyxx said:

I have heard mention of game theory more than once, and have done a little research into it myself. What is the importance of game theory in regards to making us play better and making us more money?


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Here's a simplified example. Say you have a villain on your left who folds everything but AA to a steal. Every time it's folded to you in the SB you raise with ATC and you will make a profit because he's folding 99% of the time. This is exploitative poker.

Lets' say your opponent notices and starts widening his calling range. In fact, he widens it so much that you have to tighten your shoving range to remain profitable. Eventually you both keep making these adjustments until you have a raising range that is perfectly balanced against your opponent's calling range (nash equilibrium) and if he deviates from that calling range in either direction you win money.

Note that GTO requires both of you to be adjusting to each other continually or playing a balanced range to begin with. There's no point in playing GTO/nash if the villain isn't adjusting / balanced. Exploitative poker >>> GTO nearly all the time and if you're at a table where you even need to consider GTO in NLHE you're prolly at the wrong table.

Basically what viper said.

Most (if not all) of the math used in poker would fall under game theory. In general, you can use game theory to approximate what an unexploitable (or balanced) strategy looks like and then use that as a basis for exploiting your opponents or keeping them from exploiting you based on the characteristics of the game you're playing.