R
Rational Madman
Legend
Platinum Level
Do you know why if Phil Ivey plays against a statistical math genius, he will win more often than the genius? It is because he spots natural preferences within the playstyle of the opponent and either exploits or devolves them.
What is exploitation and devolution in Poker? It is about weaknesses and strengths of the opponent. If Ivey's opponent is very tight, he doesn't immediately 'take advantage' and bluff them, this is pure exploitation and is not going to profit in the long run as the tight player will become even tighter and more cunning to let you/phil ivey bet into them. Instead of trying to loosen the tight player up, Phil Ivey would become pretty much equal in tightness of starting hands. What does this do? It NEGATES, it DEVOLVES the advantage of playing tight against him because it is making the 'strength' to be a basic requirement. Then if the person is very strong with understanding math at post-flop, turn and is very good at river play, Phil Ivey will immediately play backwards to what they excel against. A good river bluffer and turn overbetter need simply be underplayed regularly (and this helps more if you underplayed the preflop too which is why I don't understand why people separate preflop and post-flop play because they are directly connected in executing bluffs and baits). If the stats genius simply plays straightfoward TAG poker and semi-bluffs at worst, Ivey will THEN begin to bluff harder at the post-flop but not preflop. Why is this? Preflop, overbetting against a naturally tight player turns them being tight into direct strength. If you then continue to play as tight and honest as them post-flop you can argue that you are not letting their 'strength' be a strength but actually here is where exploitation begins to take place. Loosening up with only 2 out of 7 cards' worth of information against a tight player lets them control the bigger pots and smaller pots from the get go by folding or not folding without risking anything until they need to. Loosening up with 5 out of the 7 cards' worth of information against a tight player now is more profitable as more often than not they are not hitting top pair or anythign significant and sinc they have majority information, their tight nature works against them to generate fear whereas if they learn that you bet big preflop no matter what they know they knly know 2 of 7 cards and that taking strategic leaps of faith there is necessary.
That being said, this doesn't mean Ivey is flawless. When he begins to exploit the other, the other should shapeshift their playstyle post-flop to exploit his would-be exploitation. If he is bluffing to exploit their honesty, they can use passivity to profit. If he is using underbetting to combat their loose aggression post-flop, they can simply begin betting less and this is why at the top level of poker you find much more betting happening but much less quantity of blinds in the bets because if they get known for betting too much, or fearing bets altogether they will be abused like nobody's business.
Exploit your opponent's flaws but ALSO ensure that you work to turn their strengths into as worthless as possible.
Shark-slayers aren't card geniuses, they are not psychology geniuses either (like movies try to portray them) instead they are brilliant at comprehending the strengths and weaknesses of their opponent's playstyle and immediately turning the strengths into as little benefit as possible and turning the flaws into as much of an error in playstyle as they can.
What is exploitation and devolution in Poker? It is about weaknesses and strengths of the opponent. If Ivey's opponent is very tight, he doesn't immediately 'take advantage' and bluff them, this is pure exploitation and is not going to profit in the long run as the tight player will become even tighter and more cunning to let you/phil ivey bet into them. Instead of trying to loosen the tight player up, Phil Ivey would become pretty much equal in tightness of starting hands. What does this do? It NEGATES, it DEVOLVES the advantage of playing tight against him because it is making the 'strength' to be a basic requirement. Then if the person is very strong with understanding math at post-flop, turn and is very good at river play, Phil Ivey will immediately play backwards to what they excel against. A good river bluffer and turn overbetter need simply be underplayed regularly (and this helps more if you underplayed the preflop too which is why I don't understand why people separate preflop and post-flop play because they are directly connected in executing bluffs and baits). If the stats genius simply plays straightfoward TAG poker and semi-bluffs at worst, Ivey will THEN begin to bluff harder at the post-flop but not preflop. Why is this? Preflop, overbetting against a naturally tight player turns them being tight into direct strength. If you then continue to play as tight and honest as them post-flop you can argue that you are not letting their 'strength' be a strength but actually here is where exploitation begins to take place. Loosening up with only 2 out of 7 cards' worth of information against a tight player lets them control the bigger pots and smaller pots from the get go by folding or not folding without risking anything until they need to. Loosening up with 5 out of the 7 cards' worth of information against a tight player now is more profitable as more often than not they are not hitting top pair or anythign significant and sinc they have majority information, their tight nature works against them to generate fear whereas if they learn that you bet big preflop no matter what they know they knly know 2 of 7 cards and that taking strategic leaps of faith there is necessary.
That being said, this doesn't mean Ivey is flawless. When he begins to exploit the other, the other should shapeshift their playstyle post-flop to exploit his would-be exploitation. If he is bluffing to exploit their honesty, they can use passivity to profit. If he is using underbetting to combat their loose aggression post-flop, they can simply begin betting less and this is why at the top level of poker you find much more betting happening but much less quantity of blinds in the bets because if they get known for betting too much, or fearing bets altogether they will be abused like nobody's business.
Exploit your opponent's flaws but ALSO ensure that you work to turn their strengths into as worthless as possible.
Shark-slayers aren't card geniuses, they are not psychology geniuses either (like movies try to portray them) instead they are brilliant at comprehending the strengths and weaknesses of their opponent's playstyle and immediately turning the strengths into as little benefit as possible and turning the flaws into as much of an error in playstyle as they can.
