The Lazy Man’s Approach To Learning Poker Solvers

There’s a lot of reasons why poker-solver work wouldn’t be a good fit for certain players. Learning disabilities, ADHD, bad memory, physical issues keeping them from spending long hours at the computer. Older players overwhelmed by the technology, younger players without enough time alongside school, work, and family obligations, players whose entire joy for the game lives between the walls of a casino or inside a home game and have no interest in becoming one of “those players.” Whatever your reason for not wanting to log onto a computer program and run thousands of simulations with infinite variables and even more solutions, this is a safe space for you. If becoming a solver-based player is not for you, but you have a burning love for the game and want to be able to compete with the new age of poker players, here’s one way to study that will make the process as easy as watching TV.

Digital Apprenticeship

Step one in the process is to find videos by players who feature sims work in their content and dedicate whatever amount of time feels manageable to you in watching it daily, even if the things being discussed seem overwhelming at first. Here are a few great channels to get you started: Carrot Corner, GTOWizard, 2 Card Confidence, Upswing Poker. As you watch, recognize that you won’t always understand everything that’s being discussed and that you don’t need to. The goal at this point of the process isn’t perfection, but exposure. So over and over again, consume, consume, consume. Become immersed in the solver world passively, easily. Like a toddler watching the world, eager to find new ways to grow. Of course, your advantage over the toddler is that you can do things more precisely, with greater intention. You can choose to make it your mission to, every day, find one strategy or theoretical idea in a poker video that makes you think ‘huh, interesting’ and write yourself a couple of notes about what it was and some idea about how you could apply it in-game. Then, as the toddler would certainly want to do, take your new toy for a spin. Hop onto the poker table (not literally, you’re not an actual child) and play around with your new strategy in all sorts of ways, giving yourself a point every time it succeeds in helping you win a pot. Gamifying your efforts in this way has shown to be incredibly effective at helping both children and adults internalize new knowledge and skills. As an aside, dropping down a limit (or two) while implementing a new poker strategy is a great way to reduce the emotionality of the game and keep you focused on the task at hand: progress. This obviously won’t turn you into Doug Polk overnight, but if you practice it every day, even just for a month, I guarantee you that you’ll be much closer to being a player who understands both how to use solvers and what GTO strategy is all about. And all, without having to learn complicated programs or spend hours running sims; just a little watching YouTube, a little thinking, and a lot of playing the best damn game that exists. What a time to be alive; suck it solver nerds!