Three Types Of Exploitation

GTO (Game Theory Optimal) vs Exploitative strategies have become a very hot topic. It is very clear what is meant by a GTO strategy (although not so clear how to create, learn and implement one.) But there are many different interpretations of what an exploitative strategy is. I am going to introduce you to three levels of exploitation.

GTO: A fixed strategy, designed to be unexploitable. It prevents blunders but it doesn’t adapt to win the maximum. It doesn’t gain against frequency (mixing) mistakes, such as bluffing too much on the river.

Exploitative Strategy One: Take Advantage Of Opponents Who Suicidally Exploit Themselves

Many players make serious blunders, sometimes called ‘pure mistakes.’ A pure mistake is to use a strategy that should never be used, or play a hand in a situation in which it should never be played.

To give an exaggerated example, a player who always folds A-A and raises with 7-2 is exploiting himself. In a more realistic example, many players in small-stakes games limp with hands that they should always fold, like K-7 offsuit or 9-4 suited. They are exploiting themselves.

If you play a GTO strategy, or the best approximation of one that you can manage, you will show a profit against them. Some players don’t consider this exploitation, but really it is the most basic form of exploitation. You are exploiting their bad plays.

Exploitative Strategy Two: GTO Doesn’t Take Advantage Of Frequency Mistakes

To win the maximum from players who make frequency mistakes, you must adopt a dynamic, flexible strategy, designed to win the maximum. This type of exploitative strategy tries to capitalize on your opponent’s mistakes and attack their imbalances. When modern poker discussions focus on exploitative play, this is what they are referring to.

Of course, you must know what the balanced GTO strategy is, so you can diagnose and then exploit imbalances. Then you must adopt a strategy to take advantage of their errors. They bluff too much, then call more. They don’t three-bet enough, then raise more.

Many current poker teachers and writers have spent thousands of hours playing online, and often have access to a HUD or some other database. The use of a database makes it relatively easy to find their opponent’s frequency mistakes. Study whatever situation is occurring, and you may find an opponent who is doing something at very different frequency than they should.

This is much harder to do in a brick-and-mortar game. Probably the best thing is to observe what hands they showdown. If they consistently seem to show hands that should rarely take the actions they have taken, assume it is a frequency mistake.

The most obvious case is the ‘calling station,’ who defends much more often than MDF (Minimum Defensive Frequency) recommends.

There is a big downside to this type of exploitative strategy, and it is that your opponent may realize you swerved away from GTO to exploit him, and start to change his pattern to a counter-exploitative one that takes advantage of you. Usually a counter-exploit gains more than an exploit, so be very wary of implementing extreme exploits.

Exploitative Strategy Three: Take Advantage Of Live Reads And Tells

These are the most lucrative type of exploits, and yet there is very limited discussion of them, since much of the poker literature focuses on strategies and tactics developed and used online. Yet I frequently play with GTO ‘geniuses’ who are completely oblivious to what’s going on at the table.

These reads are extremely player and situation dependent. I will discuss one that I recently observed at an Aria $10-$20 game. I was waiting to replace an amateur player who had said he was off to dinner in four hands, when the blinds reached him.

Our hero and his wife were drinking red wine and chatting casually. As I arrived he was in the middle of a large pot, which he ended up winning with a garbage hand that no rational player would have played in the first place. He told his wife that he was now ahead so they could really enjoy their dinner.

He started placing his chips into a rack, and folded quickly. The next hand had a straddle to $40, a raise to $150 from a solid, knowledgeable, GTO-style player. Our hero looked at his cards, glanced at his chips, straightened up and raised to $500. (Even the wife who had been looking bored was now quietly paying close attention.)

The initial raiser four-bet to $1,100, perhaps trying to exploit this loose amateur before he left, and get maximum value with a strong hand. With a deep voice and a ponderous motion, our hero said ‘all-in’ as he shoved his neatly racked chips into the center for about $3,500 total. The other player called. They ran it twice, but the hero’s aces held up, and the happy couple laughed as they headed off to dinner.

You may be asking, where was the exploit? There wasn’t one.

It was obvious to me (and to anyone paying attention) that he had a monster when he raised to $500. If I had a good drawing hand, I might have ventured a crying call with intention of a check-fold if I missed the flop. Failure to exploit cost the opponent $4,000 on this one hand.

Let’s recap the signs that revealed a strong hand:

1. His had just gotten even or ahead
2. He quickly glanced at his chips
3. His posture straightened
4. His voice and demeanor changed
5. His conversation stopped and his kibitzer was paying attention
6. He bet a rack-full of chips

The superstars of poker, like Daniel Negrenu, the two Phils (Ivey and Hellmuth) and the two Seans (Deeb and Winter), seem to have an uncanny ability to read what is going on at the table and make the most of it. Yes, on the rare occasions when they’re wrong they look like idiots, but they gain a lot more being right than the players who know the solver says to c-bet three-fourths pot on Q 10 4, but only half pot on Q 10 4. ♠

Steve ‘Zee’ Zolotow aka The Bald Eagle or Zebra is a very successful gamesplayer. He has been a full-time gambler for over 40 years. With two WSOP bracelets, over 60 cashes, and a few million in tournament cashes, he is easing into retirement. He currently devotes most of his Vegas gaming time to poker, and can be found in cash games at Aria and Bellagio and at tournaments during the WSOP. When escaping from poker, he spends the spring and the fall in New York City where he hangs out at his bars: Doc Holliday’s, The Library, and DBA.

*Photo by PokerGO – Antonio Abrego