GTO stands for Game Theory Optimal, which is a mathematically perfect way to play poker that makes it impossible to be exploited by opponents. GTO poker strategy seeks complete balance in the game, making your plays 100% unexploitable by your opponents. It is a defensive strategy that incorporates the principles of balanced ranges and mixed strategy. GTO poker is not an exploitative strategy, which seeks to find holes in other players’ games and use them. Instead, GTO poker strategy seeks perfect balance, protecting the player from anyone else exploiting them and gradually creating profit based on imperfect plays by other players.

When playing GTO, you will be bluffing and value betting on every street of every hand with various holdings, and you will not care about what your opponent does. While this may sound like a bad way to play poker at first, GTO is a proven strategy that works like a charm, especially in heads-up poker. However, the actual GTO poker strategy is not yet known (and it may never be fully known due to the complexity of the game) .

GTO poker solvers are downloadable online software that often give solutions for how to play as optimally as possible in any given spot, and often, they recommend using mixed strategies based on select frequencies. GTO beginner concepts and strategies do not only consist of bluffs and value bets. They will also allow you to see how often you should be cbetting in certain spots and also show which bet size to use.

In summary, GTO in poker is a mathematically perfect way to play poker that makes it impossible to be exploited by opponents. It is a defensive strategy that seeks complete balance in the game, making your plays 100% unexploitable by your opponents. While the actual GTO poker strategy is not yet known, certain aspects of the GTO strategy are known, such as using mixed strategies, balanced ranges, and multiple bet sizes in the same situation with different hands.