GTO Wizard Ranges in Live Games ??? Does anyone really play like this, Live?
I have found that it is not difficult for me to play similar to these GTOWizard recs in online games where pretty much everybody is working w 100bb stacks and many of the opponents are also trying to play a GTO-informed style, but in live games, the players are just all over the f***ing map. In Live games I end up playing MUCH TIGHTER for a number of reasons.
BET SIZES: GTO-W recommends 2bb open sizes (UTG through HJ), the CO is (2.3) and the BN(2.5) and the SB (3), (in full ring set up). In many Live games 5bb opens are the norm and everyone is just going to treat a 2bb open as if the pot is still unopened. Pretty much nobody opens to 2bb in my local games. 3-bet sizes in GTO-W are smaller than in Live games, also. All of this impacts the open ranges obviously, and the 3 betting recs. If we are opening larger than 2x, then our ranges should be much smaller than the GTO-W recs, obvious, no?
GAME CONDITIONS: In a lot of low limit hold em games people just don't fold often. When I am in LP, the pot is rarely unopened when it gets to me. There are usually multiple limpers, or a raise and 1 or 2 cold callers. Also, people don't 3 bet all that much in my local Live games, and when they do, it is a LARGE bet and you can usually be pretty sure they've got a real hand. When ppl 4 bet it is AA/KK, 7 times out of 10 and it is AK the other 3 times. Opponents call c-bets with much weaker hands then they should, sometimes they call with absolutely nothing. All of this is exploitable, obviously, but the exploit isn't to go even looser and inflate multiway pots even more, with very marginal hands like J8s, against calling stations who want to compare their marginal hand with your marginal hand at showdown. That is not the solution, imo.
STACKS: In my game, when the straddle is on, which is 80% of the time, it is basically a 1/3/6 game with 66bb stacks. This, of course, impacts our open ranges also and requires them to be much smaller than GTO-W recs. The SPR's are going to be low even in single-raised pots.
If there is a straddle and 2 limpers (which is how it looks more often than not by the time hand gets to the Hero in the CO) and Hero wants to raise pot-size or bigger, that is a $40 dollar raise +/- and if we get 2 callers (which would be not unexpected at all) then the pot is $130 and full-stacked players have $360 behind. SPR= 3.
This set-up favors big hands like TT+, AJ/KQ and disfavors drawing opportunities even though the pot is multiway and there is a potential for a big pot.
Open-raising w 21% from the HJ with hands like K6s, Q8s, A9o when you anticipate seeing a 4-way flop, very possibly without position, with a low SPR, is not a good set-up for us.
Finally, there are usually multiple broken stacks and guys who have 2-3x the average stack playing in the same hand, which complicates any kind of GTO analysis.
READS AND EXPLOITS: When playing with folks for 8 hours at the same table, we can get a pretty good feel for who is tight and who is loose and who is passive/aggressive and who is drunk and who is tilted and who is short-stack-scared-money and who is short-stack-all-in-loose-money and who is playing GTO and who is playing old-school and who plays poorly post-flop, etc, etc, etc.. We are trying to sandbag and trap certain players and we are trying to bully and overbet others.
So .... you know ..... do any of you really play these GTO-W pre-flop recs in Live games?
If so, are you min raising, as recommended?
Please don't flame me for saying something potentially critical of GTO. I actually respect Game Theory quite a bit and try my best to examine the lessons and learn from information that is out there. I'm going to continue to learn. I have been thinking about this for a while with regard to Live, low limit poker, though, and I think it is a mistake for me to adopt these ranges as default ranges in my local, low limit games. I think I am better off playing tighter, much tighter, and keeping it simpler. All due respect. What do you all think?