Hi guys. Been thinking about balance a lot recently, and how it is applied vs recreational players.
Let me know if the summary below sounds reasonable?
balancing means taking the same line(s) with a variety of hands. in games between good regs, it is well understood that both players bet with a variety of bluffs and value. being balanced means betting with both value and equity and players understand that, even if their opponent shows down few or no value hands over the course of a single game, his ranges can still be balanced if he bets with equity. likewise, even if an opponent shows down many value hands, he can still be unbalanced if he also shows down airballs. regs tend to play in a consistent manner over time and opponent analysis takes place over hundreds of hands using HUD stats and detailed notes.
recreational players are usually more inconsistent in their play and so HUD stats and notes become less valuable. they rarely understand balancing, and usually attribute a particular line to either a bluff or a value bet, rather than a balanced range. although recs have limited awareness of balancing, it is still critical that we recall accurately which lines we have taken when we tuned up with value and which lines we have taken when we were caught bluffing. even when playing recs, if we frequently take the same line with our bluffs (or indeed our value) we are likely to be sussed out. also, taking a completely new line with a bluff is often inadvisable since it will be very difficult to determine how our opponent will react, and since recs tend to make too many hero calls in general. in addition, continuing to bet our equity hands if we have shown down a busted draw recently is likely to be counterproductive (even though we are still balanced). this is because recs often believe they can make a +EV call (or even play back) very light vs a polar range, even without blockers.
Did you write this up yourself.
In general people overestimate how balanced they think they are. Just because you throw in the odd bluff now and again on the river amongst your value bets doesn't mean your balanced. Poker is such a complex game and has so many game trees its impossible for a human to memorize them all and know in real time the correct hand combos to be bluffing on certain board textures and runouts to in order to be bluffing and value betting gto frequencies.
In reality players profits come from having solid fundamentals and getting their value bets paid off by recreational players. Playing max exploitable vs recreationals is going to be more profitable than playing balanced as your playing opponents who aren't thinking about ranges and balance and are too curious too see your hand. If you are going to bluff them pick a situation where you think there is more fold equity vs a very weak range and not because you arrive at the river with the bottom of your range and think gto would bluff that hand.
hey arronwilson
Yeah the above is my own (perhaps ill formed) thoughts on the matter. I was looking for some feedback, so thanks for your opinion. I think your comments are pretty fair for the most part, i.e. we don't make our money playing GTO vs 7$ recreational opponents.
But I still think that understanding balance is important, even if villain isn't thinking about it whatsoever. Not GTO strategy that a $200 reg would be playing, but how and when we choose to value bet and bluff, respectively, vs players at all levels. Once we understand villain's perception of our ranges, we can maximise our edge with exploitable play accordingly. And it's defintely true that some of the best exploitative players in the world became so by having a clear understanding of GTO strategy.