[Music]
hey guys
so I've received a number of questions
about how to use pure solver so I
decided to make this step by step basic
tutorial which is designed to be very
easy to digest even for a relatively new
poker player so if you're already
proficient with pio feel free to skip
this video but if you're thinking about
getting the solver or perhaps you
already have it but aren't quite fluid
with it yet this video is for you so
this discussion will be broken up into
four parts part one is an overview of
peal solver in part two I will talk
about the inputs which are the relevant
characteristics of the hand we are
analyzing that we plug into the solver
in part three I will talk about the
outputs which show the GTO strategies
that Pele solves for based on our inputs
and finally in the fourth part I'll go
over some study tips so part one
overview what is peel solver generally
peel solver is a piece of software that
calculates optimal playing strategies by
running simulations of a given hand so
what does that mean as a practical
matter in essence Pele solves four
strategies at each spot of a hand that
are perfectly balanced and unexploited
all given set assumptions in other words
if you played millions and millions of
hands against a villain with a known
range of strategies and you strictly
followed pios advice but the villain
deviated from peels advice in the long
run you will win money and the villain
will lose money and a quick note on the
recommended computer requirements to run
peel comfortably
you will want 64-bit windows a quad-core
processor which affects the speed of the
solver and sixteen gigabytes of RAM
which affects how many variables you can
input you can also run the program with
a dual-core processor and 8 gigabytes of
RAM but I personally would recommend 32
gigabytes of RAM since some complicated
trees require more memory so we talked
about what pele solver is let's talk
about what pio solver is not peel solver
does not solve multi way it will only
compute strategies for two opponents
since adding other opponents
make the decision trees too complex for
standard computers to solve however this
doesn't mean that P Oh solver is useless
for multi way situations because you can
still use it to learn strategic concepts
that can be applied in multi way spots
with some modifications peel solver in
my opinion is not just for experts or
high-stakes players although many
believe this to be the case
peel solver solves for fundamentally
sound poker strategies which in my
opinion should be the starting point of
how you learn to play yes at lower
stakes players are very unbalanced
meaning they are open to being exploited
but one it's hard to recognize
imbalances and know how to make the
proper exploits without knowing what the
baseline strategy is and - once you
deviate from GTO - try to exploit others
you become exploitable yourself
and finally you often hear that gto
players are like robots in my opinion
this could not be further from the truth
first of all no one can memorize every
single strategy produced by the solver
for every single situation there's just
too many variables
secondly we mentioned that Pele solves
for optimal solutions given set
assumptions however in reality you won't
know your opponent's exact ranges or
strategies so a true perfect solution
against real live opponents isn't
available so what is P oh good for then
as a practical matter well we often hear
that poker is a game of incomplete
information appeal solver is a tool that
we can use to mine for the information
that is most important in a given spot
and also learn how to apply that
information to formulate the optimal
strategies I also want to note that
there are a number of features of P o
solver that I will not be discussing in
this video including preflop Limit
Hold'em and some more advanced features
which I may cover in a subsequent video
but this video should give you all the
information you need to get started part
2 inputs the inputs are the variables
from our hand that we insert into pi out
to solve for including the hand rages
the flop starting pot the effective
stack size and the betting
when you first open up here this is the
screen you'll see but to get started you
should click on this tab post-flop tree
building and calculations now this may
seem like a lot but we are going to use
a hand example to show step-by-step how
to complete these inputs so here we have
a 1 to know limit game it folds around
to the button with ace king of spades
and he bets 3x the big blind the small
blind folds and the big blind calls with
10 Jack of Diamonds and the flop comes
Queen Jack ten so in order for pio to
solve for the optimal strategies for
this hand the first thing we're going to
do is input the assumed ranges for both
players so to set up the out of position
players range we will click here and
this pop-up will appear which shows a
standard hand matrix with the pocket
pairs down the middle diagonally the
unsuited combo is on the left hand side
and the suited combos on the right hand
side to add a holding we simply click
the applicable combo we want to add and
to remove it we just click again you can
also assign a weight or frequency to the
holdings so for example here the out of
position player who acts first post-flop
is the big blind and let's say we think
the big blind will call with 7-6 offsuit
25% of the time and fold 75% of the time
since the big blind called in our
scenario here we're creating the big
blinds calling range so we are going to
set the weight at 25% and then click the
7-6 off suite box and you would continue
to do this for the entire calling range
however as you can probably imagine this
can become quite tedious so on the right
hand here you'll see saved preflop
ranges including some that are provided
by P Oh out of the box so if we click on
this preset range of big blind against
button you will populate the entire
range instantly you can also save your
own ranges for future use by clicking
this button naming the range and then
hit save and now this range will be
saved for future use so once we are
satisfied with the range we click OK
and then we do the same drill for the in
position player which is a button in our
case so we're going to use the preset
button opening range here also if we
want to we can tweak the saved range say
we think the button should open all Jack
exuded combos we can simply add them and
then click OK
so the next input is the board which is
simply the cards on the flop so in our
example it was Queen of Spades jack of
spades 10 of clubs so we're going to
click on select and then select the
cards and our flop and then we click OK
starting pot is the number of chips in
the pot after preflop betting has ended
but before post-flop betting has begun
so in our case 13 dollars I'm just going
to put that here the effective stack is
the stack of the player with the least
amount of chips since that is the
maximum amount that can be won or lost
in the hand in our case it's the button
with $94 so I'm going to input that here
so in this area we will set the betting
parameters for each player on the flop
turn in river obviously in real life
there are countless different bets that
a player can make but in order for the
solver to work on a standard PC we need
to limit our betting options to specific
choices as a rule of thumb you generally
want include as many options as possible
so the results will be more realistic
for example if you don't give one player
the option to check raise then you'll
see pio causing the other player to be
more aggressive since he doesn't have to
worry about being raised that being said
you can't include too many options or
it'll take up too much of your
computer's memory to solve usually I try
to include a small medium and large bet
on each Street and some over bets on the
river and sometimes on the turn and at
least one raised option on East Street
as well so first we're going to set up
the betting parameters for the
Inquisition player which is the button
the bets are expressed as a percentage
of the pot and you can enter multiple
betting options just by placing a space
between the bets
so I'm going to give the button the
option to bet 25% 50% and one
percent on East Street and I'm also
going to add a 200% pot over bet on the
river and here we will input the raise
options for the players
you can also express this as a
percentage of the pot or you can express
it as a multiple of the opponent's bet
which I think is more typical in real
life so I'm going to go ahead and add a
3x raised for each Street and you can
also add multiple raises here as well
you can also check this box if you want
to include in all in option on any
Street which will be triggered if the
thresholds indicated here are met and if
you want to use the same betting
parameters for both positions we can
simply click this button and it will
clone the settings for the out of
position player also for the out of
position player you can add donk bets
which will give the auto position player
the option to lead out with a bed after
it called a bet on the prior Street and
again this is expressed as a percentage
of the pot so I'm going to add a 50%
donk bet on the turn and on the river so
the last variable we're going to discuss
on this tab is the accuracy which
basically sets how long you want the sim
to run the longer the sim runs the
closer and closer it gets to the
equilibrium strategy which is achieved
at an accuracy of 0 as a general rule of
thumb you want to set this at no greater
than 0.5 personally I usually set this
at point one or point zero five but if
you want more accuracy than that
pío will usually take a very long time
to complete the solve depending on how
complex the tree is so I'm going to go
ahead and check this box and then input
point five here for our example so now
that we have our inputs in place we're
going to click this button which causes
pio to create the decision tree based on
our inputs and here where it says ok
that means the decision tree has been
built and we can press go which triggers
pio to begin solving so this line at the
bottom will tell you the progress of the
solver and after it reaches the accuracy
you designated in our case point 5% the
solver will stop the sim
as noted here and now we are ready to
view the outputs in part 3 we are going
to discuss the outputs peel produces
after solving the game based upon our
inputs the four main topics will be
navigating decision tree the range and
combo matrices the hotness chart and the
range Explorer so we can view the
solvers outputs by clicking back on this
browser tab and there are three main
focal points in this layout decision
tree which is comprised of the different
actions each player can take on the flop
turn and River the range matrix which
shows information for a player's entire
range at each point in the tree and the
combo matrix which shows information for
specific holdings in each players range
at each point in the tree so first we're
going to look at decision tree in
isolation and not worry about the other
aspects of this layout for now so the
full tree is hidden at the moment and to
uncover different branches of the tree
you click on these buttons which
correspond to the betting inputs we
added on the previous tab which I have a
screenshot of here so this line tells us
whose turn it is to act and obviously
the out of position player the big blind
will be acting first so he has three
options based on the betting strategies
we designated 25% pot 50% pot and 100%
pot also checking will be an option on
East Street as well for the out of
position player so going back to our
example the big blind checks so we are
going to check and now we see it's the
in position players turn which is the
button so we see here that the button
bets 1/2 pot so we're going to press
this button and the actions back on the
out of position player but now since
there has been a bet placed the big
blinds options will be to fold call or
raise 3x based on the option we provided
in the input tab however in our example
with the big blind just call so we're
going to call and move to the turn and
now pio is asking us to choose a turn
card
the turn is the King of Hearts so we're
going to click this and now it's the big
blinds turn to act again the big blind
checks and the button bets a half pot
and the big blind calls and now we're at
the river which is the ten of Spades and
the big blind checks the button bets
half pot the big blind raises 3x the
buttons bet and the button calls I
should also note that you can go back
and forth at any point in the tree to
change a card or an action which will
then lead you down a different decision
branch so now we're going to look at the
range in combo matrices which will give
us information about the optimal
strategies and strengths of the holdings
in each player's range at each point in
decision tree so first we're going to go
all the way back to the flop to the
buttons decision and to see the solid
strategy for the button we click here
and now we see the GTO strategies for
each of the buttons holdings on the flop
these strategies are color-coded based
on the four options we have given the
button on the flop so checking is green
light red is a quarter pot bed medium
red is a half pot bet and dark red is a
full pot bed and this also shows the
overall percentages pio is utilizing
these strategies for its entire range so
we see that pio is advising that 29% of
the buttons range to check on this board
15% should bet a quarter pot and so on
and to see the optimal strategy for each
holding we can go into the range matrix
with our cursor and we will then see in
the combo matrix the specific strategy
for each particular holding so for
example if we hover our cursor over the
Ace King suited holdings we see in the
combo matrix that the predominant
strategy here is to bet half pot 56% of
the time and if we click through the
decision tree we can see how the
strategies change at each spot so in
addition to strategy we can also view
our arranges equity as you know the
equity of a hand is the odds of that
hand winning a showdown assuming we went
all-in at this point with no further
betting or action so over here
our buttons we can click on to see the
equity of the outer position and in
position player at this point in
decision tree so here we see that
equities are the various holdings are
color-coded to this spectrum with the
holdings most likely to win being green
and the holdings least likely to win
being red and we can explore the range
matrix to see the equities of individual
holdings we see here that ace king of
spades has a 95% chance to win based on
this board against the big blinds
overall range this is obviously going to
be high because the button has the nut
straight with the redraw to the nut
flush but it's not 100% because the big
blind has holdings in its range that may
hit a full house or straight flush on
later streets also note that you can see
the average equity of the entire range
here in addition to equity the solver
can also show us another metric of hand
strength evie or expected value which
tells us how many chips on average a
holding will win if the optimal strategy
is followed this in my opinion is a more
accurate measure of hand strength than
equity because it takes into account
subsequent betting so to look at the
evie we click on this button for the out
of position player and this button for
the in position player again the EDS are
color coded based on this spectrum here
and we can see for Ace King of Spades
that we should expect to win around 32
chips with this holding on average when
the hand is completed also you can see
the average evie for the entire range
here one of the most useful features on
this tab is being able to see the
optimal strategy plus the Eevee
simultaneously and you can see this by
pressing this button so now when we
explore the range matrix we see in the
combo matrix the evie of each of the
possible strategies which is useful to
tell us which option and decision tree
will make us the most money on average
so for example with ace king of spades
we see that the strategy which will win
us the most chips on average is betting
half pot with 31
six six five chips but each option is
pretty close which means pio is mostly
indifferent between the strategies and
if you want to see the strategies Evie
and equities for the range at the same
time you can click clone zoom and a
pop-up will appear that will be fixed on
the current view setting in this case e
v + strategy and if we change the
setting for the entire range to equity
the zoomed matrix is still on Evie +
strategy so you can explore each holding
to see the e V and strategy up top and
equity on the bottom simultaneously
another way we can visually analyze Evie
is by comparing the difference in EBS
between two different strategies by
clicking this button for example if we
go to the buttons action on the turn and
want to see the difference in Evie
between checking and betting half pot we
can check these boxes and click OK so
again the matrices will be color-coded
to this spectrum white means the
difference in EB between betting half
pot and checking is zero and the darker
the color the more pronounced the
difference in EB will be between the two
actions so for example we see that is
more Plus Evie to bet these sets and
straights with a redraw to the nut flush
while it is more Plus Evie to check
these one pair and two pair combos this
function can be particularly useful for
when you want to simplify your strategy
to use a pure 100% or 0% rule so for
example if you want to find borz you can
see bet your entire range with and not
have to worry about all the mixed
frequencies you can use this function
and if the matrix is mostly white that
means you won't be losing too much Evie
from choosing either strategy putting
aside frequency and balance concerns in
the long run so the next feature I want
to highlight to are the filters there
are two types of filters on the screen a
betting filter and a suit filter the
betting filter allows you to isolate in
the range matrix the holdings which are
taking a specific action in decision
tree so for example if I want to analyze
only hands that check on this flop in
the buttons shoes I can simply click
this here and the matrices will now show
me what percentage
the time these holdings are checking so
we can see Ace King of Spades is
checking on this board on the turn point
three percent at the time and we can
apply the same filter for our other
betting options there's also a suit
filter here this allows us to filter to
see only Holdings with a particular suit
by left-clicking clicking the top button
will show the holdings that have this
suit with the higher rate card and
clicking the bottom button will show us
the holdings that have this suit with a
lower ranked card so you can see
Holdings that have either the higher
ranked card or the lower ranked card
with this suit by clicking both this
filter obviously will be useful if you
want to isolate and examine how flushes
or flush draws should be played you can
also filter by the holdings that exclude
a particular suit by right-clicking the
suit so this is now showing me all
holdings that do not contain a spade you
can also filter both the betting action
and suit simultaneously so for example
if I want to see all holdings that
contain a spade that bet half pot I can
click here here and here
and now both filters are applied another
feature I want to highlight is the
hotness chart which shows how turn and
River cards affect the Eevee's equities
and strategies of each player which can
be very useful to help understand how
different cards alter range advantage or
disadvantage you can pull up the hotness
chart by going to analysis and clicking
here or alternatively you can just press
ctrl H but first you have to be on the
turn or river card node so I'm gonna go
to the turn card node and then press
ctrl H so in the columns are all the
card ranks and in the rows are all the
suits so this grid contains all cards
possible in the game and if we want to
see how different turn cards affect the
out of position players equity we can
click this button and we see that the
best cards for the big blind are 9
through Queen pretty much anything that
brings in a lower straight or pairs the
board and the worst card is the king
because the button will have a lot of
ace high that makes a straight
and we can do the same thing with Eevee
and we see that any king or pretty much
any brick is bad for the big blinds
range and if we click here it will tell
us how the different cars affect the big
blind strategy and as we can see here
Pio is checking most of its range no
matter what card comes out because this
board just massively favors the button
but Pio will do some infrequent donking
with nine tens Jack's queens and aces
and if you click on a card here it will
automatically update in the main browser
and just a quick note I'm not gonna get
into the details in terms of what these
boxes do other than to say that they
should generally all be checked most of
the time except this box you may want to
uncheck it on later streets if the range
matrix becomes difficult to read so what
this box does is it gives you a visual
representation of the proportion of
combos the range should have at any
given point in the tree so for example
on the river we can barely see what the
strategy is for Queen Jack off since
based on the prior action PU is saying
that the button should have very few
combos of Queen Jack in its range but
this is very hard to see so to get a
better look we can uncheck this box and
it will fill out all the holdings
including ones that have fold in so the
last feature I'm going to show is the
range Explorer which can be accessed by
clicking this button
so the range Explorer has many of the
same functions as the general browser
which I'm not going to get into again
such as the equity betting filter and
suit filter just a quick note there are
two additional ways to examine hand
strength in the range Explorer the first
is Evie rescaled which basically
restates the Evie assuming a 100 chip
pod which makes it easier to compare to
equity the second is Evie / EQ or equity
realization which will generally give
you a sense of the playability of a
holding but the main feature I want to
focus on in the range Explorer is the
segment filter which is personally the
feature I spend most of my time studying
so if you want to filter everything out
and look at a particular segment all you
have to do is click on the segment
and only information for that particular
segment will show up in the range matrix
so these are the straits sets to parrot
cetera I would be careful where you
click because these rows actually
contain a spectrum of hand strength so
for example if you want to see which cut
shots have the best equity you can start
clicking right to left which will then
start emitting the cut shots with lower
equity and until we get to ace queen and
ace ace which have a lot of equity you
can also filter multiple segments at the
same time by using these buttons here
where any basically means or and all
basically means and so for example if we
only want to examine single paired
holdings we first select none which
unchecks all the segments then we select
any and click on the over pairs top pair
second pairs third pairs and lower pairs
and this now shows only the holdings
that contain one pair alternatively if
we want to show Holdings that contain
both bottom pair and a flush draw we
click all and then the third pair and
flush draw segments and now this shows
only hands that contain both a ten and
two spades
now the final part study tips the first
tip is to review the entire range
including its segments and Holdings for
both the hero and the villain on each
Street I think some people may use pio
to analyze a particular hand they played
which gave them trouble and once they
identify the optimal strategy for their
specific hand that's the end of their
study in my opinion this is my Opik for
at least two reasons one the solver
generally does not create solutions in a
vacuum so a holding that has played a
certain way at one spot may be played in
a completely different manner in another
spot based on the context secondly it's
not possible to memorize how the solver
is playing each holding in every
possible context and this is why I
believe it's important to try to
simplify the game as much as possible
through generalizations and abstractions
while at the same time retaining as much
Evie as possible from the equilibrium
solutions the way I personally try to do
this is by reviewing and analyzing hands
at three levels the first level is the
macro analysis which primarily focuses
on overall ranges and how they interact
with the board and also to a lesser
extent position and SPR the macro
analysis will inform your overall
betting and calling frequencies and bet
sizings the second level of analysis is
examining what each segment of the range
is doing which is important because
certain segments have characteristics
that cause pio to play them in unique
ways and the final stage of the analysis
is analyzing individual Holdings within
segments however our goal here is not to
memorize how each holding is being
played instead we are trying to uncover
the underlying factors that are driving
the different strategies within the
segment such as blockers on blockers
showdown equity and draw equity which we
can then apply across segments in
different spots and the way I use these
levels in practice is I always start
with the most general level first the
macro strategy and I will only work my
way down to the more specific levels if
doing so will win me significant evie if
this seems a bit abstract I will give an
example of how
I analyzed hands this way in my next tip
which is to take copious notes as you
can see peel solver provides a huge
amount of information but unless that
information is organized and recorded it
lose a lot of its value in my opinion
the main way we learn from the solver is
by detecting patterns which is much
easier to do if you have a log of sims
you've run that you can compare so here
is an example of notes I took for a
hundred big blind cash game sim I'm not
going to get too far into the details
because I believe that a critical part
of the learning process is figuring out
the best way to organize the information
for your own consumption I personally
went through five or six different
iterations of how I take notes and that
process in and of itself actively trying
to figure out how the solver is
structuring its strategies and which
data points are most important was
extremely valuable so keeping that in
mind this area is where I record the
macro analysis and it includes the
position of the players the SPR the fact
that it was a three-bet pot this area
covers the percentage of nuttage
holdings which each player holds which I
use as a rough estimate of range
advantage and this area shows the
percentages pio is betting raising
calling or checking on the flop with the
BET sizings so here we can see that pio
is advising the small blind to bet
nearly its entire range which makes
sense since we can see from the range
Explorer that the small blind has an
advantage in percentage of nuttage hands
and the board is relatively dry so his
nut advantage should remain largely
intact
as a result you can see I indicated e
are in this area which covers flop
strategies which means the small blind
is betting its entire range one-third
pot and to simplify the game I'll stop
my flop analysis for the small blind
here since I won't get much additional
Eevee by digging into the meso or micro
analysis of specific segments or
holdings but if we go to the river we
see that the small blind strategy starts
to become mayor
and this is where I use the range
Explorer to examine what each segment of
the range is doing so for example we see
here that these middle pairs with a
queen are almost all being checked which
makes sense since they are marginal
hands on this board and just want to get
to show down without bloating the pot so
I record that information here and again
to simplify the game I stop my analysis
for this segment at the meso level
without getting into the micro analysis
of what each holding within the segment
is doing however there are other
segments where a micro analysis is
necessary to save Eevee for example if
we look at these full houses we see that
there is a significant difference in eb
between different strategies right we
see that these full houses with pocket
aces and pocket queens are mostly being
checked I'm guessing because they
heavily block many of the value hands
the button could call a bet with so I
think the solver is checking with the
hopes of inducing a bluff and I have a
page of notes not shown here where I
record these types of factors that I
think are driving the solvers mixed
strategies at the micro analysis level
so my third and final study tip is to
ask why create a hypothesis and test
that hypothesis Pio solver is a very
powerful tool but at the end of the day
it's just a tool
if you passively go through a sim just
to see what the solver is doing and then
call it a day you won't get much out of
it so anytime you encounter a spot where
the solver is doing something you don't
expect especially when there's a
significant EB difference in strategies
you should ask yourself why is the
solver taking this line and then you
should try to answer at first this will
be very difficult to do since the solver
spits out so much information and it'll
be hard to distinguish what is important
when you're just getting started but if
you stick with it and run sim after sim
and take good notes eventually you'll
start to detect patterns and from these
patterns you'll start to hypothesize
rules or factors which you can then test
and prove and those proved rules or
factors are the gold that you can then
take with you and apply at the table and
if you want to see how I apply this tip
in action watch my other videos where
I'm constant
going through this process and running
various tests and experiments so this is
the conclusion of the tutorial video I
hope this was helpful to you because in
my opinion Pio solver is far and away
the best bang for your buck to learn
theoretical underpinnings of the game
out of any book podcast video training
site or even coach you just need to know
how to use it and diligently put it to
work so if anyone has any questions or
wants to learn more I would encourage
you to check out the FAQ section on the
Pio solver website or the Pio solver
thread on twoplustwo thanks for watching
and until next time stay balanced