Strategy
How game theory describes a strategy, and how to exploit one.
- FrequencyHow often a strategy takes an action with a given hand, as a percentage.
- Mixed strategyA strategy that takes more than one action with the same hand, each at its own frequency.
- RangeThe full set of hands a player could have in a spot, rather than one specific hand.
- ComboOne specific pair of hole cards, such as A♠K♥, out of the 1,326 possible starting hands.
- BlockerA card in your hand that removes combos from your opponent's range.
- Approximate chartA chart from the app's preflop solver, which models postflop play with equity-realization factors instead of solving it.
- Charts by stack depthApproximate solved preflop charts for 60, 40, 25, 20 and 15bb stacks with antes, next to the 100bb charts.
- Nash equilibriumA pair of strategies where neither player can gain by changing theirs alone.
- Best responseThe strategy that makes the most money against one specific opponent strategy.
- Bet-size tellA pattern where a player's bet size gives away the strength of their hand.
- Tilt and moodsHow opponents change for a while after a big loss, a bad beat, a big win or a short stack.
- Villain profileA description of how an opponent deviates from GTO, such as folding too often.
- TAGTight-aggressive: a player who enters few pots but bets and raises when they do.
- LAGLoose-aggressive: a player who enters many pots and keeps up the pressure.
- Open sizeHow big you raise when you open the pot, as a multiple of the big blind; shorter stacks open smaller.
- Re-shoveGoing all-in over someone else's open; also called a 3-bet shove.
- OvercallCalling after someone else has already called, so the pot goes to showdown three or more ways.
- Min-raiseThe smallest legal raise: raising to twice the big blind when you open.
- Opening rangesWhich hands to raise when everyone before you has folded, and how that changes with position.
- Facing an openFolding, calling or 3-betting after a player in front of you has raised.
- Facing a 3-betChoosing to 4-bet, call or fold after your open has been re-raised.
- Cold callCalling an open from a seat that has not yet put any money in the pot.
- SqueezeA 3-bet after one player has opened and another has called.
- Facing a 4-betChoosing to 5-bet all-in, call or fold after your 3-bet has been re-raised.
- Facing a 5-bet shoveCalling or folding after your 4-bet has been met with an all-in 5-bet.
- Limped potsDeciding whether to iso-raise, over-limp or fold when players have limped in front of you.
- SB limp or raiseThe small blind's first-in choice against the big blind alone: raise, limp or fold.
- BB vs the small blindThe big blind's response when the small blind limps or raises and nobody else is in the pot.
- Heads-up at 20 to 40bbThe last two players: the button min-raises, limps or folds, and the big blind checks, calls or jams.
- Big blind optionThe big blind's choice to check or raise when everyone before them has only limped.
- Exploiting a profileChanging your push/fold ranges on purpose because the opponent calls or shoves too much or too little.
- Hand familiesGroups of starting hands that play alike, such as pocket pairs or suited aces.
- Pure spotA decision where the solver always takes the same action with the hand.
- Range edgeA hand on the boundary of a range, where a neighboring hand in the grid takes a different action.
- Solver flopsFlop decisions in a solved heads-up spot, such as button versus big blind, graded by EV against a solved strategy.
- Solved turnsTurn decisions graded against a solver pack for the turn, after the flop checked through or a flop bet was called.
- Postflop rules of thumbSimple equity-based rules for betting after the flop, taught before solver answers exist in the app.
- Value betA bet made because worse hands will call it, so you win more when you are ahead.
- BluffA bet made with a hand that rarely wins at showdown, hoping better hands fold.
- Showdown valueA hand strong enough to win sometimes when checked down, but too weak to bet.
- Bet sizingChoosing how much to bet: bigger with strong hands, smaller with thinner value.
- Continuation betA flop bet by the player who raised before the flop, continuing the aggression.
- Pot commitmentAt a stack-to-pot ratio under about 2, a hand gets all the chips in or gives up: there is no room to bet and fold.
- Multiway potA pot with three or more players still in, where value bets tighten, bluffs shrink and c-bets slow down.
- Multiway value betA value bet into two or more players, which needs a stronger hand than the same bet heads up.
- Multiway bluffA bluff into two or more players, which only works if every one of them folds.
- Multiway c-betA continuation bet into two or more callers, made far less often than heads up.
- Stack-to-pot ratioThe effective stack behind divided by the pot, usually measured on the flop.
- Geometric sizingBetting the same fraction of the pot on every street so the last bet puts the stacks in exactly.
- OverbetA bet bigger than the pot.
- Narrowing a rangeWorking out which hands a player can still hold, by removing hands from their range after each action.
- Capped rangeA range that holds few or none of the strongest hands possible, because those hands would have been played another way.
- Range advantageHaving the stronger range overall on a board: more equity against the other player's range than they have against yours.
- Nut advantageHolding more of the very strongest hands on a board than the other player does.
- Equity distributionHow a range's combos spread out by equity against the other player's range, from air to the nuts.
- Polarized rangeA range made of very strong hands and bluffs, with few medium hands.
- Linear rangeA range of the strongest hands in one unbroken block down to medium ones, with no bluffs; also called merged.
- Condensed rangeA range made mostly of medium-strength hands, with few very strong hands and few bluffs.
- Card removalHow the cards you hold change which combos an opponent can have, and so the mix of their range.
- Value combosThe combos in a betting range that bet because they expect to be called by worse.
- Bluff combosThe combos in a betting range that bet because they cannot win at showdown and need a fold.
- Player poolThe players you meet at a given stake and site, taken together as one population.
- Fold to c-betHow often a player folds when the preflop raiser bets the flop.
- Fold to 3-betHow often a player who opened folds when someone re-raises them.
- Fold to river betHow often a player folds when you bet into them on the river.
- Bluff shareThe share of a player's bets that are bluffs rather than value hands.
- Bluff-catcherA hand that beats only the other player's bluffs and loses to all of their value bets.
- Range notation (TT+, A2s+)A short way to list many hand classes at once: a plus means this hand and everything better of the same kind.
- GTO (game theory optimal)Game theory optimal: a strategy no opponent can exploit, found by a solver, which the app grades you against.
- Playing out of positionActing first after the flop, which makes every street harder to play and pots harder to control.
- Bayes' ruleReweighting each hand in a range by how often it would take the action you just saw.
- ReachHow much of a hand is still in a player's range at a decision, after the actions it took to get there.
- Equity realizationHow much of its equity a hand turns into EV: its EV as a share of its equity times the pot.
- Hand classesGroups of hands by what they make on this board, from sets and better down through pairs and draws to air.
- Flop weightHow many of the 22,100 possible flops look like this one once the suits are swapped.
- Filtered averageThe average of each column over the flops the filters keep, weighted by how often each flop comes.
- 4-betA re-raise over a 3-bet: the fourth bet in a round, counting the big blind as the first.
- DominatedSharing a card with a better hand while holding the weaker second card, such as KJ against AK.
- Semi-bluffA bet with a draw: it wins at once if they fold and can still make the best hand if they call.
- Zeebo theoremA poker saying: no player can fold a full house, whatever the size of the bet.