There exists strategies that gives higher yields vs certain unbalanced strategies than the game theory optimal strategy (or strategies - for all we know there are several optimal strategies in limit hold'em).įor instance - in limit poker if your opponent will never raise, call every street, but not call the river with anything less than a pair, regardless of what you do, then bluffing every river is a more winning strategy than the game theory optimal strategy. Doing so comes at the cost of you yourself no longer playing the best strategy though. If you are able to identify flaws in your opponents strategy then you can play non-game theory optimal to increase your profits against that perceived strategy. The optimal strategy beats everything but an equally good strategy, and ties against itself, but it doesnt necessarily maximise profits against other bad strategies. I think the point he is trying to make is that if your goal is to maximise your profits then it is not always optimal to play the nash equilibrium strategy.

In reality, of course, our opponents are never perfect, and so the idea of playing an equilibrium strategy at the table is usually pretty academic. If he were a perfect player, the right thing to do would be to call his bet a third of the time, since if you called more he’d exploit you by never bluffing and if you called less he’d exploit you by always bluffing. For example, if your opponent bets half the pot on the river after a particular series of actions, the pot is offering him 2-1 on his bluff.

Finding equilibriums in poker is much more complicated, but the concept can be useful when you’re playing lots of hands against tough opponents.

In the game “rock, paper, scissors,” the equilibrium strategy is to randomly choose between the three options, choosing each one a third of the time in the long run. Q: What’s a Nash Equilibrium or “game theory optimal” strategy?Ī: An equilibrium strategy is one that wins the most money possible against a perfect opponent (this does not mean an opponent who can see your cards, but one who always knows your range whenever you take an action and makes the best choice against that range). He is known for bringing advanced mathematics to the game of limit poker and winning a small fortune because of it. I found this artile by Bryce Paradis that elaborates on using a Nash equilibrium for optimal play.

Limit texas hold em solved