How to Use a Solver to Analyze a Poker Situation

This post was originally published on February 22, 2020, on my personal website, Lukich.io. I have since consolidated all of my poker-related content by reposting it onto Solver School.

Solvers can be incredible tools to help us become better poker players. Since I truly learned how to use them, I have seen a noticeable gain in my understanding, execution, and results at the table.

They can also be overwhelming. There are many different inputs, some of which are hard to estimate. The outputs recommend a frequency of mixing for every hand combo within our entire range, making it difficult to extract insights and impossible to execute. If you don’t know how to use them, it can be hard to see how they can be used to help build our strategies.

Everyone has the same feeling the first time they use a solver. But despite the initial learning curve, they are helpful tools to develop better strategies in poker. To maximize the value they can provide, it's essential to have a structure we can use to study situations.

I made a video to share the process I developed to work on my construction study. Once I started utilizing this process within my regular studies, I saw massive improvements in my growth as a poker player. I believe that it’s the best way to use solvers to analyze any in-game situation.

If you have any comments or thoughts, please feel free to leave any comments below. You can also contact me at [email protected] or reach me on Twitter or YouTube through the links in the footer below.

-Lukich