Have you ever wondered how your poker decision-making skills would fare against poker's greatest minds?
There's one surefire way to test yourself – but that tends to run anywhere from a couple thousand bucks all the way up to a million dollars. And even then, the fickle nature of tournament poker doesn't guarantee that you'll square off against one of your chosen elites.
Thankfully, Octopi Poker has a better way: GTO Duel.
Taking on Chidwick
If you're unfamiliar with the GTO Duel concept, here's a brief rundown. In each YouTube episode, hosted by Matt Hunt, competitors square off against George, the digital operator of Octopi Poker's trainer, and each other.
After all parties agree on the parameters of the test (game format, stack sizes, player positions, etc.), the two sides go back and forth through the decision points of the hand. In order to win, you have to outlast your opponent. If any player makes three mistakes, they lose. If any player makes a single blunder, they lose. George judges each decision – and scores it as either correct, a mistake, or a blunder based on Octopi Poker's solver outputs.
In Episode 2 of GTO Duel, Stephen Chidwick went up against the duo of Eva and Ramsey – taking a closer look at single-raise pots from the Button vs. Cutoff at 40 big blinds effective in an 8-Max MTT.
Impressively, both sides proved themselves well-studied as they answered correctly time and time again. Eventually, Hunt had to apply a time constraint to the players because they were doing too well. In the end, Chidwick reigned supreme – but it was a close finish as Eva and Ramsey made only one mistake throughout the entire episode. Chidwick, as some may have expected, got every single answer correct.
The GTO Duel episodes are a great way for the competitors to test their knowledge against the game's brightest minds, but audiences at home can benefit tremendously from this content as well. By listening to studied players discuss their decision-making, viewers at home can pick up on concepts they might not be aware of.
Additionally, they get to see how tools like Octopi Poker can be used to better their own game.
