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Play at least one chapter on the trainer every day to earn a flame.
The longer your streak grows, the more your XP is multiplied at the end of each session.
If you miss a day, your streak resets to zero.
Play at least one chapter on the trainer every day to earn a flame.
The longer your streak grows, the more your XP is multiplied at the end of each session.
If you miss a day, your streak resets to zero.
In this chapter, we’ll learn how to adapt the GTO push strategy studied in Chapter 1 in order to exploit the real tendencies of recreational players.
The goal is no longer to stay balanced (GTO), but to maximize EV against opponents who don’t play perfectly.
We’ll see:
• Which hands become more or less profitable to push against the common tendencies of recreational players.
• And in which cases it’s better to stick to the GTO strategy.
Recreational players in the Big Blind behave very differently from good regulars:
• They ISO-raise (non all-in / shove) far too rarely when you limp.
• They call with the wrong ranges versus your open shoves (often with dominated hands).
Nothing surprising if you’ve read our SB HU Strategy Guide!
These mistakes allow you to adjust your game plan:
In theory, some strong hands (like A♠️K♥️, A♠️Q♥️, K♠️Q♥️…) can be limped to trap an opponent who is normally aggressive.
But against passive players (which is the case for most recreational players) who almost never ISO-raise, these limp-traps lose their purpose.
➡️ It’s better to shove these hands directly to maximize value, or to min-raise them rather than waiting for an ISO that will almost never come.
Hands like 7♠️6♠️, 8♥️7♥️, or T♣️9♣️ can be very profitable to limp, especially if Villain:
• Doesn’t punish your limps (rarely shoves)
• Plays poorly postflop (too many check/folds).
These hands are not mistakes to push — but they realize their equity well postflop when limped against a recreational player.
Between 0 and 6–7 effective BB, your postflop edge becomes tiny — it’s too hard to exploit anything reliably.
These spots are mostly mechanical.
In this zone, keep applying the GTO strategy from Chapter 1. That often means playing pure push-or-fold.
Adopting an exploitative strategy doesn’t mean memorizing ranges by heart hand by hand.
It should be adjusted to the opponent’s profile and the information available.
Our charts provide a baseline versus the most common recreational profile, but try to stay as flexible as possible.
For more information on this topic, feel free to check out the SB HU Strategic Guide.