After studying the Button position in GTO during the previous chapter, we will now examine it from an Exploitative perspective.
In other words, we’ll look at how to adapt versus recreational players to make this already advantageous position even more profitable.
To exploit recreational players when you are on the Button, there are essentially two major mistakes to take advantage of:
🛡️ We could also add that the Small Blind defends too often versus a min-raise, which increases the likelihood of multiway pots.
Since opponents don’t 3-bet enough, you can open a bit more hands than what GTO charts would suggest.
🚨 But be careful not to overdo it… If the SB is a recreational player, they will defend with many mediocre hands, which will often lead to complicated multiway situations.
Because opponents call all-ins too frequently with dominated hands, shoving hands that dominate their calling charts becomes highly profitable.
-> Example: A7o+ or medium pocket pairs.
These hands don’t play very well postflop anyway, so taking maximum value immediately is the best option.
On the other hand — for the same reasons — we should avoid shoving hands that:
→ Example: QTs, JTs, A4s, etc.
These hands prefer to see the flop, where you can exploit opponent mistakes postflop.
Once again, for more details, feel free to refer to the Button Strategy Guide.