Poker solvers are software tools that calculate GTO (game theory optimal) solutions for specific hand scenarios, telling you which hands to bet, check, or fold, and at what frequency, to achieve a perfectly balanced, unexploitable strategy. You feed them a hand situation; they compute the theoretically correct play.
I have studied with solvers for years, and the single biggest shift they produced in my game was not individual plays. It was understanding the ranges.
Once you see how a solver allocates your entire range across different actions on different boards, you stop thinking in terms of single hands and start thinking in terms of frequencies. That change is worth more than any single tip.
If you are studying on PokerCoaching, I recommend starting with PeakGTO, the solver we built specifically for this site and the one I use to create coaching content. This guide will also cover how PeakGTO compares to other tools on the market so you can make an informed decision.
What Are Poker Solvers?
What I find when coaching players who are new to solvers is that the concept sounds more complicated than it actually is. At its core, a poker solver is a simulation engine. You give it a scenario, and it runs millions of iterations until both players’ strategies are balanced against each other. That balanced point is the GTO solution.
Poker solvers are modern tools used to calculate Game Theory Optimal strategies, also referred to as solves, solutions, or solver outputs.
Poker solvers were not always part of the poker world, and they have risen to prominence only over the last several years, especially on a massive scale. Poker solvers are programs you can use to run simulations of poker hands in order to learn the optimal gameplay strategy for given scenarios.
These tools require you to enter a number of inputs, which describe the hand you are looking to solve, and which are used to run the calculation.
Contrary to popular belief, poker solvers don’t actually know how to play poker; rather, they use simulations from the beginning each time they run a hand, adjusting strategies through trial and error until they reach a Nash Equilibrium, which is perfectly balanced.
Equilab is a free poker solver that can help you study the equities of different ranges and hands.
Poker Solver Comparison: Which One Should You Use?
There are several solver options available at different price points and skill levels. Here is how the main ones compare:
| Solver | Type | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| PeakGTO | Database + calculator | Free tier available | PokerCoaching students; beginners getting started with GTO |
| GTO Wizard | Database (cloud) | Limited free tier available | Players who want instant results without running sims |
| PioSolver | Calculator (desktop) | From $249 (one-time) | Advanced players who need full custom solve control |
| GTO+ | Calculator (desktop) | From $100 (one-time) | Intermediate players on a budget who want calculator power |
| MonkerSolver | Calculator (desktop/Java) | $499 | PLO players and multi-way spot specialists |
I recommend students start out with PeakGTO. It is the tool that integrates directly with PokerCoaching content and is designed to match how I teach. Once you are comfortable reading solver outputs and building simple game trees, you can explore PioSolver for deeper custom analysis or GTO Wizard for quick database lookups between sessions.
The two main solver types are worth understanding before you pick one. Calculator-type solvers (PioSolver, GTO+) run custom simulations from scratch for any scenario you set up.
Database-type solvers (PeakGTO, GTO Wizard) store precomputed solutions and return results instantly. Calculator solvers give you flexibility; database solvers give you speed.
For studying while away from the table, database access is usually more practical. For deep postflop work on specific spots, a calculator solver is worth the investment.
Game Theory Optimal (GTO) Poker Strategy
As we just said, poker solvers are tools designed to generate GTO poker solutions. But what exactly are those, and what does GTO stand for?
GTO poker refers to a mathematically optimal way to play poker —one that opponents cannot exploit, regardless of how they play their hands.
The goal of GTO strategies and poker solvers is to create a way of playing that will always make you at least break even against any player in the world.
This makes the GTO poker strategy extremely appealing, as it guarantees you will not be a losing poker player, regardless of who you face.
Of course, humans can’t mimic this kind of GTO approach to perfection, and even poker solvers can only provide you with solutions for a given set of inputs you feed into them.
Furthermore, the GTO is not always the best way to play a particular hand, as it does not attempt to exploit the player you are playing against, either.
This means that there are quite a few scenarios in which deviating from GTO can lead to a higher profit, but at the risk of being exploited by other players.
One of the best poker players in the world under the age of 30,
PokerCoaching.com coach Justin Saliba has built a career on playing GTO poker.
Using Poker Solvers
The first time most players open a solver, they stare at the output and feel overwhelmed. That is normal. When I first started using solver software, the mixed strategies and frequency splits made no intuitive sense to me. What helped was shifting my question from “what should I do here?” to “why is the solver doing this?” That one shift made everything else click.
Now that you know what poker solvers are, here is how to actually use one. The most important thing to understand before you start is that solvers always operate in terms of ranges, never individual hands.
If you want to run a simulation, you will need to feed the solver with your own possible range in a scenario, as well as a realistic range of hands for your opponent. Therefore, if you make mistakes with this part and provide the solver with inaccurate inputs, the outputs you get will be equally faulty.
That said, here are the basic steps you will have to go through every time you want to run a solver for one of your hands:
Step #1 – Building a Game Tree
Building a game tree is the first part of the process of using a poker solver to solve a hand. Game trees are graphical representations of all the possible actions in a hand, or rather, the ones you choose to include.
Keep in mind that poker is a game of almost infinite possibilities. For this reason, you will need to tell the solver which possibilities you wish it to solve for and include in the game tree.
For example, you will need to determine which bet sizes both you and your opponent might want to use on different flops or turns.
Normally, players run simulations for popular bets and raise sizes, such as 33% of the pot, 60% of the pot, or the full pot.
A game tree builder within your poker solver will help you out with this, but it will also take some time before you build those elite game trees.
Keep in mind that the more decision nodes you add to the game tree, the longer your solve will take, so it’s a good idea to limit those to a few on every street, as suggested by the game tree builder.
Step #2 – Input the Ranges
As we already explained, poker solvers don’t actually know how to play poker, and they don’t know the first thing about which hands you might want to play from any position. Therefore, it will be necessary for you to input your own range and your opponents’ ranges into the solver.
For your own range, you should enter a realistic range that you know you would play in a given scenario. By all means, be honest with yourself when doing this part.
Next, you will want to input a range for your opponent or multiple players. In this case, you will need to use experience or some premade hand ranges that best fit population tendencies.
Inputting the right-hand ranges is equally as important as creating a reasonable game tree, as both will have a big impact on the final outcome of your solution.
Step #3 – Run the Solve
Once all the relevant data has been input, all that’s left is to run the solver and wait for the computer to crunch the numbers.
Poker solves can take quite a bit of time, especially if you want perfect results. For that reason, solvers will let you stop just short of the Nash Equilibrium, saving a ton of time for just a slight inaccuracy.
The process by which poker solvers come up with solutions is quite interesting, especially for nerds who wonder how exactly this happens.
Since poker solvers don’t know how to play poker, they will run a great number of simulations, starting with a completely random poker strategy for all players involved.
As the solver runs through more simulations, it adjusts the strategy of both players until it reaches a perfect balance.
The final results of a poker solution will be perfectly balanced ranges for the given scenario. Mimicking these ranges in real games will make you unexploitable and virtually unbeatable.
Step #4 -Interpreting the Solver Outputs
Once you have run a solve in one of the popular poker solvers, the tool will tell you which portions of your range you should use for each of the options you provided in the game tree.
For instance, if you told the solver to create a strategy that involves a flop check, a 33% pot bet, and a 100% pot bet, it will tell you which hands in your range you should be using for each of those three actions.
This is where it gets a bit tricky, though! Unlike a human player, a poker solver will often use a “mixed strategy,” which means it will tell you to check a certain hand x% of the time while betting it x% of the time.
With a mixed strategy used for many poker hands, actually mimicking the results of a poker solve in a real game would be nearly impossible.
However, if you are going to try and play a strategy that resembles GTO, you will need to learn about randomization and mixing it up with certain hands in your range to actually remain balanced.
Using Premade Poker Solves
A whole generation of young poker players today benefits from the work some of the top players have done with solvers over the years.
One great example is solved preflop ranges, which typically take an extremely long time to process and cannot be done on a home computer.
Thankfully, preflop ranges have already been run through computers repeatedly, and you will have no problem finding readily available preflop poker charts made in accordance with the GTO poker approach.
Preflop charts are available for open raises from all positions, 3-bets from and against all positions, and more, making it very easy for you to start learning them without having to run the sims.
Premade GTO solutions for postflop situations are also available. If you want to save yourself some time, consider purchasing a subscription to a database that contains them, which will give you the solutions you were looking for immediately.
GTO preflop charts, like those on PokerCoaching.com, allow users to implement solver-approved ranges.
Which Solver Is Right for You?
Yes, you should use a poker solver, but which one depends on where you are in your poker journey.
If you are just beginning your journey, PeakGTO is the best value. It integrates with the training content and is one of the easiest tools to use, showing not only what to do but also why, which makes all the difference in the world. It is the tool I use when creating coaching material and hand reviews.
If you want the fastest possible access to solver data, GTO Wizard’s database gives you instant answers to common spots without running a single sim. The free tier covers a wide range of NLHE situations and is a good supplement to PeakGTO for quick between-session lookups.
If you are an advanced player doing deep postflop work, PioSolver gives you full control over every parameter of your simulations. It requires a one-time purchase and runs locally on your computer, which means the solve time depends on your hardware. Most serious players doing spot-by-spot postflop analysis end up here eventually.
If you play PLO, MonkerSolver is the standard tool for PLO and multi-way solutions. Other solvers are primarily built for heads-up Texas Hold’em spots.
Regardless of which tool you choose, the key is consistency. Thirty minutes of focused solver study per week (reviewing hands you played, identifying the frequency mistake, and understanding why the solver makes the choice it makes) will improve your game faster than watching hours of training videos without doing the work yourself.
