Guess the Solver: 8 GTO Plays That Feel Wrong (Quiz)
Eight real spots where Solver+ does what most players would not: checking aces, calling a big check-raise with K3, c-betting 81% or 3% on the same flop. Guess first, then tap to see the answer and why.
Some solver plays feel obviously right. These eight do not. In each one, Solver+ does something most players would bet against at the table: checking aces, calling a big check-raise with K-3, c-betting a flop four out of five times against one caller and almost never against another.
The rules are simple. Read the spot, commit to an answer, then tap to see what Solver+ does and why. No timer, no login, and nothing is saved. Every answer comes from a spot we have already broken down in a Deep Dive, so if one surprises you, the full data is one click away. If you want to drill spots like these until the answers feel automatic, Postflop+ deals them against a GTO opponent and grades each decision.
Unless a question says otherwise, the spots are 100bb cash, single-raised pots, with the opener raising to 2.5bb. Where Solver+ mixes between actions, the "right" answer is the one it chooses most often, and the reveal gives the exact frequency.
The quiz
Hand 1 of 8
Same flop, different caller
100bb cash. Under the gun opens to 2.5bb. Flop:
Against a big blind caller, under the gun c-bets this flop 81% of the time. Now the button calls instead and the blinds fold. How often does under the gun c-bet?
3%. Same opening range, same flop, same stacks. Against the big blind, under the gun is in position against a wide range. Against the button it is out of position against a narrow, strong one, so it checks almost everything and its strong hands move into the check-raise. Across ten flops, openers in position against the big blind c-bet 74-77% on average; out of position against a button caller the averages fall to 27-44%. See the full spot: Same Flop, Different Caller
Hand 2 of 8
Aces on an ace-high board
100bb cash, button vs big blind. You c-bet 1.38bb with
You have top set. What does Solver+ do most often?
Check, 99% of the time. Top set holds the ace, which is the card the big blind needs to pay you off. On the same turn, middle set 99 and bottom set 44 take the 135% overbet 99% and 98% of the time. The slow-play is real, but it belongs to one hand on one kind of board. See the full spot: Flopped a Set: Fast-Play or Slow-Play
Hand 3 of 8
Top pair, top kicker
100bb cash, button vs big blind. You c-bet a quarter pot on
You hold AK, top pair with the best kicker. What does Solver+ do most often?
Check back, about 60% of the time. AK overbets only about one time in five. The ace blocks the ace-high hands the big blind floated the flop with, and those are exactly the hands an overbet wants a call from. KQ, with a worse kicker, overbets 91%. See the full spot: Overbetting One Pair
Hand 4 of 8
Find the threshold
Same spot:
Which top pair bets 135% pot about half the time and checks the other half?
KT, 50%. KQ overbets 91%, KJ 82%, KT 50% and K9 just 3%. The line sits at the ten because K9 is behind KT, KJ and KQ, all of which the big blind can call with. An overbet needs to be ahead of what calls it, not the nuts. See the full spot: Overbetting One Pair
Hand 5 of 8
The scary check-raise
100bb cash, button vs big blind. You c-bet 1.38bb on
Top pair, terrible kicker. Fold, call or 3-bet?
Call, 100% of the time. On K-7-2 rainbow the button never folds top pair to either raise size, from AK down to K3 suited. The big raise is polarized (sets, two pair and bluffs), so re-raising only folds out the bluffs, and calling 4.83bb more into a 13.09bb pot needs just 27% equity. The button still folds 41% of its range here. Those folds come from the hands with nothing, not from top pair. See the full spot: Top Pair Facing a Flop Check-Raise
Hand 6 of 8
Same kicker, different answer
100bb cash, button vs big blind. You c-bet 4.4bb on
You have top pair, queen kicker. Which version of the hand folds almost every time?
Q-T offsuit folds 99%. Q-T suited calls 80%. Same pair, same kicker. The suited version usually picks up a backdoor flush draw on this rainbow board, and against a raise this big that extra equity is what keeps the hand in. The same split shows up with K-T (suited calls 99%, offsuit 69%) and J-T (87% vs 17%). See the full spot: Top Pair Facing a Flop Check-Raise
Hand 7 of 8
Who is jamming the river?
100bb cash, button vs big blind. The flop c-bet is called, the turn checks through, the straight draws miss. You bet the river and the big blind check-raises all-in.
When that jam is a bluff, what is it most likely to be?
A weak pair. On three runouts the missed open-enders check-raise the river exactly 0% of the time: they bet earlier or give up. Missed gutshots that reach the river fold 89-100%. The big blind check-raises the river about 17-19% of the time, and that range is sets and two pair plus a handful of weak pairs that hold a card from the board. See the full spot: River Check-Raise When the Draws Missed
Hand 8 of 8
Tournament bonus round
MTT, 30bb deep, chip EV, 8-handed. Under the gun opens and it folds to you in the big blind with
Seven-four suited against an early-position open. Fold it?
Defend. From 15bb to 40bb, against every opener, GTO Ranges+ never folds a suited hand or a pocket pair from the big blind. At 30bb it folds 35% of its hands to an under-the-gun open and only 15% to a button open, and all of those folds are offsuit. See the full spot: Big Blind Defense at 25-40bb
You are a
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What the eight answers have in common
None of them is about how strong the hand is. Every one is about what the hand does against the opponent's range.
- Blockers decide more than hand strength. Aces check on A-9-4-2 and AK checks the K-7-2 turn because they hold the cards the opponent needs to pay them off. The best hand is not always the best bet.
- Value means being ahead of what calls. KQ overbets and K9 does not, on the same board, because one beats the hands that call and the other does not. The kicker threshold is a statement about the caller's range.
- Position and the caller's seat move whole strategies. The same flop goes from an 81% c-bet to 3% when the caller moves from the big blind to the button. No single hand changed.
- Small equity edges keep hands in. A backdoor flush draw is the difference between Q-T suited calling 80% and Q-T offsuit folding 99%. In the big blind, it is why suited hands never fold at 15-40bb.
- Bluffs come from where you do not expect. The river jam is a weak pair, not the missed draw everyone puts it on. Hands with no showdown value had already bet or given up earlier in the hand.
That is the useful way to read a solver: not as a list of answers to memorize, but as a set of reasons that transfer to boards you have never studied. Our guide on how to use a poker solver walks through reading a spot this way, step by step.
Turn the surprises into reflexes
Getting a question wrong here costs nothing. Getting it wrong at the table costs a pot. The fastest way to close that gap is repetition: play the spot, see the answer, play the next one.
- Postflop+ deals flop, turn and river spots like these against a GTO opponent and shows the solved answer after every decision.
- Solver+ lets you open any of these spots, change the turn card or the caller, and watch the strategy move.
- GTO Ranges+ covers the preflop side, including the tournament big blind defense from hand 8.
Score yourself honestly, then go back to the hand that surprised you most. That one is your next study session.
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