ThinkGTO

Weekly Digest · June 17, 2026

This Week's Lead

Calling the Turn Barrel: The Four-Question Checklist

The flop call is easy. The turn barrel is where bluff-catching money is won and lost. Most players resolve it on feel. The fix is four questions you can run in ten seconds: did the card shift the range, do your cards block their value, does the price work, and does this opponent actually bluff enough. Get reps on the exact spot in Postflop+, then make the checklist automatic.

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New · Free Tool

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See a live example: a \$1/2 NL 3-bet pot that goes heads-up all-in → Scrub it action by action, exactly as it played.

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Strategy Spotlight

Build a 3-bet range with variety, not just a frequency

Chasing a target percentage ("I 3-bet 9%") leaves you lopsided and readable. What actually wins is construction: a credible blend of value and blocker bluffs so no flop leaves you face up. Look at the big blind defending a button open at 100bb below. The grid is not one move, it is a mix: 3-bet 13%, call 32%, fold 55%. The 3-bets are a deliberate spread of premiums and suited blocker hands, not just the top of your range.

100bb · BB vs BTN open · cash defense
13×13 preflop range grid: each cell's color band widths show fold/call/3-bet/jam frequencies
Jam · 3-bet · Call · Fold
Cell width = action frequency.
Cell width is proportional to action frequency.
Source: GTO Ranges+ · full 169-combo solve

Full defense and 3-bet libraries for every position and stack live in GTO Ranges+.

Hand of the Week

Why a monster bets small on A-7-2

A♦7♠2♣

100bb cash, you open the button and the big blind calls. The flop is ace-high and dry, the board your range smashes and theirs misses. The instinct with a strong hand is to bet big. Solver+ says the opposite: the button bets about 70% of the time using a tiny 25% pot sizing (1.38bb into 5.5bb), and almost never uses a large size (under 3%).

The reason is range, not hand. A small bet lets your whole range fire, keeps the big blind's dominated aces and pairs in, and protects your many air combos at once. Even top set prefers the small size here. Bet 75% with the nuts and you are quietly leaving money on the table.

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This Week in Poker

The WSOP $250,000 Super High Roller delivered the drama you would expect from that lineup, with Phil Ivey arriving at the final table as the short stack and getting it in against Bryn Kenney. The summer's biggest buy-in always doubles as a who's who of high stakes, and this final table was no exception.

On the bracelet side, Chino Rheem ran into the cruelest result in poker, busting the $10,000 Big O Championship on the money bubble. A reminder that even the deepest runs can end one spot short.

Put it into practice

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