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Modern Poker Theory: Building an unbeatable strategy based on GTO principles
Poker is in constant evolution; the players get smarter and the games get tougher. As this happens the need for having a fundamentally sound game is greater than ever. In order to keep up with modern developments, players must constantly be willing to adapt and learn new strategies. However, with so much new software available and so many new theories about play, it's difficult to make sense of it all. Modern Poker Theory is the solution to this problem. It is a comprehensive, rigorous guide to the most important aspects of No Limit Hold 'Em. Modern Poker Theory uses modern poker tools to develop a systematic approach to game theory optimal play (GTO). It organizes the ideas and concepts in an intuitive manner that is totally focused to practical applications. The goal is to help players improve their understanding of the game while providing them with the skill set they need in order to stay ahead of the curve and beat the games.
480 pages, ebook
Published August 1, 2019
484 people are currently reading
1263 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 20, 2021
This books has significant negative sides, but the positives more than make up for it, and that's why I decided to rate it 5 stars instead of 4.
The negatives are 1) uncountable flaws in grammar and swapping of words that could be easily avoided by a better reviewing and editing process. I don't mean bad English, but simply silly mistakes you'd commit due to writing while tired. They are silly but cause confusion at times, like when the author means to say "IP" but instead says the opposite, "OOP". 2) sometimes the explanations are not clear. 3) sometimes he explains in way too many details something that has little to zero relevance, when a more succinct and fundamental explanation would be sufficient. 4) It's not nearly as didactic as "Play Optimal Poker", by Andrew Brokos.
The positives, as mentioned, more than make up for the flaws, though. The sections of most value for me personally were the Cash Game and the Post Flop chapters. The post flop section is pure gold, although you need to mine it because it's very dense and not as didactic. My understanding of poker as a whole has expanded greatly. Despite that, I'll definitely need to go through it a few more times in order to truly internalize the knowledge that I've merely grasped.
There's also a very rich section on MTTs at multiple stack depths, which was pain for me to get through, as it has too much information for someone used to cash games. I haven't retained as much from these chapters, but it's comforting to know that whenever I get interested in MTTs I can revisit them.
The first part of the book was more of a review for me, as it simply covered the building block concepts for GTO. If you don't understand the GTO premises yet, I'd recommend reading Andrew's book before grabbing this one, just for good measure (for the third time, didactics is important, specially when learning the core concepts and premises).
I might have commented the sections out of order, but after finishing this book I feel way too drained to edit this review. Totally recommend it, good luck.
The negatives are 1) uncountable flaws in grammar and swapping of words that could be easily avoided by a better reviewing and editing process. I don't mean bad English, but simply silly mistakes you'd commit due to writing while tired. They are silly but cause confusion at times, like when the author means to say "IP" but instead says the opposite, "OOP". 2) sometimes the explanations are not clear. 3) sometimes he explains in way too many details something that has little to zero relevance, when a more succinct and fundamental explanation would be sufficient. 4) It's not nearly as didactic as "Play Optimal Poker", by Andrew Brokos.
The positives, as mentioned, more than make up for the flaws, though. The sections of most value for me personally were the Cash Game and the Post Flop chapters. The post flop section is pure gold, although you need to mine it because it's very dense and not as didactic. My understanding of poker as a whole has expanded greatly. Despite that, I'll definitely need to go through it a few more times in order to truly internalize the knowledge that I've merely grasped.
There's also a very rich section on MTTs at multiple stack depths, which was pain for me to get through, as it has too much information for someone used to cash games. I haven't retained as much from these chapters, but it's comforting to know that whenever I get interested in MTTs I can revisit them.
The first part of the book was more of a review for me, as it simply covered the building block concepts for GTO. If you don't understand the GTO premises yet, I'd recommend reading Andrew's book before grabbing this one, just for good measure (for the third time, didactics is important, specially when learning the core concepts and premises).
I might have commented the sections out of order, but after finishing this book I feel way too drained to edit this review. Totally recommend it, good luck.
October 19, 2020
I have been working with this book for about a month now, really breaking down every chapter and distilling the theory into efficiently implementable heuristics. Granted much of this stuff is more review than new concepts, but the little bits of new theory (particularly in regards to 30-60bb MTT play, equity buckets and specific counter intuitive solver preferences) have been extraordinarily insightful. I really appreciate the fully colored range charts, and love the overall quality of the print (D+B generally has high quality prints in my experience). This book provides great value for the price point and is a very good introduction to the game theory in poker.
The major problem is the amount of errors in grammar (there is some leniency here given that English isn't the authors first language) and data tables (no leniency here, this is egregious for a book based on theory). I'm sure experienced players and astute readers will notice these when digesting the information, but a newer player might not and can therefore create a fundamentally unsound baseline. Perhaps its not as detrimental as I think it is but regardless, a math book should not have math errors. Period.
I think if there were no errors, I would proclaim Modern Poker Theory to be the best poker book currently on the market. Unfortunately I cannot make such proclamations at this time. I still recommend it to poker players and would say it is required reading for professionals.
The major problem is the amount of errors in grammar (there is some leniency here given that English isn't the authors first language) and data tables (no leniency here, this is egregious for a book based on theory). I'm sure experienced players and astute readers will notice these when digesting the information, but a newer player might not and can therefore create a fundamentally unsound baseline. Perhaps its not as detrimental as I think it is but regardless, a math book should not have math errors. Period.
I think if there were no errors, I would proclaim Modern Poker Theory to be the best poker book currently on the market. Unfortunately I cannot make such proclamations at this time. I still recommend it to poker players and would say it is required reading for professionals.
April 8, 2025
Absolutely sucked ass to read… but I’m up $300 since I started it
October 22, 2020
This is a must read book for anyone who wants to take poker seriously. Even though the material is mostly prepared for MTT crowd with shallower stack, the fundamental knowledge it covers still applies to other form of poker. There is about 300 pages of preflop charts that could be redundant for you if your main game is not MTT. However, the postflop theory part is pure gold. Obviously the author could go even deeper than he did but for this price he did enough to open the door for you into the solver world and you should be able to go down to the path on your own.
April 9, 2020
In my opinion, the book does not fully disclose the GTO in modern poker, especially from the point of view of poker software. For example, the book does not mention the most advanced gto solver that currently exists - Simple 3-Way https://simplepoker.com/en/Solutions/... , as well as other solvers developed by Simple Poker company, the market leader of the gto tools development.
The rest of the material presented in the book is quite interesting and useful.
The rest of the material presented in the book is quite interesting and useful.
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May 10, 2025Great poker book, but sometimes things aren't explained as well as they could be and there are some minor errors. As a whole my favorite poker book thus far
March 29, 2020
Overrated
Highly touted book. Felt like the structure was terrible and could have been better. Much better value out of paying for a training course.
Highly touted book. Felt like the structure was terrible and could have been better. Much better value out of paying for a training course.
September 14, 2024
Although I have been playing poker for almost 25 years, I have never really taken the time to attempt to learn about poker theory until reading this book. I have played and watched enough poker to have intuitively learned many of the lessons taught in this book, but this is really the first time I've seen poker explained in such an in-depth mathematical way.
Modern Poker Theory is an incredibly thorough yet very dense book that dives deep into GTO (Game Theory Optimal) poker strategies, starting with an extensive glossary of definitions/abbreviations and then walking through everything from pre-flop to river strategies. Although there is a near infinite amount of paths that any given poker hand can take, Michael Acevedo does a good job of breaking things down into a handful of examples that can be extrapolated into any number of alternative situations within a poker game. The book includes a TON of charts and graphs that illustrate hand ranges that different players could have in different scenarios, percentages of times that particular hands should be called/raised/folded/checked, and any other number of data points. It is impossible to memorize all of these charts, many of which are only ever so slightly distinct from each other in certain situations, and after about 50 pages I stopped trying. I chose to focus more on the higher level takeaways that I may be able to utilize in my own poker game. I'm not a poker pro and never will be, but if I can gain the slightest edge in my home game or a casual $1-$3 game at the local casino then this book will have been well worthwhile. My biggest takeaway is probably a much stronger understanding of the relative positions in a poker hand (under-the-gun, cutoff, button, blinds, etc.) and what relative hand strengths you should really have in those positions to justify any given action. My biggest complaint about this book is that is is really tailored towards the assumption that everyone in the game is playing GTO poker at any given time, which we know will not be the case. The author's take is that if an opponent is not playing GTO and you are, then you stand to capitalize even more from their mistakes. However, it is hard to control for the random drunk guy at the casino that seemingly makes decisions at random!
I was in between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. My justification for 3 was going to be that the majority of the text/charts in this book did not really stick with me. However, I decided to give it a 4 because (a) I can appreciate how the more dense parts of this text could be very useful to more serious poker players and (b) I do think that I learned enough here to up my game and thus justify having taken the time to read this book.
Modern Poker Theory is an incredibly thorough yet very dense book that dives deep into GTO (Game Theory Optimal) poker strategies, starting with an extensive glossary of definitions/abbreviations and then walking through everything from pre-flop to river strategies. Although there is a near infinite amount of paths that any given poker hand can take, Michael Acevedo does a good job of breaking things down into a handful of examples that can be extrapolated into any number of alternative situations within a poker game. The book includes a TON of charts and graphs that illustrate hand ranges that different players could have in different scenarios, percentages of times that particular hands should be called/raised/folded/checked, and any other number of data points. It is impossible to memorize all of these charts, many of which are only ever so slightly distinct from each other in certain situations, and after about 50 pages I stopped trying. I chose to focus more on the higher level takeaways that I may be able to utilize in my own poker game. I'm not a poker pro and never will be, but if I can gain the slightest edge in my home game or a casual $1-$3 game at the local casino then this book will have been well worthwhile. My biggest takeaway is probably a much stronger understanding of the relative positions in a poker hand (under-the-gun, cutoff, button, blinds, etc.) and what relative hand strengths you should really have in those positions to justify any given action. My biggest complaint about this book is that is is really tailored towards the assumption that everyone in the game is playing GTO poker at any given time, which we know will not be the case. The author's take is that if an opponent is not playing GTO and you are, then you stand to capitalize even more from their mistakes. However, it is hard to control for the random drunk guy at the casino that seemingly makes decisions at random!
I was in between giving this book 3 and 4 stars. My justification for 3 was going to be that the majority of the text/charts in this book did not really stick with me. However, I decided to give it a 4 because (a) I can appreciate how the more dense parts of this text could be very useful to more serious poker players and (b) I do think that I learned enough here to up my game and thus justify having taken the time to read this book.
January 28, 2022
As someone who is good with numbers but bad at poker, this was a very interesting read to me. The poker world, like chess and go, is seeing a computer revolution where very powerful computers are solving the game. Since poker is an imperfect information game, these solvers need to take into account all the possible hands for every position and stack size on a poker table. Currently, these solvers are close to optimal for two player games for the first two streets of a hand of poker. Acevedo has run thousands of scenarios through these algorithms and gleaned incredible insights on what optimal poker looks like. This is a very detailed book and expects the reader to already have a strong understanding of the game, but if you have an interest in mathematics and poker, it is well worth your time.
July 28, 2023
Probably the best poker book I've read to date. Great in-depth overviews of common spots as well as really teaching what playing "GTO" means. The book is ripe with a lot of math and probabilities from solvers, probably a bit too much. This information is presented in a way that is hard to learn unless you have a photographic memory and its probably best to practice these heuristics using a solver or playing live.
Note to self: Poker theory is only so important as developing strong heuristics to use in real cash/Tournament games. You (most likely) wont be able to remember what a solver will suggest in real time so understanding the tradeoff matrices and reasoning from there seems to be the best way to learn.
Funnily enough the author recognizes this and notes that he is 80% study and 20% play, and that distribution is flipped for the people he coaches.
Note to self: Poker theory is only so important as developing strong heuristics to use in real cash/Tournament games. You (most likely) wont be able to remember what a solver will suggest in real time so understanding the tradeoff matrices and reasoning from there seems to be the best way to learn.
Funnily enough the author recognizes this and notes that he is 80% study and 20% play, and that distribution is flipped for the people he coaches.
December 29, 2021
Good book explaining GTO Poker. Content wise is more for MTTs than Cash Games. Also I read it in Kindle and for the amount of graphs with ranges that contains the book I will suggest buying the physical version.
August 7, 2023
The best use of this book is imo in tandem with a solver. Put some of your hand history into a solver, then use the appropriate chapter to provide some understanding about why the solver is doing what it's doing.
November 16, 2025
A deeply rigorous and math-driven guide to GTO poker. Acevedo’s book is packed with charts and solver-based theory, extremely valuable for serious students of No-Limit Hold’em, but quite dense and technical. Not always easy to read, but if you put in the work, it can sharply elevate your game.
October 24, 2020
Decent for a poker book given the changing nature of the game.
July 22, 2022
Gonna take some serious re-reading to get to grips with the ideas in this book.
August 18, 2022
a bit hard to read, will probably re read it again to apply it in real life poker scenarios
April 16, 2023
Wouldn't use "unbeatable" in the title, but it's really good.
February 15, 2024
GTO principles explained incredibly well. Would advise accompanying this with a gto solver (pio solver), holdem manager/pokertracker and equilab. (Note - mainly for advanced play)
March 1, 2024
Pretty dense and a bit theoretical but very interesting read on poker and asymmetric information games in general.
March 7, 2024
A strong framework that will allow you to get the most out of your solver studying sessions. I recommend living by this book.
October 21, 2024
Gets tedious in middle, had to skip bunch of pages here and there, but worth the read.
September 11, 2025
nunca tive tanta dificuldade a ler um livro…. incrível
November 13, 2025
A groundbreaking work that blends rigorous theory with real-world application, this book challenged my thinking and elevated my game.
December 29, 2025
Chunky book that I gutted through during Christmas, read similar to a Chem E textbook with all the derivations and examples. Feel like I didn’t learn a ton and need to get on the table
January 7, 2020
some minor errors in examples
December 20, 2024
Decent intro for 2019 but in 2024 would be a total waste of time. A few YouTube videos from GTOwizard or your favorite poker content provider is much higher yield. Or if you are looking for a theoretical book tying together poker and game theory, andrew brokos’ books are much better.
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November 2, 2022didn't actually finish
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews