The tactics vs strategy paradigm arises in many strategic disciplines including warfare and chess. It’s also helpful whether you’re playing Texas Hold’em or Omaha Hi-Lo.
In this guide, we’ll explain the difference between tactics and strategy as well as create a sample application to the game of poker.
Tactics vs Strategy – What’s the Difference?
In warfare, tactics vs strategy is the difference between individual battles and overall war. Losing individual battles might not pose a problem so long as the larger strategic objectives are met.
- In the game of chess, strategy refers to positional objectives that span the entire game
- Tactics refers to individual moves (or sequences of moves) that build towards the overall advantage.
Strategy refers to the bigger picture, while tactics refer to minor details.
Being able to think both tactically and strategically is crucial.
One without the other usually ends up being ineffective.
Tactics vs Strategy – Application to Poker
While there is no right or wrong answer to how we apply the concept to poker, there is a logical suggestion.
- Tactics – These are scenarios where we can calculate our precise expected value (usually on later streets).
- Strategy – Logical adjustments to our gameplan, even if the precise effect on our expected value is not known.
Remember that expected value or EV represents the average profit we make from a particular decision over a large enough sample.
Tactics in Poker
We define a poker tactic as a scenario in which we can calculate our precise EV (or at least very strong estimates).
By using poker tracking software, we can establish how often a river bluff works in various scenarios. This information allows us to calculate whether the bluff is profitable and even make solid projections regarding our expected value.
Once we discover profitable tactics, it's usually a case of executing them repeatedly to generate a positive winrate and reduce poker variance. Our repertoire of profitable tactics will grow as we gain experience and collate additional data.
Poker tactics are not just confined to bluffs. If we have an idea of how wide our opponent is calling on the river, it's possible to calculate how wide our value betting range should be.
At the same time, there is an art to this type of calculation. Just because a particular play generates a positive expected value does not guarantee it is the most profitable line.
Advanced players typically compare different tactics to see which generates the highest EV.
Strategy in Poker
We define poker strategy as making logical decisions even if we aren’t sure of the precise impact on our EV.
Calculating the expected value of early street decisions is much more complex than on later streets. The EV of early street decisions depends on all the possible scenarios on the later streets.
Just because we don’t know our expected value doesn’t mean we can’t make logical decisions about our broader strategic objectives.
For example, imagine we are in the big blind when a weaker player open raises. A logical assumption is that we should be expanding our big blind defending range to play heads-up more often with the weaker player.
Can we calculate exactly how much wider we should defend and create precise calculations regarding our exact EV? No, the remainder of the game tree is too complex for this. However, we should still widen our poker hand range.
How wide we defend will be based on our intuition as poker players and ultimately amounts to a best guess. It’s reasonable to assume that such decisions will increase our EV overall, even if we can’t categorically say how much.
Don’t Good Players Always Know Their EV?
High-profile players may sometimes think they know their EV in every spot. This claim is generally not the case. Knowing the precise EV of early street decisions is extremely difficult.
It’s not simply a case of checking the output from a poker solver and determining the flop EV. Poker solvers do not represent how poker is played in the real world.
A solver might tell us that the EV of several different flop sizings is the same when holding a premium. In practice, we often find that larger value-bet sizings significantly outperform the smaller ones.
This concept is another example of the strategy paradigm. Strong poker combos usually increase in EV when betting large and growing the pot quickly.
It’s very difficult to say precisely how much our EV increases, but we should still try to select the best bet sizing.
Empirical Analysis
Another approach to determining our EV might be to analyse a scenario in our poker tracking software. We can determine how much profit specific hands have generated historically.
The issue is that a considerable sample size (think millions plus) is required to gather accurate data on the EV of individual hand types.
Ironically, by the time we have generated enough data, both the playing environment and our game style will usually have changed.
It's far better to acknowledge that the EV of early street adjustments cannot be precisely known.
This fact does not prevent us from making logical strategic decisions and looking to increase our overall winrate.
Tactics vs Strategy – Chess Comparison
We’ve seen that sometimes poker players know their EV, and sometimes they don’t.
When watching the opening moves of a chess match, it’s not always clear who has the advantage (at least not without computer assistance).
Both players make sound positional decisions, waiting for a possible tactic to present itself.
Eventually, one player spots a profitable tactic, such as a fork, pin, skewer, or discovery (chess names for attacking tactics). After a brief exchange of moves, it’s clear that one player has gained an advantage.
Similarly, poker players proceed strategically on the earlier streets, trying to manoeuvre themselves into profitable scenarios. Eventually, a relevant tactic will present itself (such as a bluff – poker term for betting with the worst hand - with demonstrable EV based on data).
The only difference is that chess games often continue strategically after a tactic is employed, whereas a hand of poker is generally over after a tactic is employed.
Of course, it typically might make sense to think about poker as one long game rather than a collection of individual hands.
Tactics vs Strategy – Summary
Tactics refer to scenarios where the EV is known, whereas strategy refers to following broader objectives without specific EV calculations.
Better tactical opportunities present themselves to poker players who play strategically well.
The tactics vs strategy framework is helpful for approaching each stage of a poker hand. If our EV is unknown, we should make logical decisions aligned with our strategic objectives.
If we can calculate EV, we should simply execute the tactic that appears to be the most profitable.
