[StellarWind]

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... game theory doesn't tell you how to win. It tells you how to not lose.

The EV of an equilibrium strategy represents the worst you could do. The best you could do depends on exactly how your opponents deviate from their equilibrium strategies.

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Actually an equilibrium strategy doesn't even accomplish the minimal goal of not losing when there are more than two players. If everyone follows the equilibrium strategy than the EV of each player across an entire orbit will be zero and you won't lose. But one player not following the equilibrium strategy can easily place another "innocent" player in an unavoidable negative EV situation.

There are many practical examples of this in poker. Suppose someone decides that good LHE strategy involves always raising/reraising preflop from the Button. You don't want to sit two seats to his left because he'll raise everytime you post the BB. Sure he's spewing chips but the whole table benefits from that and not just you. It doesn't make up for the fact that your BB equity is being redistributed to all the other players at the table.

Another problematic player is the small blind on your immediate right who always bets the flop into five people. Sure he's full of it but that doesn't mean you can put money in with four people behind you. You wind up folding a lot of hands you might have won.

Then there's the action player on your immediate left who straddles your big blind every orbit. He's killing your blind equity and selectively raising the effective stakes on deals where you are out-of-position.

The final example is collusion where your opponents are helping each other but not communicating with each other. This type of play does not violate the article's mathematical assumption of a noncooperative game because each player is acting independently. The player's intentions may be bad but his plays are just another possible strategy. This is why people can be concerned about a husband and wife playing together even if they are absolutely certain they are not signaling hole cards or betting plans. In fact it only takes one spouse to cheat and the other may not even realize what is happening.