Full games are usually too large to solve on a personal computer. MonkerSolver therefore comes with a number of abstraction settings which reduces the game size considerably.
This reduction is achieved by merging strategically similar hands into "buckets", which must then be played with the same action frequencies. The idea is that there is no loss of quality if hands which should be played the same way are merged.

To give an indication of how this reduction of game size affects the preflop hold'em solution, we have compared the solutions from different abstraction settings to University of Albertas full game solution (Cepheus) in Limit hold'em.

Omaha is too large to solve completely even when starting from the flop. MonkerSolver therefore reduces the game size by making the following concessions:

Before the river, only suits which has the potential to become flushes are considered. For example, these two hands are merged, even though they influence the opponents range slightly differently:

• A♠K♠J♠5♠   6♣5♣2♣7♣
• A♠K♥J♥5♦   6♣5♣2♣7♣

On the river, only suits with 3 or more cards on the board are considered. For example, consider these hands:

• A♠K♠A♦K♦   6♠5♠2♥7♥T♥
• A♣K♣A♦K♦   6♠5♠2♥7♥T♥

The above two hands are merged into the same bucket. They are however not strategically equivalent, since we are more likely to be up against a missed flush draw with the latter hand.