Heads Up

**binaryc** · 02-09-2006

The biggest hole in my game probably comes from heads up. I read HoH vol 2 but I still never seem to manage to win heads up (in fact, I can't think of a single recent tournament that I've taken 1st rather than 2nd). Here are some hands in particular that I think went wacky, maybe I am not betting enough?

I have KQo in the SB and raise it 2bb, I get a call.
Flop is small, small, Q. Check, I bet the pot, call.
Turn is small. Check, I bet the pot, call.
River is A. Check, Check.
Opponent shows AJo and takes the pot.

This particular hand shows my opponent as passive aggressive, which is the read I got on him from the beginning. He was known to fold pre-flop a lot, particularly when I raise so I figured he had an ace. Since he kept calling my bets, I figured he hit his kicker. I just hoped his kicker wasn't a Q and he was trapping (which he also loved to do as you can see by the river). Once the river came an A I knew he had a higher pair and wasn't going to bet in to his trap.

I play mostly cheap SnG tournaments, so my opponents aren't exactly cream of the crop. Luckily I get 2nd enough to not hurt my bankroll too much, but if I could take 1st every once in a while, I could do much better. Anyone have any advice for playing heads up against random cheap SnG opponents?

**tightagressive** · 02-09-2006

HOH volume 2 has a entire section on heads up, its a very straightforward, simple way to properly play heads up. good read i think, if you play alot of tournaments/sngs its helpfull.

oh, btw, you played the hand fine, but something to think about. preflop, when you wont have position for the rest of the hand, (not on the button) you want to raise from a little bit better hand selection, and raise more than you would from the button, to negate the fact that you wont have position for the rest of the hand, and try to end more hands pf without position.

make sense?

**binaryc** · 02-09-2006

Well in that situation, I was on the button.

Here's another one that just happened:

ANTES/BLINDS
XX posts blind ($150), binaryc posts blind ($300).

PRE-FLOP
XX calls $150, binaryc checks.

FLOP [board cards JD,3C,AH ]
binaryc checks, XX checks.

Flop misses me completely, I check, he checks behind me so he either has nothing or a monster.

TURN [board cards JD,3C,AH,4H ]
binaryc checks, XX bets $600, binaryc calls $600.

I pick up a flush draw, he bets the minimum and I call.

RIVER [board cards JD,3C,AH,4H,8D ]
binaryc checks, XX bets $600, binaryc calls $600.

I miss my flush draw, but hit mid pair.

SHOWDOWN
XX shows [ AC,2S ]
binaryc mucks cards [ 8H,6H ]
XX wins $3000.

I've noticed players seem to slow play a lot of hands. Very rarely have I ever seen someone bet on the flop. When they do, it normally means they are bluffing. Problem is, when they check it doesn't mean they have something either.

Personally, I always bet the flop when I have something (and sometimes bet it when I don't), unless it's a monster hand like a set, but I see people checking the flop with high pair all the time.

**Fishodeath** · 02-09-2006

I've read HoH's heads up section twice, and when I play SNG's Im confident if I make it too final two I'll take first 70% of the time(assuming equal stacks). One way to start, is just push every time you feel your ahead. If you feel your opponet is a better heads up player, you can just push everytime you think you have even a 1% advantage, thus all but removing his skill advantage from the game. I dont do this in MTT's cause it sucks for all that work to come to a coinflip but SNG's I've used this strategy.

You say you always bet the flop when you have something? Always is a dangerous word in poker, you need to vary your play more.

Play alot of heads up SNG's to work on your game.

**gder03** · 02-09-2006

your example is a poor one. showing a bad beat has no value when assesing "holes in your game".

the question is what do you do when you are delt crappy cards.
You prolly play them weak.

Show and eaxample that is relevant, not a bad beat.

**binaryc** · 02-09-2006

was it really a bad beat? Aces in heads up are normally good, and looking at the hand later, I realized I was giving him 2-1 and 4-1 to call me on a (mostly) low board. I think I should have pushed all-in on either the turn or the flop?

Anyways, I probably shouldn't have posted an exact example as I was mostly looking for general advice for heads-up play rather than specific advice on what I did wrong in one particular hand.

**dopemope223** · 02-09-2006

my strategy for heads up play during sngs is if i'm short stacked i played pretty aggressive, i heard that you should raise everytime your on the dealer button heads up, i try to do that but i don't take it to that extreme, also in a heads up pot if i have raised pf i always put in a second bet about the size of the pot on the flop to see where i'm at in the hand. By putting in this raise it really puts the pressure on the other person, becasue eather there going to have to call or reraise 2 to 3x your bet. If i get the person down low in chips i'll start putting him all in everyhand no matter what i have, more often then not they end up calling with shit suited connectors or k3 siuted, so you normally have two live cards to get lucky or you may be leading and if you lose the pot its not all bad because your still have more chips.

Another big play heads up i like is when the flop comes say

and he raises into you, this eather means he has a pair of 5's or a low pocket pair or is bluffing. Call that bet on the flop and reraise his bet on the turn, he'll fold almost 100% of the time. Also you should take note if he slowplays trips or not, which most beginner, intermediate players do. Say if the situation is reversed and you have the pair of 5's and he reraises you on the flop but you've noted that he slowplays big hands...which means eather the guy slowplayed a pocket pair (but probabley would have raise pf with that) or he is bluffing, so feel free to play back.
________
Sc replayss

**gder03** · 02-09-2006

there is no need to bet more than the pot on all the streets. he was making very fishy plays by chasing with his ace.

I didnt see your second hand last time.

So 2nd hand I would prolly bust out from bluffing. Its difficult to play when they check aces like that. I like the call on the turn, It gives you leverage for a big bluff on the river.

On the river i would prolly fire a pot size bet.... and bust.

maybe ill make another video of my sng games. I used to, but the video software was a 30day trial.,

**binaryc** · 02-09-2006

I really appreciate all the advice. I just played another 10 player SnG and got heads up.. and lost again. I pulled out the 4 most important hands:

Hand 1

Seat 3: binaryc (2922 in chips)
Seat 5: WDH-D (7078 in chips)
WDH-D: posts small blind 200
binaryc: posts big blind 400
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to binaryc [8h 9d]
WDH-D: calls 200
binaryc: checks
----- FLOP ----- [Ts Ah JavaScript]
binaryc: bets 400
WDH-D: calls 400
----- TURN ----- [Ts Ah JavaScript][Qc]
binaryc: checks
WDH-D: checks
----- RIVER ----- [Ts Ah JavaScript Qc][2s]
binaryc: bets 800
WDH-D: raises to 1600
binaryc: raises to 2122 and is all-in
WDH-D: calls 522
----- SHOW DOWN -----
binaryc: shows [8h 9d] (A Straight, Queen high)
WDH-D: shows [Qs Qd] (Three of a kind, Queens, Ace high)
binaryc collects 5844 from Main pot

Funny.. we were slow playing each other.

Hand 2

Seat 3: binaryc (6244 in chips)
Seat 5: WDH-D (3756 in chips)
WDH-D: posts small blind 300
binaryc: posts big blind 600
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to binaryc [9c 9h]
WDH-D: raises to 1200
binaryc: calls 600
----- FLOP ----- [Qc 4c 3h]
binaryc: checks
WDH-D: bets 2556 and is all-in
binaryc: calls 2556
----- TURN ----- [Qc 4c 3h][8h]
----- RIVER ----- [Qc 4c 3h 8h][7s]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
WDH-D: shows [Qh 5d] (A Pair of Queens, Eight high)
binaryc: shows [9c 9h] (A Pair of Nines, Queen high)
WDH-D collects 7512 from Main pot

He raised pre-flop, which meant he had at least one high card. I probably shouldn't have checked the flop, since I assumed his all-in move was a bluff. If he had the queen, I figured he would have slow played it, or tried to induce a call. He did have a low kicker, but that would be even more reason for him to want to bet lower I think since if I also had a queen, I would almost certainly have him beat.

Hand 3

Seat 3: binaryc (1888 in chips)
Seat 5: WDH-D (8112 in chips)
WDH-D: posts small blind 300
binaryc: posts big blind 600
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to binaryc [2d Jh]
WDH-D: calls 300
binaryc: checks
----- FLOP ----- [As Jc 2s]
binaryc: checks
WDH-D: bets 600
binaryc: raises to 1200
WDH-D: calls 600
----- TURN ----- [As Jc 2s][Td]
binaryc: bets 88 and is all-in
WDH-D: calls 88
----- RIVER ----- [As Jc 2s Td][2h]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
binaryc: shows [2d Jh] (A Full House, Twos full of Jacks)
WDH-D: shows [Th 6h] (Two Pairs, Tens and Twos, Ace high)
binaryc collects 3776 from Main pot

I actually had him beat even without the 2. I wasn't sure if checking the flop was the right thing to do, but after seeing his hand, I'm not sure if he would have called a bet.

Hand 4:

Seat 3: binaryc (3176 in chips)
Seat 5: WDH-D (6824 in chips)
WDH-D: posts small blind 300
binaryc: posts big blind 600
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to binaryc [Ks Qs]
WDH-D: raises to 1200
binaryc: calls 600
----- FLOP ----- [5c 7s JavaScript]
binaryc: bets 600
WDH-D: raises to 5624 and is all-in
binaryc: is all-in 1376
Returned uncalled bets 3,648 to WDH-D
----- TURN ----- [5c 7s JavaScript][Th]
----- RIVER ----- [5c 7s JavaScript Th][2d]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
WDH-D: shows [4c 4h] (A Pair of Fours, Jack high)
binaryc: shows [Ks Qs] (High Card King)
WDH-D collects 6352 from Main pot

This is the hand that did me in. He had pushed all-in on the previous 4 of 5 hands (and I folded), so I figured with my (almost) nut flush draw, plus two overcards I was good. In fact, I was good because he hand undercards to the board, I just couldn't hit my outs (I had 58% to his 42%).

Some general notes about this session:
I always completed the small blind, as Harrington suggests. I tended to slow play a bit more than normal simply because my opponent was very aggressive and did all the betting for me. The only problem I can see with this method is I can never really know when he's got something. I suppose the flipside to that is he never really knows when I have something either.

**Marm** · 02-09-2006

1 simple rule to HU play:

Raise Raise and Raise some more.

It's no longer about the cards you are holding, It's about the cards he ISN'T holding.

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