As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve made quite a few observations since primarily playing heads-up limit hold ‘em. Here are two more: Rake sucks. Win-rate is really, really opponent-dependent.

The obvious response to these two observations is “duh.” But I don’t think you appreciate just how sad it is to play against some guy for an hour, only to win his entire buy-in ($80) and still end the session down $70. Yes, rake is really that bad.

Nor do I think most people - and I can at least safely speak for myself - really give THAT much thought to table selection when they’re playing 6-max or full ring. I look for tables with weak players and I’ll get up and leave if I’m at a table where I can’t spot people who have huge glaring holes in their games, but when it’s just you and another player, you suddenly become very aware that you really need to be better than him or her. At most tables, you don’t have to be the best player, just “good enough.” Suddenly, I need to have an edge on “everyone else” at the table (admittedly just one person, but the point still stands), and it needs to outweigh the ridiculous rake.

I believe I’ve had a decent edge on almost everyone I’ve played so far (barring the first two or three sessions where I didn’t adjust properly to HU play). I’m worried that I won’t be able to face it when I eventually run into someone that has an edge on me, and do the smart thing - get up and leave. I hope I’ll be able to spot a good player when I find one.

August, poker-wise, started out pretty poorly for me, but I’m about break-even for the month now. I’m hoping to see some really good results in the second half of it, and I hope most of those results come at heads-up tables. I’ll keep you posted.