HuSnG's

I have been browsing the forums lately and there arent many threads about HuSng's. I have been playing cash most of the time and recently moved up to 0.02/0.05nl (I know its micro, but its still better than not moving at all). Anyways, I lost one of my buyins on a bad beat and while I was on tilt I discovered HuSngs. In normal sngs I generally break even or am a bit down, but I decided that I wanted to win as much back as I could from my lost buyin, so I played the 5+0.25 on PokerStars. To my surprise I won fairly easily. I continued to play and have since almost doubled my bankroll to $100 (I know the $5 sngs are technically above what I should be playing, but oh well). I have been crushing these with nearly 40% ROI. Are all husngs this soft or am I just getting lucky and am bound to bust soon? I promised myself that if I dropped below $75 that I would build up my roll with more cash games but I havent dropped that far yet. What are your experiences with HuSngs?

I find HU S&G's to be pretty easy. I play the $5 ones.

When I first started I won 9 out of my first 10 tables. The one loss was when I flopped a set VS someone's overpair, got all-in, and he rivered a bigger set. That knocked me down to 200 chips, which was a blow that I wasn't able to return from.

My win-rate has decrease significantly since then (Duh!) but I still win a good percentage of the matches.

I mainly play now when I'm on a cold streak in ring games, to mix things up.

I think a lot of people play those games with their last $5, to double up or quit, so they have more gamble than they should. I pretty much sit back and slow play big hands to break them when they get top pair and shove.

i have been owning in the 5$ and 10$ HU sngs on Stars as well, and was thinking about making a thread based on HU sngs and possibly some strategies, i think the HUs on PokerStars are soft and easy mainly because a lot of players bluff...but I'll save the talk for the strategy thread!

btw be careful playing those just like you won 100$ playing them you can lose on a horrible streak

I play STTs, but that is because I am trying to stay in orbit. HUSAGs are easy enough too (at the mid to lower end where I play anyways).

Although I have been playing well, I just lost 2 in a row. I hit maybe 25% of the flops, and whenever I hit a flop, I was dominated or ran into trips. I also did not have any draws all game to semi bluff with, and we all know that bluffing without outs is a very poor idea(most of the time). So ya, there is some luck involved with the cards, although its less than other sngs I find.

There is a luck factor in every poker game, but I do think it is less in STTs and HU. Have you tried any STTs? You may actually like them better. I have been running really good with them lately.

I think the softness of the $5 games more than makes up for the rake.

As for multi-table games, the 4 ones seem like a deal compared to the HU S&G's with a larger field.

I made this for myself awhile back when I was trying to figure out which HU games to play. Maybe someone here will find it handy:

The "per win" is for each person you knock out BTW. Which is winning the table.

I have never played the multiple table husngs before. My issue is that you need to win x amount of games in a row to get the ROI, if you dont, your ROI drops significantly. Additionally, I like the fact that the single tables ones dont take as long and I dont need to wait for another table to finish. Are the 5.25+25 no blind increase games harder to beat? I see they have a better ROI thanks to Savage but are they harder?

I've never played the one without increasing blinds.

I did play a fast one. I didn't like it. It became total luck towards the end.

I've played some 4-player games though, winning most of them.
I like being able to watch the other table and getting a feel for the other players. It's a big help, as you can get a feel of what they do with what hands. Recently I knocked a guy out on hand #3, after winning the first two hands without a showdown. I used the time to watch the other two play. It was pretty easy to figure out who was going to win, and by the end I had a pretty good feel for how each played (in case the other guy got lucky... which he didn't). So heading into the second game I feel I had a big advantage.

Again, the $5 games are pretty soft. But every once in awhile I hit someone who knows what they are doing.

I've found that if someone is sitting waiting to play HU, they're more likely to be better players. But if I sit first and wait for someone else to join, they're more likely to be not-so-good players. I mean, I could be wrong on this, but that's the way it appears to me.

[X] Fun until you play jQ

I like to play the 9 player STTs. I 4-table them (I do 9 in cash games, so this isnt that great and I probably could do more). I find these the easiest, probably because the blinds arent stupid high by the end of the game. I think that the winner usually is the guy with the most skill (luck is always a factor, but alot less in these). Since the blinds are at most 200/400 at the end (usually), it doesnt turn into shove shove fold...

Haven't played many of these lately - last time I gave them a serious go I think I broke about even after 20 or so games.

I found the quality of opponents varied (was paying the $2 ones on FT) wildly, so sometimes it'd be a cakewalk and other times you'd be totally outclassed.

A solid heads-up strategy will get you through most of them though, I found.