Countering a heads-up LAG-shover

So I just played two heads up matches against a player who shoved all-in preflop every single hand. I was lucky enough to be in two simultaneous matches with this guy at the same time. If he was on the button, he shoved all-in. If he was in the big blind and I did anything but fold, he shoved all-in (exactly one time he folded to my raise).

I was trying to figure out what my hand range should be in response to this kind of play. At first the blinds were very low, and so I folded almost every hand. With 10/20 starting blinds and 1500 starting stacks, why get 1500 in with a moderate edge when I can get 1300+ in with a big edge? Fortunately, the matches didn't last past 15/30 and I won both, but I'm wondering what good ranges would be for bigger blinds.

Assuming you still have 1500 in chips, what ranges would you guys play at 10/20, 25/50, and 50/100?

At 10-20:

Probably A9+ / 88+ because we've still got time to wait and if he's shoving literally every single hand, we don't have to worry about not getting action.

I choose 88 mostly because it's a middle of the road pair. If villain finds himself with a pair, half the time it'll be lower than ours and if he finds himself with an unpaird hand, there's a decent chance that at least one of his cards will be lower than ours.

Compare this to shoving 22 - any pair in the villain's hand has us dominated, and any part of the board he connects with has us beat. So I'll sometimes shy away from the "any pair is worth a shove heads up" mentality.

A9+ because again, if villain finds himself with an ace in his hand we've got a better than half chance of having the better kicker and if we end up against a pair, there's a better than half chance that pairing our kicker will save us.

At 25-50:

Stack sizes become more important at this stage - if I've got the lead I'll probably stay conservative as above. If I'm behind and trying to retake the lead, I might take a chance and broaden a little to:

A7+, 66+, unpaired paint

We're taking a bit more of a chance that we'll be dominated, but still giving ourselves a decent chance to double up.

At 50-100:

Can't honestly say I've ever gotten to blinds this high in a single heads up SnG. In fact, I don't often make it to 25-50. We can't have much play left if we did get to 50-100 though, so:

Any ace, any king, any pair, suited connectors, single gappers 68+, JT+

ok early on I'd be much tighter, maybe TT+/AJ+. Blinds are small enough that we can just wait for a hand in this range and get a big enough chip lead that we basically win. Later on I adjust, not sure exactly where but if blinds get high enough I'm calling any A, and maybe 88+. We could probably figure out an exact solution to this given that villain will literally shove any 2 and we have the option to fold or call. But I don't feel like doing that now. Basically if someone's doing this, thank them for the free money, because no matter what you do, most strategies will be +ev against him (for example calling ATC is neutral, although -ev because of rake. Every improvement from calling ATC will increase your edge).

Use Nash's Equilibrium.

For the record, it was a turbo SnG. I don't know about the non-turbos, but I get to 50/100 and even 75/150 on a regular basis in turbos.

My early range was in between your two ranges. I think it ended up being 88+/AT+. I didn't get an 88, but I did get it in with 99 and AT. The AT might have been a mistake, though. I think a tiny bit tighter would have been better.

I think at 25/50 I'm opening up to 77+/A9+/KQ. I still have 30BB, so I'm not quite ready to play the hands that have a tiny edge at best.

At 50/100 or 15BB, I'm taking almost every edge. I'd go with any ace, any pair, K9+, and QJ.

I'll leave your initial question to others, but you really shouldn't be playing more than 1 heads up SnG at a time, ever. definatley -EV

You mean less positive EV? I'm 100.1% sure it's not negative EV, not at the levels I'm playing. It's probably less positive per table, but as long as my edge is better than half of what it is at a single table, I'm better off playing two. Thus far that seems to be the case, but I've only just started trying two tabling head up.

Nah, i disagree. You'd be better off playing one game at twice the level, i'm sure of it. I've never lost to someone that multitables H2H SNG's, it's just so obvious how they are going to play. It's a game of moves and obsevation, not waiting for big hands - 1 table at a time!

1 table at a time sounds right to me!!!! the man makes sense

Rob's right, i used to play 1 HU at a time and crushed them, i then tried multitabling and it went drastically wrong. When playing 1 table, you have a good chance of going on long undefeated streaks that you just cant achieve multi tabling

as for the hands

In a turbo, just calling with any ace, any king and any pair is acceptable. You don't want to wait so long that you have to win 2 60/40s or w/e to win the much, so im calling with k,5 as an example even a couple of minutes into match if he is shoving any 2.

To my mind, anyone that plays HU's this way doesn't know how to play. Early on you can wait for a good hand, later on any A or K especially with other paint and always raise on the button with them.

OK, in a turbo I can see it happening. Why would you want to play turbo heads up though? A non-turbo is still over in 10 minutes (15 max) at this level, so it's not going to make a huge difference to your $/hour figure, and fast-rising blinds just make the contest a crapshoot in a quicker time.

I agree the non turbos last a little longer but you can pick your spots better.