Help With Heads Up

Alright. I am good at either a 10 man table, or 6 man table. I place in a high percentage of SnG's, and I my placing percentage for MTT's is solid. One thing that I need to desperately improve upon is playing heads up. For some reason, I have a much more difficult time anticipating a set, straight or flush in heads up matches. I end up getting caught by one of them every time I hit 2 pair or better.

Anyone have any advice for trying to improve my play in heads up situations? I think it will help my profit margin greatly.

How are you getting caught? Are you not respecting them when they flop or are you getting burned on the river? Are you out of position?

Position is the key. Flush chances are alot harder to play when you don't have the button and act last. Betting out of position on the river with flush possibilities can set yourself up for a hard decision if he reraises. Is it a bluff. I will often check them and see what he does first. Then you have the ability to call or reraise yourself (looks like a trap) depending on the size of the bet.

Sets are the tough ones especially if you don't get resistance and you have two pair. If they don't reraise till the river and let you bet it out it is hard ones to let go. Most people will get sucked into that one, myself included.

Best advice is to not try the knock out punch for a large part of you chips. I know you eventually have to do one but wait until you have a good hand post flop to do it unless you have AA or KK. Don't overbet pots and don't call often if the other person overbets the pot. I like to peck away at someone, especially if I think I can outplay them. The all-in bet can kill you since most hands are 50/50 or 60/40 preflop.

Typically I am getting caught on the river. If I have a solid starting hand, I am very aggressive pre flop. Then if I hit my hand on the flop, i will make a pot sized bet. If I am not being re-raised, I will continue with half pot or pot sized bets for the remainder of the hand. I do this to try and kill pot odds for chasing a straight or a flush, but for some reason they call to the river. The only time I get legitimately beat is by a set, and that's just because you can rarely see that coming.

t4e is one of the best people to speak to regarding heads up play, but I'll take a shot and tell you how I play HU matches.
Basically from hand #1, I'm raising every face card, and am basically trying to dominate my opponent. If he's passive enough, he won't call my raises with anything but a class 2 hand or better - by this I mean KQ AJ and
88 type hands and better. Basically I never limp, and raise about 75% of the hands I have, or even up to %100 if OP is passive enough. I also raise the exact same amount every time.
Another reason I do this (aside from the obvious blind stealing and taking control of the match), is so that I can conceil my premium hands. Say I've been folding %75 of my hands instead, and out of nowhere come in with a big raise, my opponent will read me like a book and know I have a top 10 hand.
Most of the time you will both miss the flop, so instead of checking down i like to be the aggresor and take down those pots.

I hardly used to play HU, but have been playing it alot more recently, and one of the harder things for me was getting used to the frequency of different hands post-flop. ie how often you see top pair, or a set, or a straight etc etc.
For example, top pair is nearly always ahead, and I almost always bet middle and bottom pair, but being cautious if I get called or raised.
One thing to keep in mind though, is that I've lost and won so many matches because of kicker troubles - both players might hit top pair and go to war, and this is something to be very careful of. If you get raised when you're holding top pair, medium kicker, be cautious.
But basically unless I get a big reraise, or a strange cold-call (possible slowplay, or draw) then I'm betting like I have the nuts.

It sounds like you're getting bad beat, which is nothing to worry about - those will even out in the end just like any other type of poker. Don't start thinking that since you have been beat with 2 pair vs. someone's set that you should play 2 pair more cautiously - 2 pair and up are monsters headsup.

Chuck...Thanks for the help. I tried your strategy and remained aggressive and raising the same ammount each time. It worked great. I just won 2 straight heads up matches on Titan.

I loved it because that put me in a position to where they would try and steal the pot by coming over me, and when I called their stack was crippled.

I'm gonna go put this strategy to use in some SnG's now.

There's v little you can do about losing your stack with small-mid stacks with something like 2 pair vs flush heads up. Put it down to a cold deck and move on.

Some general tips despite the fact I'm a donk heads up:

- Position is crucial. Raise your button often, and bear in mind it's rarely mathematically correct to fold your button unless your opponent raises regularly if you limp.

- Aggression is key. Most of the time you will miss the flop, but so will your opponent. Don't be afraid to c-bet into non-threatening flops, but similarly be prepared to give it up if your opponent gets aggressive.

- Reads are crucial. You should have some reads on your opponent if you've played with them throughout an SnG. Use them. If he makes small bets with weak hands and routinely folds to raises, play accordingly. If he overbets with draws, don't be so afraid of calling his big bets with marginal hands. If he folds a lot preflop, raise a lot preflop, etc etc.

I don't profess to be a HU expert, because I still think I basically suck at it (unless the blinds are pretty high, then I'm pretty good), but I do recommend the last chapter of Harringon on Holdem II which has a great section ofHeads Up play. I may recap it sometime. Basically, though, the key points are:

* Call everything (unless you get raised every time). Pot odds demand it.
* Your opponent will usually miss out on the flop. Bet it.
* As Dorkus mentioned, position is crucial.

Harrington transcribes a superb Heads Up match between Phil Ivey and John D'Agostino in which Ivey just destroys his opponent with what looks like random plays but are in reality extremely good plays (all of which Harrington explains).

Head to head, the key is patience and in positioning... Wait until you get a good hand then go "ALL IN" to double up if your short stack. If your the leader then, be patiente and wait for kill and go for it!

Basics for H2H. I know some info will be repeated but am going to add the why to some of it. At least why I think so, lol.

Position: Raise when you have the button, if not call w/ anything and hope to see cheap since you have position after the flop. Acting last is a huge advantage in H2H. You can force out your opponent when it is marginal hand vs marginal hand and win pot you should not. I like to see alot of flops cheap when in the BB and out of position. Hands I would raise with in position, I will just call when out of position. You can still fire out bets but risk the dreaded reraise.

Aggression: You always want the other person to make the decisions to stay in a hand. I hit anything on the flop and I am firing out to see where I am. Two overs, 4 to flush, open ended draws are all worth betting in H2H. I may lose money by betting out these but you can also win pots when they don't hit the flop either. I like 1/2 to 2/3 the pot bets to keep the pots smaller and easier to let to if reraised. Don't be afraid to go for the home run when you hit a flop hard.

Patience: nice one Penny. Most people will get bored in H2H after while because they have to think every hand and get worn down. The longer you can play the more mistakes people will start to make. I don't like going all-in or calling it with preflop unless I have AA or KK. The odds are usually 50/50 or 60/40 for most hands and if you can outplay them don't make it a race of one hand. I don't like to give them the easy out is you know you can grind them down and do the all-in when you have a large lead on them and if they do win it doesn't take you out.

Changing to your opponent: There are generally two types of players in H2H. Aggressor and caller. If you are the aggressor you will win alot of small pots by your opponent folding and lose larger pots when they hit and reraise you. I like the aggressor because you will still win some of the large pots when they bet and you have it too. I think the aggressor will win in the long run. If someone is overbetting and being too aggressive, I will let them steal alot but hammer hard when I have a good hand and become the caller. Both styles can win, you just have to figure out which one works best for you.