HU Shoving Hands

I've been controlling most of the match, taking a decent chip lead through the first couple levels. After two unfortunate hands, I find myself at a 2:1 disadvantage. After posting my small blind, my stack is ~1050, with the villian having 1800. What range are we pushing with here? Are there also certain hands that should be calling with?

I think a little more detail will help. What are the blinds? How many players are left/are you going heads up? It sort of sounds like heads up since you mention only an opponent having 1800.

I actually just mentioned this in another thread, but I've started to count how many big blinds I have through the course of a game. This is useful in heads up or in a table full of players. Previously, all too often, I used to go heads up make a few bad calls and then find myself incredibly short stacked. So keeping tally of my big blinds help.

Here's an example: If you have 1500 chips and the blinds are 200-400 (no antes for the sake of simplicity), I have less than 4 big blinds and very close to being blinded out if you don't make a move. That's not a whole lot of blinds left so I would be thinking all in with almost any pocket pair of 7's and above (perhaps even lower pocket pairs too if I'm desperate), as well as cards like AK, KQ.

But if you have 1500 chips and the blinds are 50-100, then you have 15 big blinds so I wouldn't look to go all in just yet. Think about moving all in? Yes, but not unless I have a really strong hand.

I hope this answers your question...or at least part of it.


EDIT: Oops, didn't realize there was another topic with similar responses. My bad, newbie mistake! And of course, now it dawns on me that HU = heads up. Wow, do I feel stupid or what!!!

He is talking about heads up, hence the title HU shoving hands.

Heads up is tricky, for me anyway. If I don't have a lot of BB (say 8 or less) then im pushing with any ace, suited connectors, pp etc etc.

Anything more that 8 BB you have some leeway to play a few hands but not much

Two things govern this for me:

1 - The size of the blinds
2 - Reads on the villain's calling range

If the villain is calling with a wide range of hands, I don't want to be shoving ATC - when I get a decent hand, I can be pretty sure I'll get action and if I shove a substandard hand, I can't expect to be in good shape much of the time.

If their calling range is pretty tight though, I'll shove a wider variety of hands myself.

The size of the blinds are also important. If they're relatively small, I'll be more inclined to try to outplay the villain after the flop and take some pots back that way, rather than relying on preflop shoves.

It sort of depends on who you're playing against. Any reads on the guy? If he's over aggressive, a check/shove is a powerful tool.
For your situation, against he typical player, I'm thinking A/To+ or A/9s and any pair 7/7+.


3,000 in starting chips, 2,850 left in people's stacks. That means 150 is in the pot, for 50/100 blinds.

The "HU" in the message title stands for "Heads Up."

The Harrington on Hold'em books talk about "M," which is a bit better than just calculating big blinds. Your M is how many rounds you can survive. It's the big blind, plus the small blind, plus antes multiplies by seats at your table. Then you divide your chip stack by the number.

For example, with 9 people paying a $50 ante and 300/600 blinds, thats 1,350 you're paying per round. If you have 14,000 chips your M is about 10. Ten means you're getting low. When your M gets to 5 or 6, you're low enough that you should shove any pot that you think you have a good chance of stealing (IE, any unchallenged pot with any two cards).