A quick guide to HU play

All,

I hope I am not asking for the impossible here.

My wife plays SnG's most of the time (Very TAG) but has a real problem when getting to HU.

I have watched her and she seems to be unable to loosen up when HU.

Result of this is the other player continually steals while she waits for the monster.

She asked me to post on here and get some views of a simple guide I suppose to HU play

Thanks

http://www.cardschat.com/heads-up-strategy.php



In short, your starting hand requirements should be much looser, and you should be much more aggressive with them. It's all about aggression, reads and, well, luck

Practice......Practice.......Practice........

Loose is not a good term when playing HU. You are going to play alot of hands that you wouldn't with a full table. The odds your hand is better than your opponents is 50%. Think about that. You may have J8 OS, and this would definately be a junk hand any other time. But HU this hand is probably a better starter than your opponents. Raise three times the BB and watch them fold. If they play then you can rethink the hand.

The average cards dealt in holdem will be about 78 os. Things that work are any cards that added together are better than 78, AND connectable, suited looks real good, face cards suited look even better, and any pair is worth a big shot.

Excellent article! I play a decent HU at the end of tournies. Never thought much about the pot odds part vs. the position advantage of the SB before... and much like Chris's "never, ever min raise it serves no purpose" eye opener, you just may have plugged up another hole in my game!

Thank You!
A former habitual 23os, 45os tosser from SB

Just last night,I'm in a tourney,take over chip lead at the final table,and it finally gets down to me and #2...I go into heads up with roughly 250,000 chips,my opponent has around 50k...Now,of course I should have won this,but of course I did not...And this happens to me time and time again...I am an extremely tight player ( ) and can't seem or simply don't know how to switch gears in hu...The last 4 games that I held chip lead in,I ended up going out second...Last night,with about 40k left,I was soo disgusted with my play that I just went all-in to put myself out of my misery...I really really don't know what to do....

Seriously...click on the link...read the article....well,well worth your time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChuckTs
http://www.cardschat.com/heads-up-strategy.php

(And when you apply what you've learned from it...and it works...come back and give ChuckTs a "+ rep" for the article )

Thanks all but especially Chuck.

Missus said the article will turn her into a mean poker player lol.

Bed time reading why I am working away.

HU play is my worst game too, but I'm slowly learning to play it better. What I've learned that helps me considerably is to remind myself that "everything I've played up till now has been to get me to this point" and the other point is that there is NO cashing out. It's either USE my chips to win, or don't. That's the choice. Sometimes it's a real physical effort to casually toss in 10K chips pre-flop on 9-10 offsuit... but the reality is that this hand is likely the winner at that moment.

Well,I did read it...and the most glaring problem I see is, I've been playing just the opposite... .....+Rep to you Chuck,the article already has boosted my confidence and I intend to put it into practice in just about 2 hours....Wish me luck!...Great article btw! Don't know why I never read it,I guess "back then" I was rarely making it to heads up play!...lol

Nice - I might play in Popdog's tournie today for the practice now.

ChuckTs wrote a great article, but here's another reason that ChuckTs and players like him do well in HU play.

When you are a TAG player and the final table players know you play tight, they often mistakenly expect the same when you are HU. They don't expect you to take an aggressive stand with second pair or to call a raise with 98 offsuit.

I have recently done well in HU play winning a small HU tournament and recently winning an 18 player SnG when entering HU a 6:1 underdog. In the SnG, we went back and forth for about 25 minutes...one of the longest HU I have ever played. But as ChuckTs said, knowing your opponent can mean a lot in HU play. I knew my opponent would fold weak starting hands in the BB if I raised only minimum...so I raised minimum A LOT. I also know that he liked to bluff when out of position, but would not call the flop without at least a good draw.

Reread ChuckTs article and review a few good poker books that have a chapter on HU play. It's one of the most challenging and rewarding things you can do. In most tournaments, the difference between first and second is about double!