Heads up tournaments for novice

So, after a peak in my frustration over DoNkaments, I decided to switch to heads up tournaments. Im 7 wins out of 12 right now.

I have huge problems playing against tight players. they fold a few blinds to me, then play big cards or even face cards with a rag..... and they always seem to hit.
when i have big cards I either miss completely, or i have trouble extracting chips from my opponent.
The only time I win decent chips is when i slow play big hands and my opponent bets, which makes me nervous because its risky especially in HU when my opponent has a lot of outs.


By the way I think im pretty loose AND aggressive when playing HU.

I know a bunch of you are gonna say "welcome to HU... read a book".

but seriously is there any general advice you guys might give to a novice HU player like me?

There is a lot of information on this forum but my advice would be to not play HU until you become a slightly more advanced player.

Are you raising like 60%-100% of buttons? Because if you're not, you're not aggressive enough.

Tight players are the easiest to play against. If they keep folding to you, encourage it. When they raise, you fold. EZ game.

blikbleek said:

So, after a peak in my frustration over DoNkaments, I decided to switch to heads up tournaments. Im 7 wins out of 12 right now.

I have huge problems playing against tight players. they fold a few blinds to me, then play big cards or even face cards with a rag..... and they always seem to hit.
when i have big cards I either miss completely, or i have trouble extracting chips from my opponent.
The only time I win decent chips is when i slow play big hands and my opponent bets, which makes me nervous because its risky especially in HU when my opponent has a lot of outs.


By the way I think im pretty loose AND aggressive when playing HU.

I know a bunch of you are gonna say "welcome to HU... read a book".

but seriously is there any general advice you guys might give to a novice HU player like me?

Click to expand...

Welcome to heads up..lol
tight players are the easy to beat, but you will not win all the time.
Heads up is a very high variance game, you will have 20 game swings with the HUSNG, this is normal having a HU bankroll will help you in the long run I normaly do a 2% ( 50 buy in) bankroll when playing heads up to lower the variance.
tight players normaly will do this, they will call a 3x raise then see aflop then then often fold to a c-bet, but if he calls a c-bet then you can bet that he has something. This is what a tight passive player will do, and there are time that they will get a string of lucky cards, don't let it affect you ( this is why we have a 2% bankroll rule) this will happen, i can not count the number of fish that i have lost to due to that they where on a hot streak, but don't give up.

Its all about knowing your oppt. you will have 5 types of people within the heads up matches
1. tight-passive
2.loose-passive
3. tight -aggressive
4. loose-aggressive
5. the crazy all in guy
once you find out how to beat each of those oppt. you game in HU will be better. I would say record a video of yourself playing and after the match sit down and watch it and watch for your mistakes.

I suggest grabbing the free 14 day trial free Drag The Bar membership here on CardsChat and watch

Phyreburn - Complete Guide to Small-Stakes Heads Up NL

Also a HUD is a must have for any heads up player.