Learned something in SnG Heads up

I have been playing quite a bit of HU SnG's as of late. I learned how to be very, very aggressive because I playsed so many 9 person SnG's. So I watched a few videos and turned up the aggression even more.

All fine and dandy.

UNTIL...I ran into call stations that would hit the board and I wouldn't. Now I had a problem. I would get call down on the absolute lowest pair and would lose a nice sized pot. Your stack goes real quick when you always raise from the button and then when you miss, try to run over your opponent. If he has any part of the board and you don't...you gotta problem.

So I learned how to switch gears from the 'run your ass over' school to 'value betting your stack away from you' school.

Here is how I did it. I would flat call EVERYTHING. If I didn't hit the board, don't try to steal. Check it down to the river and if they outdraw you...so be it. At least you didn't build a monster pot, and lose. This requires a lot of patience and tilt control, because lemme tell ya, nothing from frustrating than a true calling station winning on 3rd or 4th pair. Also, in the BB, if I found a super duper -EV, I would just fold.

However...
As soon as you have a hand, I learned to VALUE BET,. 1/4- 1/2 -3/4 sized pots. As long as the calling station has a piece of the flop, you are gonna get called. Value bet all streets and build a nice sized pot. That's how I did it. However sometimes it took checking down 8-10 pots (that's how bad the cards were hitting me) before I found something reasonable. Until then I would lose only my BB.

I did take a hit on the good 'ol bankroll before I figured this out and learned how to implement it, but in the end I'm very grateful. Just another tool in my poker toolbox to use and exploit.

I have witnessed the same thing. If you're playing against calling stations, you will get ran over by garbage hands. Fight fire with fire in those situations. Aggressive betting seems to only work with folks that realize they're not getting the right price to draw. Nice tip!

thanks for your tip, I think this is a powerfull tool on heads up, I like to check raise a lot to mess a little bit with the game when I'm playing it,

Value towning yourself against a loose passive player can be one of the most frustrating experiences in poker - very nice post!

I'd suggest re-thinking flatting the button pf, though, at some point in time - having position is such a powerful thing that you're going to lose value by not forcing Villain to play raised pots oop. I'd rather open fewer hands on the button, thereby strengthening my range, than allow Villain cheap flops. Getting a feel for how Villain plays specific board textures, and giving credit when Villain appears to have a hand, is easier in position than oop.

Point taken slychnew. The reason why I will flat call or just check even if I have position is because if I have bad cards with the button I do not want to build a large pot, I want to keep it small as possible. If you raise on the button then c-bet and get called, you now building a larger pot with a hand with little or no show down value. That's how I end up getting in trouble or lose a pot with 4th pair.

Whenever I check on the button I remind myself that I am playing for free and not to donate anymore chips! Samething withthe small blind, If I just flat call, I remind myself I am playing 1/2 free hand and not donate. Better to give up a small pot than lose a big one.

However, when I do have a hand, 2nd pair or better, I will value bet on every street.

Here is the land mine that could explode on you: if your calling station re-raises you on the river, your beat. Even if you have top pair/top kicker. A call station is not going to re-raise unless they have the nuts. It's tough to let go, but your beat. If you are going to call...spend a few moments to really analyze the board and analyze how the hand went. I would guess their rags hit a straight or a set or better.

The great part of playing bully style poker HU is that the match is going to be over in less than 15 hands and they are left wondering what happened. lol.

Looks like a really good plan. Very smart.

The thing I notice is that they seldom want a rematch if you whup them quickly... sad, that.

Against a more experience player I would agree. However in the micro-limits, most calling stations are not really sophistacted enough to think about those type of concepts. Most calling stations are concerned with one thing. DID MY HAND HIT THE BOARD. period. Sometimes you can overthink the game or give your opponent too much credit. I did that quite a bit until I 'dumb down' my playing. Doyle Brunson in the original Super Systems put it best. That section is still valid in today's game. He said something to the effect of. If a calling station calls he hit the board, probably 2nd or 3rd pair. If a calling station bets, he hit top pair or has an over pair or a strong ace. That's the extent of their thinking. Don't try to run over him, dont try to bluff, don't try anything fancy. You are going to show down a hand. It's about as straight forward as it gets.

Now I don't wanna seem to harsh here. At one point we were all calling stations until we learned something about the game. So if you are a calling station reading this, don't take it personally.

Agree w everything you said here. However, having position is even more powerful when Villain doesn't understand the concept. "I haz a pear" type thinking is great when you get to value town them w TP hands, and hands are easier to let go of, when you're in position - think about how many people don't understand why position is important.

Against these types of villains, I'll generally start cbetting my air on the smaller side, my medium hands in the middle, and my strong hands (TP or better) on the larger side, depending on board texture - if they don't understand position, they probably don't understand betsizing tells. I'm more likely to cbet high and uncoordinated flops, and less likely to cbet low and coordinated flops. I'm also looking for situations where the turn can improve my hand vs those where the turn won't for semibluff opportunities.

But yeah, a show of strength is a reason to fold if Villain's passive, and a call is a reason to check back the turn if Hero hasn't improved.

Just thought I'd let you all know I tried this method to a point (maybe even more passively than I should have in the SB) and took down a $5 SNG (full ring to start). I played my regular game until I was heads-up then switched it up a bit.

It really wore on my patience for the first little bit, but after I started chipping up and away, I rolled with it. Went HU at a 3-1 disadvantage against a calling station, and ended up taking it down. Gotta love the check/check/check/value bet combo. I kept the pot small until I was reasonably sure I was ahead and threw out a VB on the river with anything stronger than 2nd pair. Any resistence, i just let it go and tried again next hand. If I missed, I would just check/fold, unless I was looking at a scary board, then I would raise to an amount that looked similar to my previous VB's. Worked like a charm.

Great going TheKAAHK !!! Great news!! I have been working on taking my own advice. lol. I am a bit on the aggressive side. I have been working on my non-button play. If the button raises and I have nothing, I let it go. However if the button raises and I have a reasonable hand, I will go ahead and re-raise. Going with the theme of 'if it's worth calling, it's worth raising'. It's 50/50 that the button is going to throw away their hand. If I miss the board and I will go ahead and c-bet. If I get called I'll try to check it down to the river.

This play is dependent on my table image. If I'm being outdrawn and can't bully around my opponent, then I'm better off not making this play. It's one of those situational things. But it's another tool that could work if used sparingly.

It's working!!! Whenever I'm in the BB I do my best to keep the pot really small. If I don't hit the board, I have developed the patience to check it down to the river. If I lose, I only lose one lousy BB, nothing more. Getting chips out of me is like getting blood from a turnip!

If someone bets into me, I just let it go. Better to lose one BB than 20.

I was heads-up at a final table 2 weeks ago. Blinds were like 1/20 of my stack.
My opponent was calling everything and i was only dealed bad hands. When i finally hit top card he had AA So i lost. U have to be agressive but not too agressive when u do not get cards. And u do not want to wait when the blinds are big. There is a problem when the blinds are 1/10 of your stack and u only get 72o, 83o, 52o or cards like this.

Dont have much to say except I am happy to have found this thread. Great post OP, and lots of great comments and tips as well (sly is at it again...lol)

Definitely a few more tools for my box!!

Thanks

I love playing with calling stations!!!!! God bless 'em. The calling station FAR outnumber the aggressive players.

you nice said it...
in heads up you must be agressive...not too agressive but agressive...
i experienced that many players that using that kind of very agressive style are very vulnerable with little agressive play...
if i am waiting good hands he will ate me and my chips before i even knew what happened...
and we all know that very playable hands are very wide in heads up...so...

Good post.. I think this will definitely help me in SNGs..good one!

play patient an wait for your cahnces to hit then why you have a favorable chip stack take him down with agresion

I played in a two person SnG and it didn't last long. Villian was min. raising whenever he was on the button. I have been using the rule of thumb of...if I don't have a hand that I wouldn't raise with myself I'm going to fold. If I have a hand that I would raise with, then I re-raised pot sized whenver the villian put in his lame min. raise. After re-raised twice, the villian stopped his min. raises. However, I still played very aggressively and the cards were hitting me (for a change), which made bluffing much easier. It's a beautiful thing when you intimidate your opponent to the point where he is forced to change this game plan. Less than 20 hands later it was over and the villian had tire tracks all over his back.

So now I have two gears I'm very comfortable with: patient/value betting and flat out aggression. Still lots to learn and still several gears to work into my game.

The next step I want to explore is mixing up my play. Sometimes I get tunnel vision and get locked into one mode of play beit aggression or value betting. Switching back and forth between the two modes of play would keep the villian off-balance (in theory). By the same token, I'm thinking switching gears would be driven mostly by my opponent and his level of sophistication. I don't want to over think this and give my opponent too much credit. But being able to control my opponent from a psychological stand point would be a great tool to have.

Of course I may never get there, but it would be something worth checking out.

Switching playing styles in mid-game. I was in a 2 person SnG HU game this morning. I started out playing a very LAG style (mostly to see if I had an aggressive or passive player) of play and I also wanted to see what type of opponent I was dealing with. Things were going really well, lots of my raises were respected and the villian folded.

So I start running over this guy and about 20 hands into play I get caught bluffing twice. At this point I got the sense that my opponent started figuring out what I was doing and that I don't really have a hand when I raise.

So instead of hammering at the guy, I decided to go from a LAG to a more TAG/value betting style of play. And it paid off. Whenever I had a hand the villian thought I was bluffing so I got called down Value betted on every street and built a nice pot 3 pots later the game was over.

Switching mid-match left my villian completely confused

One positive aspect of playing lots of HU is that you really start tuning into your opponent and betting patterns. I was playing 2 person HU SnG this morning and got to the point where I was calling out what my opponent had.

But lady luck has a way of playing cruel jokes on you. Even I knew exactly what my opponent had I lost 3 games in a row. One thing you cannot control is what cards come out. And even if you are playing cards face up, if the cards hit him and not you....you've gotta problem.

Even tho, I still consider today to be a very good way in terms of developing my reading/betting patterns skills. As far as that donk goes, I made a note of him and I am really looking forward to playing him in the future.

well I think aggression only works up to a certain level.. you have to mix up your play.. fold a couple of hands to make sure you can take over the table on the next hands.. good luck! mix it up

I watched the Poker Stars HU tournament yesterday. They had a wrestling coach going against Tito Ortiz. The wrestling coach took a huge lead in match, at one point have a 9 to 1 chip lead. The next five hands were amazing. The coach put Tito all-in 5 times in a row...and Tito sucked out each of the 5 times. Eventually Tito won the match. I can only imagine what the coach was thinking. I feel for the guy, I've been in that position many times....super weak opponent that catches cards. So annoying.