Anyone here a HU player?

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CrushingSouls

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After trying tournies, zooming away alot of cash and 6 seated games, I've got to say I love HU play the most. After playing 100NL for a while I've now moved down to 50NL and just playing HU.

So after just over 2k hands at 50NL I'm up about 7 buyins. The last opponent was probably the toughest he caught my big bluffs about 3 times calling very light with bottom pair and then also not calling my river bet a few times when I really had the goods. It was frustrating because I couldn't figure him out completely.

I haven't really looked through this forum but are there any HU threads or other players that play this?
 
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Weffy

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this same thing happened to me recently. I was doing really good then I got high and maybe it was you I was playing ;)

I play $5 HU games, 1500 chips

No idea what I'm doing, but it seems easier than ring games and of course, theres more action.
 
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Dannycoho

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Heads Up

I used to play heads up quite consistently. The best way to win at poker is to find an awful player at a larger table (6-max or 10-handed) and invited him to play heads up. This way you know before the cards are in the air that you have a positive EV against your opponent.

If you simply sit at a heads up table and wait for opponents to come two things can happen.

1) A player sits down that you know nothing about

or

2) A player sits down that you are familiar with (to some degree)

In case 1, always play carefully in the first ten minutes or so. Use this time as a chance to evaluate your opponent. Ultimately, the most important decision will be whether or not you should continue to play against your opponent. You clearly prefer to play against loose passive opponents, but they rarely seek out heads up play. If a player's skill level is equal to or greater than yours, do not hesitate to leave the table. Poker is about money, not ego. If someone is better than you at a game involving money DO NOT PLAY.

In case 2, you should already have some idea regarding how your skill level stacks up against your opponent. Again, choose your opponent wisely.

Heads up poker is taxing on the mind. I recommend shorter, more frequent sessions. As aways, if you are tilting SHUT IT DOWN!
 
acky100

acky100

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I hope your roll can stand 30+ buyin swings because the swings at heads up are... soul crushing. Also bear in mind 50 heads up is going to be tougher than nl100 zoom, and the rake you're paying is abysmal, infact i dont think you will beat the rake unless you're just playing mostly big fish. My advice would be to stay away from heads up, but i doubt you'll take that advice, so to answer your question, not many people play HU here, i enjoy it though and if you ever want a game i'd be happy to play. As much as i enjoy it i dont think i could become a heads up reg, i'm not calm enough to deal with the swings but heads up is probably the best place to get better at poker if you can afford to lose a bunch.
 
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allheart143

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I love to play HU, not saying I am any good but I like the fast pace and the rush of HU. I play mostly micro stakes, I loved the .55 games that carbon had for HU, but those are long gone. I allow myself to play a few of them if I have had a good day in SnG's or Tourneys. Good luck and have fun hope to see ya at the tables sometime.
 
hackmeplz

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I don't play much HU tables but I start tables all the time so have played a bunch of HU as a result of that. 50nl HU the rake is going to be pretty brutal playing regs but that's the way to get better so it's a fine line. And yeah swings at hu can be pretty brutal if you're playing good players.
 
zEric7x

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I probably play a weaker heads up game. It is something I need to work on.
 
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CrushingSouls

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Haha danny thats a good idea and I agree its very tilty but it goes both ways lol.. I would have moved lower but 50nl is the lowest without going sit n go. Atm im willing to play anyone dont care if they are fish or not I just join a random table when I play. But if they are very tight e.g folding pf more than 50% I end up leaving the table. Played a session today and won 3buyins off a guy over about 400hands.

My aim now is to just keep getting better playing just one table. Yeh im way below my bankroll at 23buyins atm acky but im sure if I keep learning il be able to build it up. I dont agree with you though saying zoom100 is easier than 50nl headsup. Zoom constantly gives you very tough decisions and you have little read on players to help you.

As for rake yeh its alot but I like making big moves so oh well lol least its fun. I have till the end of this month to get platinum star though just need 1000fpps but I probably wont be playing anymore zoom it makes me feel sick playing that.

Anyway thanks for the advice guys! Ive come to realise winning money at poker should not be your motivation to play
 
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jcdagenius

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hu is great .....u wont always be playing a fish...but u need to be ble to beat good players also even if its for small amounts.....the swings are sick but there are swings in everything with poker.....idc.....
 
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DunningKruger

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HU4soulz. Yeah I play HU. Well I mean I used too. Probably terribad now. I got a little sick of the HU scene in general awhile back and thought it best to focus primary on 6max cash. I regret nothing. Still, HU is a great way to get good at poker, or less bad at poker, or settle grudges, or chase fish away from online play, or collect off bots who raise 92% of their buttons and fold to 3bets without TT+. BTW to any other HU players out there in CC's vast pool of 100k members, Will Tipton's book is a thumbs up. Pretty solid stuff. Also, I'm looking for some free HU coaching if anyone's willing and able. Doesn't matter from who... terrible players are fine too if that's what it comes to.
 
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CrushingSouls

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Im not good enough to give any coaching maybe someone else on here can. One thing ive noticed so far is your gut is usually correct. There was a moment in my last game, wish I knew how to find hand history.. where he 4bet me on the btn I flatted I checked and he cbet 1/3 pot. I missed the flop. He had done this before and I knew this was a bluff but then I overthinked it thinking he knows he did this last time (previously did this once) so this time he will trap me with the same bet. I folded and he showed the bluff. I then realised that this player was not on the same level I was thinking and I adjusted winning the last two buyins off him before he quit.
 
RodneyC86

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Not a fan of HU. My impression about hu gameplay thus far, barring you are against a fish, is whether you chose by coincidence the correct level to think against another thinking opponent. So no HU for me. I'll stick with 6max tyvm
 
Aleksei

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HU is awesome.

Also you CAN beat the rake; you're just paying 5% rake on flops seen same as any 6max or FR player. It's just everyone insists on seeing flops too wide HU so that you end up flopping garbage all the time, and playing just above breakeven EV even if you're good. YOU DON'T HAVE TO OPEN EVERY ****ING BUTTON.

A balanced preflop range HU would be 33% open, 33% defend vs minraise, and 25% defend vs 3x (just enough that villain cannot autoprofit from raising every button or folding every BB). I would actually recommend 3xing 40% of buttons, because it actually gives you room to make some money when villain folds (when you open 33% you're breaking exactly even on every BB fold) so that if he's actually tightening up to adjust you can have some more maneuvering room postflop since you're actually paying less to see the flop than he is.

Also there's literally no excuse for playing looser than that preflop. It's not like 6max where if you play nitty the only way to get proper volume is to add more tables; you're the only other guy at table. If you decline to see a flop the flop's just not gonna get dealt, and open-folding just adds 4 seconds of play time. It's one thing to get laggy and **** with people postflop, but seeing flops too wide is just costing yourself money, for no reason.

So, in a vacuum, my recommended preflop ranges are as follows,

IP:

-40% open
-14% flat 3bet (depending on 3bet sizing, if Villain is opening big you can defend less)
-6% 4bet
-3% call 5bet jam (basically just QQ+/AKs)

OOP:

-34%/25% defend (Minraise/3x)
-16% 3bet
-4% 5bet jam (TT+/AQ)

Flatting 4bet is not recommended. Playing OOP against a range that tight gets ugly fast.

Depending on ranges and dynamics you can 3bet/4bet/flat 3bet/etc. wider or tighter, but I don't recommend deviating from the standard open/defend range.
 
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duggs

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those numbers are way off a lek
 
Aleksei

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those numbers are way off a lek
I actually did some pretty exhaustive math work to come up with them. And I actually used a range just slightly wider than that to great success against my mentor last session.

So, do elaborate.
 
duggs

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tables up ill do it after session
 
Aleksei

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And just to preempt you, no, you can't bloody autoprofit from minraising when villain is defeinding 50% of BBs. You have to account for the blind posted (and blinds burnt by folding for that matter), because you have to actually recover the blinds to make a profit, as you're getting blinded every hand. If you minraise every button and fold every flop because I'm defending 45% and you're "autoprofiting" you're just donating like 8/9ths of your SB.
 
Aleksei

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Also, these are NOT standard HU ranges and I'm well aware of that. It's just I think HU regs play way too wide in general and they're just majorly costing themselves money. But you don't have to believe me; it's just all the better for me if my ideas here don't become common knowledge since most HU players are regs. :D
 
hackmeplz

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Also you CAN beat the rake; you're just paying 5% rake on flops seen same as any 6max or FR player. It's just everyone insists on seeing flops too wide HU so that you end up flopping garbage all the time, and playing just above breakeven EV even if you're good. YOU DON'T HAVE TO OPEN EVERY ****ING BUTTON.

Almost every HU player that is near the top of the game right now opens close to 100%, and some do open 100% of buttons. Obviously you don't have to open every button but if you're a good player you want to play as many hands IP as possible. If you're playing lower stakes where the rake is bad you might want to narrow that a bit.

IP:

-40% open
-14% flat 3bet (depending on 3bet sizing, if Villain is opening big you can defend less)
-6% 4bet
-3% call 5bet jam (basically just QQ+/AKs)

Sorry man only opening 40% is just going to be ****ing terrible. You get to play the hand IP and you're really just going to open fold 60% of hands?

OOP:

-34%/25% defend (Minraise/3x)
-16% 3bet
-4% 5bet jam (TT+/AQ)

Flatting 4bet is not recommended. Playing OOP against a range that tight gets ugly fast.

Depending on ranges and dynamics you can 3bet/4bet/flat 3bet/etc. wider or tighter, but I don't recommend deviating from the standard open/defend range.

Again this is way too tight. So against someone minraising 100% (a pretty common strategy from good regs, and how I typically play actually) you're going to fold 66%? You're getting 3:1 on your money preflop, and although you do have to play the hand oop I refuse to believe that Q8o and 78s are folds against a literally random hand getting 3:1. The more standard strategy against 100% minr is something like 80% defend with something like 15-20% 3-bet. So basically your 3bet number but a shitton more flatting, and that's because you're getting good odds so you don't even have to do a ton of stuff postflop when you miss. Obviously you should play poker so if your opponent is opening 100% and cbetting 100% you shouldn't be folding every time you miss but the point is that folding that many hands preflop is going to be a pretty big leak.
 
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CrushingSouls

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My VPIP is usually around 71% is that good? And the reason I flatted the 4bet OOP was because I had a feeling he was weak and I was going to check raise but didn't pull the trigger in reference to my last post.
 
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DunningKruger

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Wait, what. 40% open on the button?? Aleksei, there's a definite theory problem with playing less than half of what you're dealt when you're in position in a 2 handed game. DUCY?
 
acky100

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FFS, as usual why post so much complete and utter nonsense aleksei, it's clear you have no idea what you're talking about in the slightest, yet you comment everywhere like you're some seasoned pro! sighhhhhhhhh
 
JohnBoyWWFC

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Aleksei, this is what I was talking about yesterday. Duggs and Hackme are far better than you and know far more than you about this stuff but you just come out with things that are so fundamentally wrong and it winds everyone up. And the problem is you do this all over the forum and people who are here to learn believe the shit you come out with. You said the other day you're fishing to learn. If you want to learn, ask questions, don't go around spouting fundamentally flawed logic.
 
RodneyC86

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Wait, what. 40% open on the button?? Aleksei, there's a definite theory problem with playing less than half of what you're dealt when you're in position in a 2 handed game. DUCY?

Oooohh!!! I know i know! It's because in theory we should be dealt the better hand half the time, so we should AT LEAST be playing half our hands
 
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