G
Guittars
Enthusiast
Silver Level
Lengthy post follows. 1 sentence summary if you can't be arsed reading it all:
Be as goddamn patient as you possibly can and you'll win a significant majority of your HU games (imo).
Just (successfully!) completed a $5 HU game with a player who constantly went all-in against any small raise or call.
He got slightly unlucky early and made a big bet with 77 pre-flop. I called pretty quickly with my JJ. Held up and I took a big lead- about 2200-800.
After that, he kept going all-in 75% of the time: a great tactic when you're low on chips (although not necessarily when the blinds were only 20/40).
My general philosophy is to avoid calling those all-in's with anything but a premium hand on the grounds I don't want to double him up (changes when blinds get bigger of course).
Patience is obviously a key factor in this. And luckily for me it paid off. I raised small with AKo and he just called (a surprise) with K6o. Flop was A67 - 2 spades. I bet. He went all-in over the top. My hand help up and $10 was mine.
However, a great tactic I spotted (or so I thought) was that he clearly picked up on my reticence to call his all-in's and obviously kept doing it to get back into chip contention. However, he didn't stop. And that last hand - was for over 2800 chips. i.e. he had 1400 chips (nearly 50% of em) when he went all-in. With a pre-flop raise and post-flop bet and all he had was middle pair - suicidal?
Anyway, as summarised much earlier, patience, patience and more patience are an often overlooked set of values in HU poker. Sure aggression is vital, post-flop play etc. But when the blinds are low, what's your rush?
Just my humble opinion.
G
Be as goddamn patient as you possibly can and you'll win a significant majority of your HU games (imo).
Just (successfully!) completed a $5 HU game with a player who constantly went all-in against any small raise or call.
He got slightly unlucky early and made a big bet with 77 pre-flop. I called pretty quickly with my JJ. Held up and I took a big lead- about 2200-800.
After that, he kept going all-in 75% of the time: a great tactic when you're low on chips (although not necessarily when the blinds were only 20/40).
My general philosophy is to avoid calling those all-in's with anything but a premium hand on the grounds I don't want to double him up (changes when blinds get bigger of course).
Patience is obviously a key factor in this. And luckily for me it paid off. I raised small with AKo and he just called (a surprise) with K6o. Flop was A67 - 2 spades. I bet. He went all-in over the top. My hand help up and $10 was mine.
However, a great tactic I spotted (or so I thought) was that he clearly picked up on my reticence to call his all-in's and obviously kept doing it to get back into chip contention. However, he didn't stop. And that last hand - was for over 2800 chips. i.e. he had 1400 chips (nearly 50% of em) when he went all-in. With a pre-flop raise and post-flop bet and all he had was middle pair - suicidal?
Anyway, as summarised much earlier, patience, patience and more patience are an often overlooked set of values in HU poker. Sure aggression is vital, post-flop play etc. But when the blinds are low, what's your rush?
Just my humble opinion.
G