Strategy for HU Tournaments

Don't know if anybody else has seen this, but i've noticed a lot of players are starting to just min-bet everything. They'll either raise or call a raise preflop, and then min bet the entire way, even the river. Can someone please explain how this strategy would work without ever changing it? To me min betting like this is inviting someone to suck out.

no the min betting just got back alot of online pros from what i heard used to min bet. they min bet the nuts so someone can reshove and u got em, it does work specially when u playing donks they go all in with just a high card on the flop lol

Don't want to make myself look like I just played for the first time today, but what does HU stand for?

HU = Heads Up

I absolutely understand using the min bet to induce a reraise, but I'm talking about someone literally just min betting the whole way and nothing else. That's what I don't get.

When someone is min betting to me, if I have something, I'll raise. If I have nothing I'll fold. If im on a draw, I'll just call for a cheap card. (dang Im so easy to read) The problem with facing a min bet is you dont really know what your opponent is holding. Do they have the nuts? Did they hit a small pair? Are they min betting to control the betting? (if you have something big and they are controlling the betting, they can keep the pot small) Are they betting in hopes you cant even call a bluff and fold? I dont really mind the min bet. Have played against many players like this and they keep stealing "Min Pots", but I take them out with the big ones.

^^^Sorry but I disagree. Raise raise raise ....you'll get a chiplead and when you hit they won't believe you.

That's what I usually do kcanuck. most of the time I just call the first couple of times to see what they're doing it with but after the 4th or 5th time I usually just raise right away, I figure if I get called or reraised I'm probably behind, but I'd say 8 out of 10 times they fold to the reraise.

I would of pushed hard had it of been me..I agree with Kcanuck...sometimes you have to show strength and other times you want to show weakness when in a good position to trap your opponet

Its a terrible strategy - they probably dont know how to play poke yet, either that or they are just slow playing then hoping someone bets then waiting to go over the top of them - but then you know they have a good hand so its pointless

markbills7 said:

Its a terrible strategy - they probably dont know how to play poke yet, either that or they are just slow playing then hoping someone bets then waiting to go over the top of them - but then you know they have a good hand so its pointless

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Which strategy are you referring to?

MI strat hu is 2 take it easy wen the blinds are low
get a feel for how gd your apponant is,,if hes playin tite press him if hes loose ..wait an trap,,etc,, its gd to play heads up every few days so wen u make a final table in a comp ,hopefully your bottle will hold up and u will play heads up like a champ

My thoughts exactly tigerstump, that's why I love playing the heads up tourneys just for practice. Doesn't hurt that I've found for the most part the players are very weak also.

Only remedy for a min raise is a reraise if you got it otherwise fold. Unl;ess you think you can bluff him/her. Then.....GL
Peace,
FLOW

min bet is really annoying i have noticed that alot of players do it to make you fold they usually do not have a hand, but if they do you have no way of telling what their hand is your only way is to call untill the end and see what they have..

sometimes they reraise and like i said no way of guessing what there hand is they usually are bluffers..

ya i found that with these guys just fold a bit and than start reraising hard. After a couple of those he'll change his game or you'll have the best of it going all in.

With min-raising you keep the pot small which is good for marginal hands and draws.

I'm not sure you need to change your strategy that much when facing min-bets. If I have a made hand that I think is the best hand, I'll raise to an amount that would give the same pot odds as if he had checked to me. If I'm on a draw, I'll usually call, just the same as if he had made a normal bet. After seeing how he reacts to a raise, I may throw in some semi-bluffs or total bluffs later. The only big change is that it might be worth considering calling with weaker draws such as two big overcards or one overcard and an inside straight draw. You'll be getting better pot odds, and these draws are well disguised when you hit them, thus increasing your implied odds.

The main problem with min-betting made hands is it increases the implied odds to pot odds ratio. This makes calling with draws much more profitable on your part. It also makes it cheaper for you to get away from a made hand that is second best. If you raise to a normal amount and he comes over the top, you can fold second pair or weak top pair and really only lose one bet.

The main advantage to him min-betting is that he puts in less money per hand, thus reducing variance. However, this comes at the cost of reducing profit as described in the previous paragraph. Furthermore, since variance is insignificant in the long run, we shouldn't care about playing higher variance than our opponent. Basically, he's sacrificing value to us for the sake of lowering variance in the short term.

So if you're serious about winning big in the long run, DO NOT min-bet (unless it's a special strategy against a particular opponent).

My strategy for heads up tournament is always try to trap the other player when you know you have to best hand. Other then that you just play your starting hands and every once and a while through a good bluff in there. Try reraising them if u dont think tey have anyhting I found this works a good amount of the time, but first try to figure out what kind of player ur up against

IDK really know but Ive seen it alot too. I know alot of people read that in HU you bet bet bet, so they really do bet bet bet. If you find that you arent doing well against bet bet bet, I have found that if once you get a GOOD hand you call them down the entire way (no raising) and do this 2 or 3 times, it shocks them and they stop. I do this every once in a while and its hillarious, i got people checking down 2 pair.

HU is most dependent on the opponent. No single strategy can be successful against all opponents. Adapting is very important.