How do you do heads up?

I just recently started keeping track of my tourney play. My heads up play isn't that bad from what I can tell. I have played 29 hu five dollar sitngo's. I have won 17 of them, giving me a profit of 21.10. I was wondering how some of you guys do, or if you guys know stats on any pros and how their stats look. Thanks

myself

I could tell you but then I'd have to shoot you,,,,lol ,,just kidding of course,,, I play tight ,,,aggressive ,,,lull them to sleep,,, then go for it,,,

i play violent heads up. due to bad chasers, i have a pretty good percentage heads up. in micro, its not uncommon for me to have a fifth sized stack of the guy i'm up against, and its usually no problem to dispose of him. you come up against several types of players in this situation. the donkmaster...he's willing to call you down with whatever. he doesn't raise, he just calls so you just know when to check it on out there or give em hell. the wuss...sb raises with crap make him fold...he'll start folding on his sb back to you...so when he plays, nothing wrong with taking a stab at it with your 23o but be ready to lay it on down. the "i suck, i shouldn't be here, i like to just go all in every hand and leave it to a coin toss cause that's the only time i ever have a shot at winning"...give it a few hands and wait for a high card...or if you realize he folds to your raises on sb...eat him alive there. ideally, i like going against the guy who likes to bet, raise and re-raise mindlessly because that's exploitable with less "chance play" going on. even he establishes a pattern...and heads up i feel pretty confident at not being predictable. there are many ppl you can destroy by pattern and rule play you've set that they won't get the hang of and you need to realize this within a handful of hands...if they're weak heads up you got em unless they're just having a lucky day. the raise and reraise is the most important play in heads up just like in a full table...along with the trusty old fold. i find with 3 ppl i'm more apt to shoving all in, especially if i'm not in the lead, but heads up i'm doing standard raises and reraises...heads up, i feel like i should be taking my time, there's just one man to beat and every hand has potential value. so i adjust due to my opponent at this point. am i short where i need to just be shoving or should i be bullying? i'm looking for leaks in his game, i'm trying to see what he's playing if i can afford a call too...and hopefully i have notes on him from previous games

i do like playing heads up i sualy play the 25c 50c tables heads up and usaly do very good

i sometimes play heads up omaha to as i do luv omaha lol

i always play very tight but agressive at the same to but i do mix it up occasinaly

I remember a pro saying (sorry, I don't remember the name) who played quite a bit of heads up that his winning percentage was around 65%.

I would say your percentage is pretty good. At the $5 HU tables, you should be running into some decent players that are not complete donks, so your +EV means something.

I play the opposite of what the other player's style is.. If they are aggro, i let them hang themselves, and if they are tight, i just steal small pots..

I think i win about 7/10 of the ones i play, which are spread around the $2 and $5 games.

Will anyone come on here and say that DON'T win over 50%?

Oh, I fogot, this is the internet, where 95% SAY they are profitiable and winners, which mean 70% are liars thereby.

I think it's great that you're playing HU. It's good practice and everyone should try it as much as possible.

That said, I do think that HU's no exception for the streaks common to poker. You're doing well so far, but I've a funny feeling you won't be able to tell just how good you are until you've played a lot more. So keep playing and remember one size does not fit all. There's no set in stone method to winning. It's true that most of the time the aggressive player wins but I see a lot of head to head aggression where people are fighting fire with fire. That's backwards. You fight fire with water. If your opponent's very aggressive then be passive and let him bet into you all he wants when you've got the best hand. It should be obvious, but sometimes people forget.

Also, and this is just my nutty opinion, since you like $5 HU matches you should try the $2 matches with 4-8 entrants. That way you have to win 2 - 3 times in a row to take it down(but you win more loot). It's just my opinion but the more times you can win HU 2-3 times in a row, the better you are. Like say you win 2-3 times in a row more than 50% of the times you've played total, then the better you are at heads up. The 4-8 entrants thing just means you get paid better when you are that good.

ean said:

Will anyone come on here and say that DON'T win over 50%?

Oh, I fogot, this is the internet, where 95% SAY they are profitiable and winners, which mean 70% are liars thereby.

Click to expand...

Hehe, and by the same token, it's the internet, so it's relatively easy to catch them in their lies. But it wouldn't be in the spirit of the game to rub someone's nose in a fib.

You should check out my thread I made a while ago. I did a heads up challenge where I played 100 HU sngs to test the profitablilty of these tournaments.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/heads-up-challenge-150271/index2.html

Overall it was a fun time, but I do better with MTTs and SNGs.

Agree

I think HU is all about the opponent your playing.In MTT's HU every rd you advance you obviously play some1 else and they play differently.I think the biggest priority in HU play is getting a read on your opponent as fast/cheap as possible.Do they call down with middle/bottom pair,if so how much will they call?Do they bet these pairs?If so how much do they bet?You need to pick up this kinda info asap.

I'm super aggressive in heads up. Drives them batty then they call with 53 or somesuch. Pwnt.

You know, for some reason, I don't think the OP was asking how to play heads up, or even for people's personal strategies for playing. I actually think he or she was asking about their performance as in "I do well at HU, winning more than 50% of the time" or "Lousy, I'm lucky to win one out of then matches".

It's just that if you look they're talking about starting to keep track of their matches and the results. They're not talking about method, but then for some reason people just started saying how they play. As though the OP had asked "How do you play a heads up match?" as opposed to the vaguer question "How do you do heads up?", which I fully and maybe wrongly, interpret to mean "How do you fair heads up?".

i have played only like 6 or so games heads up(for money) and i think i am about even, but with rake and all i am probably at negative profit. i kind of like heads up better because you just have to outsmart one player instead of multiple people in bigger sng's and mtt's. but heads up requires a lot of strategy and one wrong move can leave you shortstacked easily.

i use http://www.pokerprolabs.com/ to see how my opponents do in heads up and overall in poker. for those guys on here that are saying how good their play is should put their money where their mouth is and show us their stats on there lol

Aggressive is a must playing heads up... I either play hyper aggressively somewhat like a maniac, or just tight aggressive depending on my opponent... Like someone mentioned above, you must play off your opponents style....
I love heads up.... It's fun but the variance in this game could be big, make sure you have a decent bankroll to play...

bluff a lot and only get involved in a big pot with a premium hand. then i go for it all