HU play, what would you do here?

Here's the background. I was playing in a 25nl 6max game and this guy kept talking smack to me about my play after I just took a hit and was very short stacked. The next hand I pushed my last $5 w/ 99 on the button and doubled. Next hand I doubled w/ QQ. So now I'm at $19 or so and this guy keeps talking smack so I offer him a heads up game at 50nl. He accepts and here is the 4th hand in. What do you do?

full tilt poker, $0.25/$0.50 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 2 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): $46.25
BB: $53.40

Pre-Flop: 9 A dealt to Hero (SB)
Hero calls $0.25, BB raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3) J 9 A (2 Players)
BB bets $2.50, Hero raises to $5, BB raises to $18, Hero ????????

Unless he is a complete nit i'd shove here. But i'm not a fan of playing HU in cash games, so it is a bit of a hard choice because of how deep stacked you are.

But if this was a SnG, i would shove without a moments hesitation. If you are in HU play, and you find yourself 2 pair vs top 2 pair or 2 pair vs a set, then you should get stacked because such situations are very rare in HU.

If he isn't tight, he could have Ax and make the same choice. I would shove...if he has AJ/JJ/99 then bad luck, but i would imagine his reraising range is substantially wider than that.

You limped, he raised, he isn't going to be happy with you reraising his cbet if he hit the flop after you limped and the flop came all high cards, so i think that in the vast majority of cases you are way ahead here. You only min raised, which is often taken as a sign of weakness, so i really do not think he puts you on much of a hand. I'd probably shove vs a nit here as well.

As far as the hand goes, definate shove, you crush villains range, but there are 3 things you did wrong

1. you took a hit so were shortstack yet didn't reload back up to max so missed out on value

2. after doubling up with the 9's, you failed again to reload so missed out on value with your queens

3. You fell for the trap!!! Someone angers you, puts you on tilt, then gets you to play a game at higher stakes. Next time just brush off the abuse and stick to your game

I completely agree with switch, you got put on tilt and your ego took over. Who cares if someone is giving you a hard time, just play your game and make good choices. Do not let him get to you and raise the stakes. Now, if you think you got this guy pegged and you are a good HU player by all means play him, just make sure you do it for the right reasons.

As for the hand you have to push, His range is pretty high, if you arent confortable losing your 50 bucks in this situation then you should have been in it to begin with. If he has you beat he is playing his hand very hard for a HU, which would be a suprise, although if you have some reads that he plays big hands hard maybe take that into account. If not you have to push, he also may be trying to make a play on you here to show how much better he is.

switch0723 said:

As far as the hand goes, definate shove, you crush villains range, but there are 3 things you did wrong

1. you took a hit so were shortstack yet didn't reload back up to max so missed out on value

2. after doubling up with the 9's, you failed again to reload so missed out on value with your queens

3. You fell for the trap!!! Someone angers you, puts you on tilt, then gets you to play a game at higher stakes. Next time just brush off the abuse and stick to your game

Click to expand...

Agreed on all accounts. I shouldn't have let anyone get to me in a game. But I do believe I am a better player than the villian and therefore the HU offer seemed like a no brainer to me.

^^^ So what if your better than him, doesnt mean your going to beat in in 1 heads up game. How good are you at heads up in the first place, this guy could be a pro in diguise like zach

Sounds like the other guy was on tilt more so. But the only reason i can imagine you wondering about your move here is if 50$ is alot to you, in which case you are probably playing above your roll, which is a terrible idea for HU in which you obviously must be comfortable with being stacked in order to play correctly. You should play HU way underolled imo, because hands like this you have to shove and you have to be willing to accept that some of the time you will be beaten/drawn out on.