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et1961

et1961

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One of the weakest parts of my game is heads up. I,ve been practicing a lot of heads up play going for tokens on FT. They are 4 player sit-n-gos where you have to win two matches to win the token. I almost always win the first match.( about 95% of the time) But only win the second match starting with 3000 chips ( double the first match) about 50% of the time. I can,t figure out why I have such a hard time winning starting with a larger stack. How can I adjust my game to improve my game? Texas hold-em.:cool:
 
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Grinder101

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Lol, those winrates are outrageous. What are tokens btw?
But I can assure you that in real HU games your ROI won't be more than 15%, besides there is fundamentally no difference between the 2 player or 32 player HU sng's. Except that variance is greater in multitable HU tourneys, meaning you need a bigger BR for them.(consistent play over a couple hours might play a part too, but that comes with experience)
The multitable ones might be a little softer because the MTT style payout attracts donkeys more easily, but besides that they're the same.
If you really want to improve heads up, play lots of games(which by your exhorbitant winrates proves you haven't), and play agressive. Try to concentrate on each hand, remember your mistakes, review your games. I don't really think there's anything else you can do.
 
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engman

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Grinder 101, FTP has 26 and 75 tokens where you can use them exclusively for a 24+4 or 69+5 tournament, but you can not choose to split it up, you have to use it all on one of those tournaments depending on the token you have.
 
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rollnutilt

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Are you TAG, LAG or LAP? What hands are you raising with and what ones are you flat calling? Is the villian LAG, TAG or LAP? You need to be able to figure out what type of player your opponent is and adjust your game accordingly. You could post your HH so we could discuss them.
 
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zendog

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Are you TAG, LAG or LAP? What hands are you raising with and what ones are you flat calling? Is the villian LAG, TAG or LAP? You need to be able to figure out what type of player your opponent is and adjust your game accordingly. You could post your HH so we could discuss them.


rollnutilt is right. In heads up it is less about the cards and more about the opponent. Early on heads-up be a little aggressive ( even small raises ) and see if your opponent plays back at you at all. If they are folding a lot to your aggression you can stay aggressive, picking up blinds, and when you do have a hand you will usually get action from your opponent. If your opponent is betting into you a lot and re-raising, ( especially all-ins) you can slow your aggression a little and wait for bigger hands to use your opponents aggression against them. The key is practice learning when to use aggression against what opponents at what times. Play a lot of cheap heads-up games to get the feel for what works.
 
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playerk7

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i like to think of everything i get dealt heads up is worth double what its orginally worth at a nine seater table, just think of your cards like that and think of it as not playing your cards os much either but your opponent, be aggresive, you always want the momentum heads up
 
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ongkie

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play a wider range of hands. always reraise when u know the other guy is weak. valuebet on the river and u can win most of the time because most of the time, in heads up, ur opponent will have nothing or just a small pair
 
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godoy

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I don't like playing heads up, I think is much hard to read the opponent and the profit rate is low, but if I'm playing with friends and in the end I'm heads up with someone, if I'm bigger than him, I usually plays very agressive, but with a continuoum bet, because I think if I steal an amount of blinds, them I got caught on a bluff, the winning rates will be bigger than the time that I got caught
 
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Grinder101

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I don't like playing heads up, I think is much hard to read the opponent and the profit rate is low, but if I'm playing with friends and in the end I'm heads up with someone, if I'm bigger than him, I usually plays very agressive, but with a continuoum bet, because I think if I steal an amount of blinds, them I got caught on a bluff, the winning rates will be bigger than the time that I got caught

To me it's much easier to read heads up. And the profit rate (talking in $/hour) is actually much higher than you'd think.

I can understand that many players don't want to play heads up because you can't play tight or get lost amongst a full table of players. But it's essentially the purest form of poker. When playing full ring you can't play fancy and expect to make a profit. But heads up, the right play for a particular hand could very well be to 3-bet 73o.
The fun thing is that you have to find the best play for every hand heads up, and more often than not the best play is not folding.

Anyway to each his own, but the HU games are rapidly growing in popularity and thus they're becoming kind of a giant fish pond for the skilled player.
 
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