cash game HU vs SnG HU

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R1ace

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I watched some vids on heads up sng and decided to see how it goes. I didn't want to waste any of my money so i looked for no deposit poker bonuses. I've found a site that gives a 8$ no deposit bonus (not going to name the site as it's probably against the rules of this forum)

Anyway, i started to play some HU sng's. I've won over 10 sng's in a row (playing with no BRM as i just wanted to see how it goes rather than to make any money from it) and to be honest, i've managed to turn that $8 into just over 61$. I could have stopped playing or i could have just kept moving up but i took $60 and entered a 0.50/1$ heads up cash game. Lost the money in the first couple of hands.

I had enough to enter one more HU sng and won a couple more until i lost. I've won around 15 HU sng's before i lost my first one.


I just wanted to ask whats the difference between HU sng and cash games as it looks like im quite good in sng's but i suck at cash hu games.

Also, with correct BRM is it worth playing HU? it might sound stupid but I hope one day I will be good enough at poker to enter a live tournament such as a UKIPT or EPT but i don't want to play only HU and when it comes to playing a normal game i will play with a wide range of cards.
 
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RamdeeBen

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There is more skill involved in cash games, full stop in any format and especially in HU IMO.

This is because in general, cash games are and should be played with a minimum of 100blinds.

This just doesn't happen in SnG's, in most HU SnG you start with 75blinds and quickly after 10mins, you are down to 30 blinds and then another 5mins later, in push/fold mode.

With correct BRM HU can be very profitable if you have an edge. Playing HU will give you a must better poker game than your AVG FR or 6max player because in general (if you are a winning player) you can most likely out play most players when it comes to full ring so don't worry about that. You will be able to play a wider range, purely because you can and will have a better game when it comes to putting a player on a range of hands.
 
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R1ace

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Thanks, I think i'll take the risk and try SnG HU games mainly because in a cash game i can buy in for 100bb then double or triple up and lose all of it yet in SnG's i know how much i can lose and how much i can win which makes it simpler in a way.
 
sam1chips

sam1chips

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definitely, tournament poker (both MTT and SnGs) are very different than ring games. i've always had more success in tourney modes than in ring games...
i guess the main idea of a ring game is to leave the table with more chips than you entered with, the idea of a SnG/MTT is to leave the table with ALL the chips. I'm not quite sure how to explain the difference between ring games and MTTs (hopefully another member can respond behind me and explain) but all i can say is that they are very DIFFERENT
 
duggs

duggs

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the biggest difference was that jumped stakes, you went from $8 sng to 100nl HU with 60bb.
 
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R1ace

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turned out to be a bad move. On the other site (mainly a sports betting site) i was clearly better than the other players at SnG HU games but when i tried playing on pokerstars it wasn't so easy. Lost 15$ today so i will have to go back to playing my 2NL games :(
 
acky100

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sample size, winning 20 in a row wouldnt make you good at hu sng's the variance is enormous especially if you're playing fast paced ones. The reality of it is, edges are really small in these games, if you are really good at them you'll probably be making a 5% Return on investment in them, so in other words, if you were playing $2 sit and go's and were really good, you'd only be making 10c on average every one you played. You probably ran good, it's totally standard to lose 20 or so in a row in these games.

You really cant have an idea of how good you are at these games until you've played literally thousands.

HU cash is gonna be a ton harder and a ton easier to lose all your money, especially playing with less than a buyin, what did you think would happen?
 
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eazy489

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I would advocate watching some good HU training videos on either cash or SNG, depending on what you are looking to do. If you want poker to become a profitable hobby for the rest of your life, I would say start playing cash at low stakes like 10 NL and work your way up. If you are just looking to make some extra bucks here and there then i would stick to SNG's. Either way I would try to google HU training videos and watch some. There is a lot of strategy in both HU cash and SNGs. Both will have their fair share of variance as well. HU is probably the highest variance form of poker because it is the purest. But it if you get good at HU the other forms of poker will become that much easier ( 6max, FR). I would def advocate learning HU. I play HU cash and not only is it very profitable but it is rewarding also in the sense that you can challenge yourself against good opponents and take their $$
 
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R1ace

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on stars the lowest HU cash game is 50NL. I don't know if it's worth risking any more money to play HU ? I find it impossible to hand read in these games
 
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chenyi000

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Lost 15$ today so i will have to go back to playing my 2NL games
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Tino11

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If putting a player to a range or 'reading' his hand is a major problem, stay well away from HU cash games.
 
acky100

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Don't play HU cash if you are prone to tilt either, its so easy to drop $1k at even 50nl HU. Its definitely an awesome way to get better at poker and some of the people i've played at 50HU are also beating 200nl 6max and FR games, so im sure studying HU will make you a much stronger player, but it's not practical until you can deal with losing $500+ pretty regularly!

People who only want to play HU usually start off playing sng's to build a decent bank roll to be able to play hu cash for this reason. Probably gonna want atleast $1500+ before you play it, variance is huge and you can't afford to play scared or wait around for good hands like you can at 6max and FR.
 
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