Heads up poker thread

[Jblocher1]

Hi guys, I was Just wondering if we could do a thread where people give heads up advice to each other and post videos that help people pick up their HU game. I just realized how much I suck at it and how much my abilities lack in this style of play. I keep making it to heads up and losing because I suck and I know that. Anyone know where I can start to figure this out? Because its time for me to get out of my second place rut. Thanks for any and all help

 

[Flsnookman]

Imho Hu play means agro almost always. Always raise the button, call down with any pair, ace high is often good. Good luck.

 

[jcdagenius]

Skype me jcreallivedboy1 I am heads up grinding and doing well at the moment. playing heads up has boosted my game to another level. it helps with ring games and tourneys also

 

[Jblocher1]

Don't have a Skype, but do u know of any good videos where I can learn? I'm not at all a beginner to the game I'm just bad at heads up. My biggest problem is hands that run something like this. I have KQ off suit. I raised 2/3 pot. My opponent calls. Flop hits 279, he open shoves into me. How do I prevent this? I can't really call there. Even if its a bluff his ace high is still good.

 

[Flsnookman]

Again, im also learning but to me pot size isn't as important as my stack size in Hu play. If I put a third of my stack in there and you open shove me on the flop were gambling. Again that's just me and im new too so....good luck.

 

[Flsnookman]

Oh one more thing imho kq off suit stinks. You would be better served playing 78 or any two suited cards but again im new so take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

[Jblocher1]

But KQ is a heads up monster I'm pretty sure. And 78 is easily dominated. I would much prefer KQ off. Since I have good equity against almost all of my opponents range

 

[Flsnookman]

It seems that way but what hand would you rather call with the flop you mentioned? Again, I seem to do better with 78,89,10 j than kq in hu play but maybe that's just me.

 

[Flsnookman]

Look at it this way, if you hit with kq you can be easily dominated by hands everyone plays like ak aq kk aa qq but if you hit with 78,89 you are likely out in front. Also its a lot easier to lay down if you miss. Again im new but I play quite a bit of HU. Hopefully some of the really good players here will chime in.

 

[groggy44]

this is just my opinion.
I like to play a lot of small ball with my marginal hands.
Limp in with AK, KQ etc etc. If you only raise your big pair, big broadway cards, etc, you are just advertising what you have. If i figure you got high cards, well i'll play low ones. there are more non broadway cards then not. Play normal blind structure so that even if you drop half your stack, there's plenty of time for you to catch a hand.
Once you start getting more than a 2:1 chip lead, start putting a little pressure on them from the button. min raise, cbet. Once you get him under 500 chips, I put more pressure but fold to any resistance. I want to keep him short stacked. I want the hand to end the next time I put my chips in the middle.
Happy fishing

 

[Propane Goat]

I've been slowly improving my HU game somewhat, from the reading I've done this is what I've picked up:

1. Folding the button is almost always a mistake because even with the worst HU hand, which is 32o, you still have the pot odds to call. If the villain raises, then that's a different story. I used to always fold the button with garbage hands, but I've quit doing that and have been picking up a lot of pots by betting when the villain checks post-flop. Yes, you miss the flop the majority of the time, but so does the villain and when you have position you can bet with nothing and often take the pot. I feel that if your stack size is such that a call will hurt significantly, then it's time to shove with any holding because the BB will hurt worse on the next round and you may well wind up with a worse holding than this round.

2. If you are BB and the villain limps, according to Harrington you should make a much larger raise than normal if you intend to raise at all, reason being that you do not want to see a flop because you will be out of position for the remainder of the hand.

3. As far as specific hands go, again from Harrington on Hold'em, the only two situations where one hand is a big favorite over another pre-flop is a higher pair over a lower pair or two lower cards. No non-pair holding is a big favorite over any other non-pair if there are no cards in common, which was a surprise to me. KQo was brought up earlier, according to Harrington this hand is ranked in the top 20% according to its ability to beat any random holding. This isn't a hand you want to be calling with at a full table when there's a raise and a 3-bet shove in front of you, but HU I don't think this is a garbage hand at all. Again, the majority of the time both you and the villain will miss the flop so in HU play often just having the high card is enough.

This stuff is probably common knowledge for most people here, but it might help somebody and if anyone has a different take, feel free to disagree.

 

[Jblocher1]

Thanks for the help guys! It's much appreciated

 

[acky100]

firstly start by ignoring all advice in this thread apart from what propane goat said about folding the button usually being bad. KQo is a pretty damn strong hu.

 

[kingme620]

2. If you are BB and the villain limps, according to Harrington you should make a much larger raise than normal if you intend to raise at all, reason being that you do not want to see a flop because you will be out of position for the remainder of the hand.

Depends on villain, depth, and hand. A hand like JT you'll be fine with making it 2.5x-3x. Although if you are bad at playing oop then obv it makes sense to make it 4x.

this is just my opinion.
I like to play a lot of small ball with my marginal hands.
Limp in with AK, KQ etc etc. If you only raise your big pair, big broadway cards, etc, you are just advertising what you have. If i figure you got high cards, well i'll play low ones. there are more non broadway cards then not. Play normal blind structure so that even if you drop half your stack, there's plenty of time for you to catch a hand.

This is all pretty bad

But KQ is a heads up monster I'm pretty sure. And 78 is easily dominated. I would much prefer KQ off. Since I have good equity against almost all of my opponents range

Not sure why you guys are talking about KQo vs 78. Never fold either 90% of the time

 

[Jblocher1]

So basically what I'm hearing is, raise a lot of hands in position, if I'm out of position and I suck at playing post flop out of position I should raise more to try to take the pot preflop so I don't need to deal with being OOP? I should raise all aces pre since it is most likely ahead of whatever my opponents range is pre, ( but of course that's read dependent) and I should play a lot of connectors, suited hands, one gappers, suited one gappers etc? So basically to sum it up I'm playing hands I wouldn't play in a full ring table and I'm playing loose aggressive to pick up blinds and try to get ahead of my opponent. Does this sound right to u?

 

[TeUnit]

maybe practice with some hyper turbo hu games, they have them as low as $.72 on the nowithdrawal network or $2 on merge

the blinds will be similiar to the situations you run into hu in a mtt or sng

gl

 

[kingme620]

No I meant if you have a hand that is good enough to raise nai over a limp (broadway, 88+) at 13bb+ you are most likely better off making at around 4x if you are just starting out. Or just don't raise at all with broadways, that's fine too.

If you are IP a standard opening % is around 75% of hands. OOP, depending on depth you should maybe call around 30%-40% of the time, but if you are bad then its fine to be more tight.

Basically yeah, play way more hands than full ring.

 

[Jblocher1]

Thanks for the help.

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Are you talking about HU cash or more like HU at the end of a tourney?... Because the two are vastly different. Stack size is so important in HU that you can't really even begin to talk about it without addressing that question. In cash games you'll be 100 bb deep usually, often deeper if you trade chips back and forth and people are topping up, or if one person gets stacked and rebuys, then wins some pots. Whereas in HU play at the end of an MTT, you're almost never going to be sitting on more than 30 bb (in my experience).

Edit: And HU SnG's can be pretty different too, especially depending on the blind structure/speed.

 

[Jblocher1]

I'm talking about tournament play here

 

[Matt Vaughan]

Then start by looking up push/fold charts and just start thinking about what will be profitable to shove. What will be profitable to call shoves with? No need to go hardcore on ICM, but you should read about ICM and make sure you understand it conceptually. That will give you a framework for thinking about the right kinds of things when you are HU in a tournament and stack sizes are tiny but the pay jump is likely big.

 

[fletchdad]

Are you talking HU as the final 2 in a tourney, or HU SnG? (Not that I know either way, just wondering)

 

[Jblocher1]

Are you talking HU as the final 2 in a tourney, or HU SnG? (Not that I know either way, just wondering)

Both, but mostly sit and goes.

 

[Nocturnal]

Then start by looking up push/fold charts and just start thinking about what will be profitable to shove. What will be profitable to call shoves with? No need to go hardcore on ICM, but you should read about ICM and make sure you understand it conceptually. That will give you a framework for thinking about the right kinds of things when you are HU in a tournament and stack sizes are tiny but the pay jump is likely big.

I lold.

 

[Comptonkid]

Then start by looking up push/fold charts and just start thinking about what will be profitable to shove. What will be profitable to call shoves with? No need to go hardcore on ICM, but you should read about ICM and make sure you understand it conceptually. That will give you a framework for thinking about the right kinds of things when you are HU in a tournament and stack sizes are tiny but the pay jump is likely big.

good advice, I just read a few articles about ICM and think it will help me a lot in the long run.