Heads Up Range

Hi All,

Made it through the local rebuy tournament last night to end up heads up. Tourney was paying $350 for 1st, $ 200 for second.

When I got to heads up I really struggled chosing the right range. By this stage we each had about 70k in chips but the blinds had gone up to $5000/10 000 so neither of us had more than 7 BB.

At one stage he shoved and I was holding A4 and folded. He showed A4 and took my BB and it was about hero 40k villain 100k. We were just about to go to $10,000/20,000 blinds so I ended up shoving with 10c7c and he called with 57o. he hit his 5 and I was out in second.

Any advice on heads up ranges and how to handle being heads up where neither one has more than 7 BB?/?

Appreciate any thoughts.

CuttleFish

call pretty wide, push wider.

ATC or not that wide?

any picture? To me I assumed any pair, suited connectors, and at least some paint, but are you saying wider still?

CuttleFish said:

To me I assumed any pair, suited connectors, and at least some paint, but are you saying wider still?

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^^^^This for sure. HU is a game all it own. IMO there is no "optimal" way to play it. In most cases the blinds will be significant, so making moves with strange holding will be so standard, and your opponent will (if he is any good at all) be doing the same. Be ready to call real wide. try limping from the SB more, and min raise anything you want to push with or call a push with. You need to assess your opponent, and adjust accordingly. This will be one of the main factors in HU play. If your opponent is any good, it will also be hard. Any suited A or K, SC (but better if they are bigger cards), any pair, BW, all can be good enough to push with. As you described above, some guys are getting it in with crap, and so you cant afford to wait for cards a lot.

You're both 7 blinds deep , ranges are non existent, really. It's near enough ATC with all the dead money in there, taking down a pot increases your stack considerably. You should be calling/shoving any ace. You had to end up shoving something much worse in the end and he called any two, nothing you can do really 7blinds deep headsup. If you fold 2 hands, he's being priced in to to shove you 4/5blinds stack with ATC with all the dead money. I must say though, what a daft tournament structure or it must of been the longest final table ever, heads up 7blinds left - I'd rather of just split the money than flip for $150.00, wasn't this an option?

I thought the same thing, tried to chop when we were even stacked but he didnt want to.

To be fair too, it was a std $3000 buy in with re-buys, starting blinds $25/50 increasing every 25 mins. It was on the bubble that we went through about 4 blind increases which blew it out.

CuttleFish said:

To be fair too, it was a std $3000 buy in with re-buys, starting blinds $25/50 increasing every 25 mins. It was on the bubble that we went through about 4 blind increases which blew it out.

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$3000 buy-in with rebuys? Wow, what a -ev tournament that was with only $350 for 1st place!

Sorry, my mistake, was $350k for 1st, I took $200k for second


(really a $15 buy in, starting stack $3,000........ would have been nice though.......... )

What Ram said, it's an ATC situation I think (especially with blinds about to rise). Also that A4 fold is criminal

What jbbb said, that A4 fold is disgustingly bad.

jbbb said:

What Ram said, it's an ATC situation I think (especially with blinds about to rise). Also that A4 fold is criminal

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Accept that fully. Somehow thats a much nicer way of saying it than BlueNowhere could manage.

Blue, it would be nice if you could find a way to be a little more constructive. You seem to have some good things to say but it's sometimes lost on people by the way you say it.

I think i would be calling 22+ A2+ K4+ 67s+ Q6+ J8+
and shoving all but the very very bottom hands, probably about 85-90%.
At a guess, please correct if this is too tight.

you should think of heads up as being as similar to BvB and always being as aggressive as possible so you need to widen your ranges.

With such small stacks, you're in shove or fold mode, and when you're first to act, you should shove very wide. Maybe not quite ATC, but certainly a substantial majority of holdings. This does mean shoving a lot of below average hands, but most people don't call wide enough. This makes shoving +EV because of the weighted combination of you winning the blinds whenever the opponent folds plus your not being crushed a good deal of the time when he does call. You'll even be ahead sometimes with your below avg hands; e.g. you shove Tx and get called by something like 67s

CuttleFish said:

Accept that fully. Somehow thats a much nicer way of saying it than BlueNowhere could manage.

Blue, it would be nice if you could find a way to be a little more constructive. You seem to have some good things to say but it's sometimes lost on people by the way you say it.

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Could nt agree more .You should call with any A in that spot but unlucky in the end when had to play ATC and comments like that dont help anyone .Better luck next time mate ..

CuttleFish said:

Accept that fully. Somehow thats a much nicer way of saying it than BlueNowhere could manage.

Blue, it would be nice if you could find a way to be a little more constructive. You seem to have some good things to say but it's sometimes lost on people by the way you say it.

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More constructuve? Shove Ax, Kx, Qx, J7+, Jxs 22+, T6+, 97, 98, 67. If you thikn they call wide drop afew of the worst ones.

Call Ax, Kx, Q2s, Q6+, J7+, T7s+, 89s. If he shoves to wide add all Qx and more Jx, also unsuited tens like T7.

When blinds go up shove even wider, don't shove hands like 32o though. I'd drop T2 and worse, 93 and worse, 84o and worse, all of those sort of hands. No need to shove 100% as you lose alot of BB expectation even with shallow stacks. You're calling range should be pretty similar when blinds have gone up to shoving range with afew more hands added like some weak suited stuff, 54s etc.

Most MTT players play horrible at this stack depth, they either shove any two or tighten up way to much.

BlueNowhere said:

More constructuve? Shove Ax, Kx, Qx, J7+, Jxs 22+, T6+, 97, 98, 67. If you thikn they call wide drop afew of the worst ones.

Call Ax, Kx, Q2s, Q6+, J7+, T7s+, 89s. If he shoves to wide add all Qx and more Jx, also unsuited tens like T7.

When blinds go up shove even wider, don't shove hands like 32o though. I'd drop T2 and worse, 93 and worse, 84o and worse, all of those sort of hands. No need to shove 100% as you lose alot of BB expectation even with shallow stacks. You're calling range should be pretty similar when blinds have gone up to shoving range with afew more hands added like some weak suited stuff, 54s etc.

Most MTT players play horrible at this stack depth, they either shove any two or tighten up way to much.

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Thanks Blue, good info and well put

where was this tournament cuttle?

That was South West WA, Bunbury area.

Call with Q7+ and any pair, shove ATC on the button pretty much sums it up when it's that shallow.