Heads Up Sit n Go Strategy

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Wickedestjr

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Hello,

I am a tournament NLH player and I feel comfortable with anything from 9-handed to 4-handed, but struggle with the 2-3 player formats...

Recently I was playing a heads up sit n go with a friend, much less experienced than myself, and for some reason I struggled to outplay him. He played fairly solid at first but then started playing more aggressively once it became clear how passive I am. It seemed like almost every time he had position on me, he was betting flops and turns. Every time that he had a good hand out of position, he would check call every street. He would also call double/triple barrels with ace high which I think might be a result of inexperience but it made bluffing almost impossible for me.

I later found out that he was bluffing a lot, but I was never able to catch him as I was either not connecting with the board or unsuccessful in my two or three hero calls.

To summarize, I think he was getting luckier than me, but even so I felt like he was crushing me despite his (significant) relative inexperience.

What is the optimal approach to a heads up match against this type of opponent? I play with people like this all the time and it's pretty tough to outplay them.
 
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WiZZiM

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playing passively in heads up poker is just asking to throw money away, every chip they take from you is one you need to get back. So if someone is playing more aggressively, then they are very likely to be playing HU far better than you are.

i suggest reading the e-book http://www.husng.com/content/husngcom-presents-free-mersenneary-heads-up-poker-ebook

To get an idea of how many hands you might want to be playing, but basically playing position is everything, you really don't want to be folding many buttons vs anyone.
 
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WiZZiM

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And to outplay the person you describe above, you need to be folding to him in position a little more, opening up your button range, expanding your thin value betting range, and toning down your bluffing range, but still bluffing lol.

It's all exerience, i suggest you just play HU for a while to get more of a feel for it. But hand values go out the window in these games, and alot of the time min-raising with 72s will show less of a negative EV than folding would.

For example

folding 72s all the time means we lose 1/2 a BB everytime we are dealt that hand, but lets say we min-raise it, and we can get that negative loss to 1/4 of a BB by raise/c-betting and not doing anything else, we just saved 1/4 of a BB every time you are dealt that exact hand. Now lets say we do that for our entire range, we just saved a shitton of chips by just not folding our button. woohoo. But all this stuff is in that ebook so get reading!!!
 
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Wickedestjr

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Very helpful advice, thank you! And I will read that ebook. :)

And to outplay the person you describe above, you need to be folding to him in position a little more, opening up your button range, expanding your thin value betting range, and toning down your bluffing range, but still bluffing lol.
Two questions.
1. You said "folding to him in position a little more" which I assume meant to say "when I am out of position". But how is that supposed to help when he is bluffing a lot? Seems like the more passive approach.

2. My opponent wasn't really folding much. Is widening my button range still going to be profitable for weaker hands when bluffs aren't working?


I never thought button raising with 72 would be profitable, but if it loses me less money than folding, that seems like a very good reason to play. I hadn't actually ever thought of that.
 
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WiZZiM

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yes folding more out of position is what i meant, you should be techincally calling wider if he's also loose, your biggest weapon is to 3bet alot more, and fold the more speculative hands, but then counter that slight loss in ev and play more hands in positon. But learning what hands to call with and what types of hands to 3bet with is pretty important. vs loose players, it's ideal to 3bet a polarized range, meaning the top of your range and the bottom of your range, and then call with all of your middle range. This i think is all explained in the ebook anyways.
 
drapichrust

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for me on heads up you need to be aggresive, gain advantage of bigger stack, but you have to be carefull and dont push all the time, make some quick folds
 
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Mantones

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You should know the table dynamic and the type of your opponents..you should make a big raise on big pair big kicker and also check/call any flush draw and you shouldn`t fold so many hands pre-flop.
 
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Wickedestjr

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I have devoted about four or five hours specifically to heads up this week and I still have some work to do but I am starting to get a better grasp of it! Still reading through that ebook too.

Thank you all for the great advice!
 
hutzpaf

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Moshman book is a comprehensive walkthrough of heads-up playing the different areas.
On the whole, the book is an excellent introduction to the heads-up for playing, and will certainly be a lot of very useful information for less heads-up: ia experienced players, but it probably has something to delight the more experienced.
Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'em by Collin Moshman
http://www.twoplustwo.com/books/poker/heads-up-no-limit-holdem/
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Heads-Up-No-Limit-Hold-Collin-Moshman/dp/1880685442"]Heads-Up No-Limit Hold 'em: Collin Moshman: 9781880685440: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]
 
ribaric

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Hello,

I am a tournament NLH player and I feel comfortable with anything from 9-handed to 4-handed, but struggle with the 2-3 player formats...

Recently I was playing a heads up sit n go with a friend, much less experienced than myself, and for some reason I struggled to outplay him. He played fairly solid at first but then started playing more aggressively once it became clear how passive I am. It seemed like almost every time he had position on me, he was betting flops and turns. Every time that he had a good hand out of position, he would check call every street. He would also call double/triple barrels with ace high which I think might be a result of inexperience but it made bluffing almost impossible for me.

I later found out that he was bluffing a lot, but I was never able to catch him as I was either not connecting with the board or unsuccessful in my two or three hero calls.

To summarize, I think he was getting luckier than me, but even so I felt like he was crushing me despite his (significant) relative inexperience.

What is the optimal approach to a heads up match against this type of opponent? I play with people like this all the time and it's pretty tough to outplay them.
you have to play agressive you must play every hand raise a lot and bluff. Playing with that strategy you confuse your opponent and he never know how you will play next hand
 
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