Home game SnG against rec player

Ahoy

Ahoy

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Hello, I am going to play against a recreational player tomorrow.
We will be playing NLHE Heads up for 20€ buy in live in a home game.

I have a few questions, can you give me some hints facing these recreational players? I focus a lot on heads up and I know some working patterns to win against a wide field of regs but I actually never played complete newbie heads up.

I know he plays poker from time to time, but nothing serious. He should be the player who only wants to gamble and doesnt really thing deeper about his game.
I think as in a usual heads up match I will be raising him 100% of the time in position.

I will be more cautious with betting in the first, lets say, 20 hands, to get some reads.

And I think since he is a rec player I should porbably rely on some body tells too. Not too much, but it may help me decide.


Do you have some hints to play against these players?

PS: He may by somehow gambly. The story behind this challenge is that we are attending our friends birthday party this weekend and we all thought it would be fun to play some poker so In our facebook group I asked who wants to play and I assumed 5€ buy in, so everyone can play. Not too high and not too low not to try I guess. HE immediately replied that its too low for him and he wants to play for at least 50€. Since that is too much of a gamble for me I offered him playing the above-mentioned Heads up for 20€.
And since I dont know who this person is, I asked our mutual friend about him and he said, he wants the higher stakes because he has some money right now which he didnt have a few days ago so he feels rich and is doing some kind of showoff (do i smell easy money?). + he has very low poker experience, I think he doesnt even study the game and he has probably never played heads up, thats why I am pretty concerned what he will do, as some of my patterns may not work against him since he probably doesnt even know what he is doing.

I assume he will be valuebetting a lot and bluffing in bad, exploitable spots.


Any hints? :)
 
Alucard

Alucard

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Hey man!

I'd say do not over bluff recs. But it depends on the type of player he is.
If he's aggro you would have to be careful and pick up great spots with big hands.
If he's passive, blind him down.

Th key thing is at the moment he picks up a pattern he'll likely not give up a hand that easily. Something like a low pair on a overcard board or middle pair with ace kicker. So try to mix up your game. Try not to overbet & overbluff.

If he's super aggro and plays like a donk, the game will be yours within a few minutes.

I'm no expert at HU but I do cash against recs playing HU at 2NL.

I'm up for a play money game as well in a few days. Let me know. Not possible today though
 
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titiduru

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Man, you are saying he is a recreational player, which implies that you are a pro or a regular, but then 50 euro is too much for you to play. I don't understand why some people have a problem with being beginners or recreational players, that's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It just states the level you are in the game, just like a belt in martial arts, anyone can show up with a black belt, but what's the point?
 
Ahoy

Ahoy

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I didnt get your post titiduru, I am reg, I play poker every day for almost a year and I put a lot of effort in my heads up game, he is rec, menaing he doesnt play too much and probably is more gambly and less skillful.
50€ is way too much for me, since I am student and I live in eastern europe. Thats one tenth of average monthly salary here.

TY alu, will try that, agree with the betting, I need to be careful.
Will inform you.
 
TeUnit

TeUnit

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Think you should try to find exploitive moves, maybe start by limping buttons and stabbing flops, or try min raising the button and see if you can get many folds. You can also adjust your bet size for value, unless they adapt to it.

So essentially its small ball until you get a hand then its value time.
 
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