How to play against aggressive chip leader

I am newbie in poker and mostly play freerolls. Yesterday I first reached the 2nd place in a multi-table tournament. There was such a situation. The chip leader earned about 14 times more chips than I did at the final table. He had more than 8 million, and I have about 600 thousand. My tight game did not bring success. I doubled my stack several times. But still, under the aggression of the chip leader, I lost. I would like to hear the advice of more experienced players on how to play the game in this situation. Or in this case I had no chance?
Thanks for your advices!

Congrats on taking 2nd. That's how you get hooked on mtt.

Without seeing how you played, it would be hard to say how you could or should improve. There are plenty of other threads about heads up play, and plenty of stuff to read about it.

I would recommend going to youtube and watching some heads up poker. Watch some heads up tournaments and some final table heads up play. Watch what they do and compare it to what you were doing, and see where you went wrong and where you went right. Take the areas where you went wrong and think of ways to do them differently, if possible.

Also, you could practice by playing a few more heads up SNG. I'm not a big fan of them, but they are good for the practice. Heads up is a strange and often tricky form to play. You just need some more experience to gain some more confidence in your heads up game, then you will start taking down more tournaments and SNGs.

Some advice I can give from how I play heads up: Play more hands; widen your range considerably. Anything suited, and any two face cards are like gold. But don't be afraid to play hands like 37 off suit, or J2 off suit. These might be hands you would only rarely ever play, perhaps only when defending blinds, but in heads up the whole cliche of "you play the opponents, not the cards" rings true more so than anywhere else in the game. Don't be afraid to bluff if you see an opportunity, but be careful not to bluff right into the nuts or fall into traps like that.

It just takes more practice. Just stick with it and keep trying to improve.

VMVarga said:

Congrats on taking 2nd. ...

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Thanks for the advice! I watch some educational videos, read articles. Perhaps my mistake was in the game being too tight. I will practice further.

Way 2 go and clap-clap-clap for a hedz-up appearance. I wouldn't worry about this at all. Although it's like VMV stated about needing more info about how you got there. If you were playing tight/agg to get there, which is probably the new standard of play, imo, then keep it up w/button moves and broader holdings.
I'm not trying to discourage u but it seems that the big-stack wins more often, mainly because their range is basically any 2 cards. It just happens to be that way, imo. Although I've seen Gus Hansen have a 6.1 chip lead and lose it all to David Chiu at a WPT final table. I don't have a link for that (you can probably find it somewhere) but it was an awesome show of patience, timing, and a good sense of folding/raising by Chiu. So, anything is possible in poker, that's why we play, right? GL, man. :icon_thum

I think you don´t need advice and yes you could give us some advices because 2nd place is a great conquest.Congratulations!

A second place finisher does need advice As you play more, you'll learn yourself what kind of hands are good to shove when heads up. Nevertheless, with 600k against 8m, and huge blinds presumably, you don't stand high chances anyway. Congrats

This is a good result, congratulations! Even an experienced player will find it difficult to play with such an opponent. Read articles or books on SNG and MTT, there will be more understanding.

Maybe watch some hu videos at husngs.com or play some hu hypers to practice your short stack play.

mistershrimpy said:

I am newbie in poker and mostly play freerolls. Yesterday I first reached the 2nd place in a multi-table tournament. There was such a situation. The chip leader earned about 14 times more chips than I did at the final table. He had more than 8 million, and I have about 600 thousand. My tight game did not bring success. I doubled my stack several times. But still, under the aggression of the chip leader, I lost. I would like to hear the advice of more experienced players on how to play the game in this situation. Or in this case I had no chance?
Thanks for your advices!

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Chip leaders don't like losing the chip lead, but they do like to bully. That makes them vulnerable. Bully back. Ask yourself , when the chip leaders constantly raises, does he/she get great hands all the time. No, they do not. When they raise, raise back and watch them hesitate. Keep the pressure and let the fear work back to them and get on even ground (regardless of chip count). Don't play with scared money. Now, go get 'em!