HU STT Small Pocket Pairs OOP

TylerN

TylerN

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Playing HU STT i find i struggle OOP with small pocket pairs. Let me give some examples:

1) blinds 10/20 Hero has 33. villain raises 3xBB from the button. Hero ?

2) blinds 10/20 Hero has 33. villain calls 20 from the botton. Hero?

id like to hear what people have to say about this
 
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The_Pup

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The only way to win heads-up is to have equal or more chips than our villain going into the last hand. Everything we do is geared up to setting up this event. In the early stages we need to be gaining information about our villain and sending them duff information about us so that we can set up a trap of some sort. For example, if our villain regularly folds to a cbet then we keep cbetting not just to collect chips but because we reckon the villain will play back hard when they hit - with luck we will have a big hand when this happens.

eg Villain AK (BB) Hero 33 (SB). Hero raises 3BB, villain calls. Flop A93. Villain checks, Hero bets pot, villain raises...

It might cost us some chips here and there to get information and to set up our villain but that doesn't matter too much - we'll get them back and more when we spring our trap. For example, if our stack is t1800 and villain's t1200, paying t100 is fine if it convinces the villain that we are a lot looser than we really are and we can take advantage of this later. In short, our goal is not to pick up chips on each hand so much as to take control of the game and force our villain into making mistakes.

So, to our 33 hands. How we play it mostly depends on how the game has gone so far - is the villain a maniac? do they think we are? have they raised every hand from the SB? have we? have they lead into every flop? have we? And so on... If we have lead out on loads of flops and the villain has folded then we can do so again. If the villain folds again then we have picked up a few chips (which is nice) but we have also reinforced the idea that we like to steal small pots (we aren't particularly interested in this, we are setting up a trap); if the villain plays back at us then we need to decide if the moment has come to spring our trap (A93 flop) or fold, which will add to the image of us being a snaeky stealer that folds under pressure - this is good information that is often worth paying for.
 
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Lofwyr

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I think you need to clarify a little more when you say HU. Most people will immediately assume you mean "last 2 people in a STT" when it appears you just mean a 2-person pot.

In any case, both of those situations you set up seem like a set-mining type spot. Assuming both of you are fairly deep, it's quite cheap to see a flop to hit your 3 (or whatever) and try to stack villain. Later in a tournament, especially when you're down to 5-6 handed, these small PP's can't really set mine but can be used as light 3-bet hands/steal hands.

Say, instead of early and 10/20 blinds, it's the middle of the STT with 50/100 blinds. You have 15bb, BTN has 15bb. You can shove over the 3x BTN raise as a semi-bluff. If you get looked up you'll often be in a flip against Ax, KQ and those sorts of hands. If BTN limps you can make a raise intending to do a sort of go and go. Pop it to like 5x, if BTN calls then shove virtually any flop. Most of the time BTN will just lay it down and you'll scoop the pot, in both of the above scenarios.

As the pup says though, knowing the opponent is quite crucial as well.
 
TylerN

TylerN

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I think you need to clarify a little more when you say HU. Most people will immediately assume you mean "last 2 people in a STT" when it appears you just mean a 2-person pot.

HU STT-two people register for a STT tourney. I dont get whats so hard about that?
 
TylerN

TylerN

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In any case, both of those situations you set up seem like a set-mining type spot. Assuming both of you are fairly deep, it's quite cheap to see a flop to hit your 3 (or whatever) and try to stack villain.

by limping how would u stack ur oppenent? say blinds 10/20 u have 33 on button and u call 20 and villaing in BB checks. (40) with stacks at 1500 a piece how could u possibly stack ur oppenent without him having a great or almost monster hand?
 
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Lofwyr

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I misread obv :p Assumed w/STT you meant standard 9-man. I.E. HU in STT, not an actual HUSNG.

Given this new understanding my input somewhat changes. You can go with a little raise/c-bet type line early if villain limps. I don't really like checking behind. Take the initiative and just expect to take down a small pot. I don't think I'd re-raise the BTN open all that often though, just flat like 85-90% of the time and hope to flop gin. Being OOP the whole hand and fairly deep stack really sucks with a hand that sees so many scary flops. With the tournament just starting I'd be pretty tight OOP, even with a hand as strong as a PP.

If you're on the BTN i'd go with a standard 3x almost every time. Then again, in HU I would tend to raise the BTN just a hair shy of 100% of the time...so raising 33 is fairly basic advice. Most of HU is about post-flop play anyway, so in general you want to avoid silly stuff when you're OOP.
 
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DenjinLee

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The only way to win heads-up is to have equal or more chips than our villain going into the last hand. Everything we do is geared up to setting up this event. In the early stages we need to be gaining information about our villain and sending them duff information about us so that we can set up a trap of some sort. For example, if our villain regularly folds to a cbet then we keep cbetting not just to collect chips but because we reckon the villain will play back hard when they hit - with luck we will have a big hand when this happens.

eg Villain AK (BB) Hero 33 (SB). Hero raises 3BB, villain calls. Flop A93. Villain checks, Hero bets pot, villain raises...

It might cost us some chips here and there to get information and to set up our villain but that doesn't matter too much - we'll get them back and more when we spring our trap. For example, if our stack is t1800 and villain's t1200, paying t100 is fine if it convinces the villain that we are a lot looser than we really are and we can take advantage of this later. In short, our goal is not to pick up chips on each hand so much as to take control of the game and force our villain into making mistakes.

So, to our 33 hands. How we play it mostly depends on how the game has gone so far - is the villain a maniac? do they think we are? have they raised every hand from the SB? have we? have they lead into every flop? have we? And so on... If we have lead out on loads of flops and the villain has folded then we can do so again. If the villain folds again then we have picked up a few chips (which is nice) but we have also reinforced the idea that we like to steal small pots (we aren't particularly interested in this, we are setting up a trap); if the villain plays back at us then we need to decide if the moment has come to spring our trap (A93 flop) or fold, which will add to the image of us being a snaeky stealer that folds under pressure - this is good information that is often worth paying for.

Hey guys, don't post much but I am definitely gonna do so more often. This is a great post pup. Personally I've been doing fairly well in SnGs. I only play the microstakes right now as I'm trying to build my bankroll up. Every time that I play HU I do so poorly. I'll try to use this info and work with that.
 
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WiZZiM

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Set mining heads up? lol.

MY general strategy for these things is to actually min raise the button, and min raise it OFTEN. Reason why i'm min raising? I WANT my opponant to call and have to play a lot of pots vs me when i'm in position. Position is huge HU, use it! Of course i will adjust my strategy based on whatever my opponant is doing, perhaps he seems like a pretty decent player, i might start raising 3x. It's just about working out what the players tendancies are, and playing to exploit them.

As for these hands, i'm 3betting the first one, small pairs don't play too well heasds up, so we want to take initiative with this type of hand, and by 3betting we also negate a positional disadvantage and turn it into a positive. we 3bet and c-bet the flop we win a huge % of the time.

Second i'm probably happy to just check it and just try to take the pot away postflop.
 
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DenjinLee

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Set mining heads up? lol.

MY general strategy for these things is to actually min raise the button, and min raise it OFTEN. Reason why i'm min raising? I WANT my opponant to call and have to play a lot of pots vs me when i'm in position. Position is huge HU, use it! Of course i will adjust my strategy based on whatever my opponant is doing, perhaps he seems like a pretty decent player, i might start raising 3x. It's just about working out what the players tendancies are, and playing to exploit them.

As for these hands, i'm 3betting the first one, small pairs don't play too well heasds up, so we want to take initiative with this type of hand, and by 3betting we also negate a positional disadvantage and turn it into a positive. we 3bet and c-bet the flop we win a huge % of the time.

Second i'm probably happy to just check it and just try to take the pot away postflop.

Wizzim, I definitely understand what you mean as I have a friend who taught me similar to this fashion. I think for me I just have to play more. As I said i'm getting better with SnGs and that took reading and application. So I hope I can do the same with HU.

Thanks for the post.
 
TylerN

TylerN

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ya i usually raise 2.5xBB most buttons. Ive been 3 betting pre with them lately and its actually seems to be working. Its amazing the respect i get when i do it so its another thing im going to add in my arsenal. Thnks for the responses because i think this is a huge leak in my HU game
 
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