Game plan against huge bets heads up

J

Jordansimo

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Hi folks, sorry if this is the wrong spot for the post

I play heads up SNG's and I've come across some difficult players I could use some help with.

They are folding a few buttons or otherwise raising 3-5x. They are 3-betting fairly frequently usually to about 4/5x my open. I am min raising, but I have adjusted to limping with middling hands like J8o which I can afford to play a small pot with when they raise my limps.

Post flop they are c-betting pot size minimum, or otherwise donking into me for pot.

I have only started opening with hands that I want to play a big pot with, but I have been fairly card dead on the flop and have to fold, which I imagine is the right play regardless. If I have a hand and continue though, they sometimes shut down on the turn and I have tons of fold equity. Otherwise I'm just facing a huge bet. My c-bets are getting called quite lightly and often raised.

So I'm not sure what the strategy should be if I'm not making hands other than float and hope for the best? If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. I've been value owned a fair few times so they're not exactly morons, I would just say extremely tight aggressive.

Thanks!
 
wyoming4paul

wyoming4paul

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Hi folks, sorry if this is the wrong spot for the post

I play heads up SNG's and I've come across some difficult players I could use some help with.

They are folding a few buttons or otherwise raising 3-5x. They are 3-betting fairly frequently usually to about 4/5x my open. I am min raising, but I have adjusted to limping with middling hands like J8o which I can afford to play a small pot with when they raise my limps.

Post flop they are c-betting pot size minimum, or otherwise donking into me for pot.

I have only started opening with hands that I want to play a big pot with, but I have been fairly card dead on the flop and have to fold, which I imagine is the right play regardless. If I have a hand and continue though, they sometimes shut down on the turn and I have tons of fold equity. Otherwise I'm just facing a huge bet. My c-bets are getting called quite lightly and often raised.

So I'm not sure what the strategy should be if I'm not making hands other than float and hope for the best? If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. I've been value owned a fair few times so they're not exactly morons, I would just say extremely tight aggressive.

Thanks!


I've been in the same position many times. If they're bullying every hand, I will occasionally reraise pot on them with weaker hands. Most will fold then. Other than that, float and wait. You win 1 out of 6 hands, you'll beat them.
 
finaltable1

finaltable1

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Hi folks, sorry if this is the wrong spot for the post

I play heads up SNG's and I've come across some difficult players I could use some help with.

They are folding a few buttons or otherwise raising 3-5x. They are 3-betting fairly frequently usually to about 4/5x my open. I am min raising, but I have adjusted to limping with middling hands like J8o which I can afford to play a small pot with when they raise my limps.

Post flop they are c-betting pot size minimum, or otherwise donking into me for pot.

I have only started opening with hands that I want to play a big pot with, but I have been fairly card dead on the flop and have to fold, which I imagine is the right play regardless. If I have a hand and continue though, they sometimes shut down on the turn and I have tons of fold equity. Otherwise I'm just facing a huge bet. My c-bets are getting called quite lightly and often raised.

So I'm not sure what the strategy should be if I'm not making hands other than float and hope for the best? If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. I've been value owned a fair few times so they're not exactly morons, I would just say extremely tight aggressive.

Thanks!



Forget about limping at all.
Personally I think that players who limp often have low iQ level.
Limping is good if you're holding QQ-AA in UTG and you know that majority of players sitting behind you at full ring table are agressive players, and there will be a minimum straddle so you'll be able to 3bet pre-flop. But in a HU game limping is a really stupid move.

Try to think about HU games in a different way.
forget about that 3bet/flop-turn-river/and rest of the BS.
Think only about shoving ranges and consider your stack as your single bet. If you've paid $11 for 1500 chips, then $11 is the bet you've placed, and chips don't matter.
From such point of view you must play only hands you can go all-in with, and JTs is one of them.
Pushing with JTs is a good move, and betting 3-4BB pre-flop with pocket Aces is also a good move.

Fight aggression with aggression. Move down to smaller limits if pushing all-in with JTs-98s isn't comfortable for you at your current limit.

It's a whole different question IF IT'S NECESSARY TO CALL opponents all-in if you have JTs.

You see HU games are pure. All cards are in the deck, so mathematical part is not failing compared to full ring games, when you're counting your outs, and all of them are dealt to players who have folded. HU SnG games are different from HU games at the end of MTTs, there is no pressure in SnGs, you just have to play long distance with your shoving range and let your opponents make hard decisions.At the end of played distance you may see how profitable was your shoving range and you may decide if you need to adjust it.

P.S. I've played thousands of HU hyper-turbos (500chips(25bb), 2 min blinds)) and thousands of turbos, had stable profit on under 20Euro/dollar limits. Hyper-turbos are the best, just play 8-9 at the same time, several hours per day and see the outcome. Fish prefers fast games, so you should be there. GL:driver:
 
Poker Orifice

Poker Orifice

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Forget about limping at all.
Personally I think that players who limp often have low iQ level.
Limping is good if you're holding QQ-AA in UTG and you know that majority of players sitting behind you at full ring table are agressive players, and there will be a minimum straddle so you'll be able to 3bet pre-flop. But in a HU game limping is a really stupid move.

Try to think about HU games in a different way.
forget about that 3bet/flop-turn-river/and rest of the BS.
Think only about shoving ranges and consider your stack as your single bet. If you've paid $11 for 1500 chips, then $11 is the bet you've placed, and chips don't matter.
From such point of view you must play only hands you can go all-in with, and JTs is one of them.
Pushing with JTs is a good move, and betting 3-4BB pre-flop with pocket Aces is also a good move.

Fight aggression with aggression. Move down to smaller limits if pushing all-in with JTs-98s isn't comfortable for you at your current limit.

It's a whole different question IF IT'S NECESSARY TO CALL opponents all-in if you have JTs.

You see HU games are pure. All cards are in the deck, so mathematical part is not failing compared to full ring games, when you're counting your outs, and all of them are dealt to players who have folded. HU SnG games are different from HU games at the end of MTTs, there is no pressure in SnGs, you just have to play long distance with your shoving range and let your opponents make hard decisions.At the end of played distance you may see how profitable was your shoving range and you may decide if you need to adjust it.

P.S. I've played thousands of HU hyper-turbos (500chips(25bb), 2 min blinds)) and thousands of turbos, had stable profit on under 20Euro/dollar limits. Hyper-turbos are the best, just play 8-9 at the same time, several hours per day and see the outcome. Fish prefers fast games, so you should be there. GL:driver:



Jordanismo
My best advice to you is.... do not follow this ^ advice.
 
finaltable1

finaltable1

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Jordanismo
My best advice to you is.... do not follow this ^ advice.

And what do you suggest? To play HU games with 75bb starting stack at slow speed, wait for premium hands and play ABC game? But I guess that's what TS is doing and it fails. He's at micro-low limits cause what he describes in his message is a normal occasion there...

The best way to "beat the rake" in the long HU run(1000+ games) is to skip the masturbation part and go directly to short stacked push-fold game. 25bb starting stack + 2 minute blind levels + multitabling minimum 4 tables. AND adjust pushing range according to position and stack size.

It solves the problem of hard decisions for Jordanismo, isn't it?


P.S. By "beating the rake" I mean ROI more than +10%
 
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