How to play aggainst a hyper aggressive guy in heads up poker?
B
braveboat
Rock Star
Silver Level
Lots of great advice in this thread... I'll underscore the following points:
Let the Aggro player bet for you. Check calls, and check raises where appropriate.
AK will be best hand often enough to call to the turn, at least, if not the river.
I would tighten up if the Aggro player is to your left. If you're in position, I would call with med pairs+, K10s+, A9s+, and I'd look to call him down if you catch any piece of the flop.
Let the Aggro player bet for you. Check calls, and check raises where appropriate.
AK will be best hand often enough to call to the turn, at least, if not the river.
I would tighten up if the Aggro player is to your left. If you're in position, I would call with med pairs+, K10s+, A9s+, and I'd look to call him down if you catch any piece of the flop.
sunirico
Visionary
Silver Level
What is your advice on this topic?
X
xXShannonAXx
Rock Star
Silver Level
i would be looking to shove preflop all in on him when he raises u with anything ak aq aj a10 aa kk qq jj and then your not getting forced to fold if u miss after the flop since most times u will still be ahead heads up committing yourself preflop is way better then being bluffed off on the flop when most times your still ahead
Adubzz
Enthusiast
Silver Level
That is the strategy I use as well. It is always best to play the complete opposite of your opponent. However it is hard to make hands in holdem. So tighten up but don't be afraid to call an aggro player with middle pair top kicker.
sunirico
Visionary
Silver Level
If i recall it was mentioned in a hyper turbo context but perhaps I misquoted. I don't think he said you must play nitty, choosing only premium cards, but instead if your opponent is aggressive you should be passive, low balling with small stabs at the pot.
Would you agree with this strategy?
sunirico
Visionary
Silver Level
I think this is a rule for any short handed game where Q high card may already be the best.
rock0001
Legend
Bronze Level
If you have ak or even a medium or big pair against a maniac just shove all in preflop, because its possible that he calls with hands like a10,a9 or even 87 suit and in most cases you will be ahead. 3 bet a lot and wait for good hands. try not playing speculative hands like low suit connectors like 87 because you wont hit the flop that often and that would not be profitable on the long run. tight aggresive is the best choice agianst these types of players. make high value bets and try playing only with good hands at least queen high maybe j10 or a pair.
BentleyBoy
Legend
Loyaler
It all becomes a bit of a coin flip in reality. Next time you play heads up, take notes on every (yes, every hand) and analyse them later to see how you did in each respective hand against your opponent. This will give you stats on your own game and help you to modify for the future, but it will also show you the evidence of the advice given here above, in that, any pair stand s reasonably good chance of holding out, as does any A, however, there is always the chance that the opposition will suck out some freak hand, say starting hand of 74 and pull either a flush, straight or full house to beat you. It's all about understanding probability, that's why you need to analyse your own play as well as your opponents, and not just rely on what you have been dealt. Hope this helps.
sunirico
Visionary
Silver Level
What if he doesn't call your nit azz shoves? We said he's aggressive not stupid.
3 bet him and he shoves are you prepared to call? The more you risk the more you stand to lose per hand.
Bottom line, if you don't at least break even on your big blinds you've lost. The frequency at which you are likely to get these monsters is not enough to survive and this type of play is exactly what he wants you to do with this strategy.
Instead call his raises and see a flop, make a pair and let him lead out. Spot weakness and exploit. You will not beat this guy with pre-flop play 9 out of 10 times, so you will require good post flop skills.
rock0001
Legend
Bronze Level
look many of the aggro players are really bad at least in my experience. yes they might be stupid enough to call with 87 suited or even less and the 3 bet raises are mostly to be pot commited in the hand and then shove after the flop.for example blinds are 25/50 and both have exactly 1500 chips, he is on the button and you are big blind. he raises 150, you have AQ what should you do in that spot.? shove all in or make a 500 3bet and wait for the flop. of course you can call and see what happens but with those type of players i would like to shove instead of calling and waiting because you wont hit flops that often and that will cost you lots of chips. Also what makes you think he is going to connect his hands?, when you have a monster make him pay as much as you can. I dont think calling 3 or 4bb with 78 is a good idea because
you wont be able to bluff and when you dont hit the flop and believe me it wont happen nearly as much as you think you will be losing money.
The best strategy against these players is play good solid hands, high value bet and check raise if you hit a good hand, because they will think you have a weak hand and you can stacked him.
Also the nit azz shoves is bullshit, Im not saying to shove all in only with AK or better, any pair, KQ ,Kj AQ,AJ, A10,k10 or any Ax suited are hands in which you should shove all in. maybe i havent express myself well. you have to shove all in with good hands because you cant put these players in any range so you have to put pressure on them preflop.
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sunirico
Visionary
Silver Level
Perhaps I wasn't clear... you propose a strategy of only playing premium hands which do not come along very often, and you suggest we should shove these hands. I.o.w. you will fold all other hands to a raise leaving your opponent to collect the blinds. When you shove all I have to do is fold leaving you with the minimum chips to collect.
Surely you can see this is going to leave you short very quickly hence the rule to open wider in HU play.
sunirico
Visionary
Silver Level
Depends on the speed. If it's a slow hu just wait for it, you might try semi bluffing as well. All in all, I enjoy being aggresive in hu myself
Hehehehe I have to agree with you
When I look down and see rags which I would normally fold I think to myself perhaps my opponent feels the same about their cards. Lets raise and find out. If they call you repped a strong hand so a cbet on a top heavy flop is hard to ignore but do fire a larger second barrel if they need more convincing on the turn.
Michael Paler
Legend
Silver Level
Really? You are an official part of CardsChat? With only 42 posts? And re directing CardsChat members to another web site?
I guess I missed the memo......welcome aboard?
fydor_8
HUSNG Coach
Silver Level
Hey guys!
Sorry it took me so long to reply to this thread, I've been traveling for a while and haven't had much computer time. Hope this helps:
Heads Up play is all about context - there is no specific answer to this question unless we know the exact format/structure we're playing. Obviously there will be a big difference if we're playing 100BB regular speed vs a 75BB turbo vs a 25BB hyper turbo. If you're playing a hyper turbo and you have AK in the BB with 23BB effective stacks, then it's totally acceptable to 3bet shove preflop vesus an aggressive player...however, if you're 92BB deep, then 3bet shoving isn't appropriate vs this same player. Remember, it's always about context.
Also, you have to understand that there will be a lot of variance when playing someone with such a reckless style and it could be very frustrating at times. Those willing to stick it out and play a large sample against them will be the ones who see the results. However, if tilt becomes an issue and you're uncomfortable in this style of a game, just quit them and find someone else whom you're more comfortable playing against. That's totally acceptable too.
In terms of a specific strategy, I think you've gotten a lot of good answers in this thread already. It's obviously hard to get into the specific details in a post like this, but my quick advice would be to slow play value hands, bluff less, and call with thin value much more. So check/calling is going to be your friend here. The basic concept I can leave you with is that you need to understand his ranges in different situations, obviously the wider hes betting, the more you'll need to open up your calling range and call lighter yourself. Moreover, keep in mind that when you're shallow, playing hands that can make top pair have more value thank big drawy hands because all you need is top pair to stack someone who's very aggressive - compared to playing big draws and then having to call multiple streets hoping to make your hand and not having much implied odds because of the short stack sizes. Obviously this goes for hands that flop well in general (like JT, QJ, KJ, T9s, etc) because even a strong middle pair is going to be effective vs an aggro player.
I think something that could help you is to limp your SB much more than you currently are (assuming your using the standard high % min raise approach). This will help you keep pots small and navigate better post flop.
Anyway, I hope this helps
Sorry it took me so long to reply to this thread, I've been traveling for a while and haven't had much computer time. Hope this helps:
Heads Up play is all about context - there is no specific answer to this question unless we know the exact format/structure we're playing. Obviously there will be a big difference if we're playing 100BB regular speed vs a 75BB turbo vs a 25BB hyper turbo. If you're playing a hyper turbo and you have AK in the BB with 23BB effective stacks, then it's totally acceptable to 3bet shove preflop vesus an aggressive player...however, if you're 92BB deep, then 3bet shoving isn't appropriate vs this same player. Remember, it's always about context.
Also, you have to understand that there will be a lot of variance when playing someone with such a reckless style and it could be very frustrating at times. Those willing to stick it out and play a large sample against them will be the ones who see the results. However, if tilt becomes an issue and you're uncomfortable in this style of a game, just quit them and find someone else whom you're more comfortable playing against. That's totally acceptable too.
In terms of a specific strategy, I think you've gotten a lot of good answers in this thread already. It's obviously hard to get into the specific details in a post like this, but my quick advice would be to slow play value hands, bluff less, and call with thin value much more. So check/calling is going to be your friend here. The basic concept I can leave you with is that you need to understand his ranges in different situations, obviously the wider hes betting, the more you'll need to open up your calling range and call lighter yourself. Moreover, keep in mind that when you're shallow, playing hands that can make top pair have more value thank big drawy hands because all you need is top pair to stack someone who's very aggressive - compared to playing big draws and then having to call multiple streets hoping to make your hand and not having much implied odds because of the short stack sizes. Obviously this goes for hands that flop well in general (like JT, QJ, KJ, T9s, etc) because even a strong middle pair is going to be effective vs an aggro player.
I think something that could help you is to limp your SB much more than you currently are (assuming your using the standard high % min raise approach). This will help you keep pots small and navigate better post flop.
Anyway, I hope this helps