How to win when you get heads up?

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HSmith

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I play a lot of 6 max sng and find that i keep coming 2nd, regardless of if i am a big chip leader or not, i rarely win the games so i am doing something wrong. Now i am up about £50 from sng but im losing so much not getting as many 1st places!
I find it hard to be aggressive with rubbish cards, i want at least an A X hand to shove or call if im the big stack.
How do you play flops in these situations? Obvs against a weak player keep stealing pots and against an aggressive player check your top for for example and call his shove.
Aggressive play seems to be huge here, but what are the key spots for abusing aggression? :)
 
mariale_1990

mariale_1990

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I always try to play a bit aggressive and unpredictable, if I'm short stack I have to take risks and I can not wait to have premium hands, if I'm a big stack I should try to take advantage of that situation and gain more advantage over my opponent, I can not always play the same in each HU, it also depends on how my opponent plays
 
AKQ

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I play a lot of 6 max sng and find that i keep coming 2nd, regardless of if i am a big chip leader or not, i rarely win the games so i am doing something wrong. Now i am up about £50 from sng but im losing so much not getting as many 1st places!
I find it hard to be aggressive with rubbish cards, i want at least an A X hand to shove or call if im the big stack.
How do you play flops in these situations? Obvs against a weak player keep stealing pots and against an aggressive player check your top for for example and call his shove.
Aggressive play seems to be huge here, but what are the key spots for abusing aggression? :)
If you're the passive type basically you should use your feel of how often they should or shouldn't be raising you using your gut and outplaying your opponent is key here. You can only be abused by aggression if you let them. Theres many tricks and plays like check raising the turn that put an aggressive players range at a large disadvantage. If hes a smart aggro and folds to your raises let him stick it in first if you know he gonna fire again let him dig it, otherwise hes gonna pick up every loose pot and fold to your once in a blue moon raise and that edge can be extraordinary when the blinds make stack avgs 15BB
 
roger perkins

roger perkins

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You need to be able to read your opponent in a heads up situation and play against his tendencies. Does he check down when he misses? Then try to steal in those situations. Does he always cbet a flop? See how he reacts to a raise on his bet. You also need to be aggressive remember you both are probably getting marginal hands. If you have the large stack force him to make tuff calls. If you have the small stack make him risk a lot to take you out.
 
pancho_1954

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if your opponent is very aggressive try to be aggressive too, try to confuse him, if you have a lot of chips he tries to wait for you to capture him in one of his aggressive moves, if your opponent is very passive try to be a little more aggressive but with a lot of be careful because many times so much passivity gives benefit to those players in the HU, try not to be so predictable so you can remove some chips that can help you get the victory, try to read your oponenten , take notes about his game
 
playinggameswithu

playinggameswithu

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2.5x 65% of buttons. Be sticky. TPTK is usually good. Check raise and check raise bluff to shutdown c-bets from opponent.
 
neverbluff

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Ace high and pairs are very good heads up. There are a couple strategies you can take, but generally it'll come down to winning a flip. You could just be getting unlucky.
 
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fastfash25

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It always helps to be the aggressor. with confidence. on the other hand dont be afraid to fold the small blind if you dont wanna get involved with that hand
 
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pabloleonel

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I think that the psychological factor is important, each rival is different, some are ultra aggressive and you have to know how to play and others are completely passive and can be a bit more aggressive
 
NWPatriot

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Ace high and pairs are very good heads up. There are a couple strategies you can take, but generally it'll come down to winning a flip. You could just be getting unlucky.


Heads up is truly a crap shoot. It usually takes two good hands before both players are both willing to put it all in at the same time. All your poker skill was used up getting to this point, now it is kind of up to the cards. Who gets the 2 pair when the other guy gets a set type of thing.

Having said that, depending on your opponent, there are some things you must do. Your range must be fairly wide, after all there are only 2 of you and the chances that his hand is better than a top 50% hand is only well, 50%. When you get heads up raise a few and see what he does. Call a few and see what does. Raise him up a few and see what he does. Fold a couple to keep things honest. Now you have some info. I will personally not call an all-in until I KNOW i have the best hand. I will choose to whittle him down so that even if he goes all in i have him covered.

This is one strategy anyway. Hope it helps.
 
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Unashamed88

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Sounds like your range for being head up is very tight. Remember there is over 1,300 possible starting hands.
 
dedok0525

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I rarely play sng, but when I find myself in mtt heads up I play aggressively, as my opponent. In general, it can be compared with a heads up in the spin & go I play almost all of your hands. I found that I often takes second place because I'm losing my head and I can bluff instead of several times to go all-in. But it's only mistake. You should bluff more often than in other stages of the tournament, and play most of your hands. Otherwise, you will be easy to read.
 
iosif18

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Hello .Heads up strategy is different from normal multi table .Aa or KK should just call and trap the opponent.Also you need to be more aggressive with a small pair like 66 .Pressure is the key to win heads up.
 
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kelvin22

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Really good topic. Wanted to open a thread myself about this, and i'll be watching closely. At some point, be it a bigger or a smaller tournament... we all find ourselves heads-up, and things can go sideways very fast. I for one, want to gather all the possible insight on this matter, because i found myself heads-up in many bounty builders, and the first place in a tournament like that, makes all the difference. It's not just the prize money you win, but the opponent's bounty PLUS your own bounty.
 
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PeedroZack

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explore your opponent, when you reach the hu you are probably with 5-40 bb then is good try to steal the blinds with some equity of your hands and unsderstand that the probability of the hands of your opponent be bad are 85%
 
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Queenlimp

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While it's good to be aggressive; it's counter-productive if your opponent is more aggressive.
Against a hyper aggressive opponent, it's ideal to be relatively more selective as one pot win at showdown (if the round even gets there) will more than compensate for 5-6 hands. Traps are ideal. Position is important. It is necessary at times to play the player, where the cards held are of less importance.
Aggression is offset when a player does not fold or returns the action.
A chip lead should amount to discretionary aggression.
However, by achieving a table image, you are able to exploit judgments and more accurately estimate and counter your opponent decisions.


Image, inducement, and then domination.
 
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knocker

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You have to play agressive. Any good hand you raise three times the BB. He will call with weaker than what you have most of the time or he'll muck. When the flop hits, bet it no matter what. You're playing the odds. You're hand is good his is not, probably nobody has hit the flop. You'll win 2 out of 3 doing that. If you hit any part of the flop, even bottom pair, you bet and raise. Bet your overcards and call with them.

You always have to assume nobody has anything until he bets big enough to tell you otherwise. Then you fold. You will win more than you are forced to fold. When you've gained the big chip advantage huge raises and shoves on any good hand. Again, you're probably betting and raising into nothing, don't be afraid. Go for the throat.

Good luck.
 
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