Heads up blunder

[parappa]

Hi all,

I have trouble with this kind of hand.

Heads up, 5+1SnG. I have 3715 and my opponent has 4285. Blinds are 200/400. I'm in the small blind.

I'm dealt 2s, Tc and raise to 800 to steal. My opponent calls. Flop comes 8d, Ad, Qd. I bet 1600 to follow through on the steal, and am raised to 3200. I fold, and have lost a bunch of chips.

What do I do here? The pre-flop steal raise seems fine. Did I bet too much on the flop? My typical steal bet is the size of the pot.
Once raised, is a call mandatory? Is a fold?

This situation is exactly why I end up being too passive heads up. Any help appreciated.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi all,

I have trouble with this kind of hand.

Heads up, 5+1SnG. I have 3715 and my opponent has 4285. Blinds are 200/400. I'm in the small blind.

I'm dealt 2s, Tc and raise to 800 to steal.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't like it. Blinds are 10% of stacks. At this point, all-in or fold is a pretty good default strategy.

I also don't like hands with deuces in them, and would probably just fold this hand. Any PP dominates you, any T dominates you. You're not far ahead of any two cards.

You would really have to catch a T on the flop to bet with any confidence, and that's just not likely enough.

eastbay

[parappa]

Would you say that most of your steals heads up could be classed as semi-steals, that is, hands that win a certain percentage against random hands? Waiting for hands I'm comfortable with doesn't seem to work, because there don't seem to be enough of them to hold my own. How do you pick which garbage to raise with?

[J-Lo]

when it gets heads up w/ blinds of 200-400 or greater, i push w/ any A any K and any pair. if they push i call w/ A8 or better, 77 or better...

i tihnk all-in or fold is the strategy used for heads up play w/ only 10 BB

[pzhon]

I adjust to opponents and blind sizes, but I usually don't complete with worse than T5o. It's too hard for lower cards to win unimproved or to make at least middle pair. With anything better, I may complete or raise.

[Gramps]

While I also prefer the all-or-none in these types of spots, I think a steal attempt with a junk hand is fine to throw in here and there in this spot - if you've been folding some hands/going all-in a lot, it may just look like you're trying to get some action on a good hand. I'd make him call more than 1 BB though - maybe raise to 1,000 or 1,200 with your junk, so he doesn't take a flier on a connector hand or something like that.

If you're going to take a stab on the flop, I'd advocate going less than 1600 - maybe 1,000 or so. If your opponent missed, it probably won't make a difference in making him fold, but if he's going to play this flop, he's going to win the hand, and you don't want to donate any more chips than you have to.

[Hood]

I try to minimize difference in betting patterns. If you've been raising and then just raise 1000 in to 600, I'd see that as weakness and re-raise you. Yes, some players may slow down when they get aces, and may play cautiously, but some would not. I'd rather not offer them any kind of information. I also aim not to play flops-onwards at all heads-up, because it increases the chance of making a mistake. With T2, I'd probably fold, but it depends how weak your opponent is playing.

[donkeyradish]

I don't normally like to try to steal with just 'any' 2 cards, with the blinds being only 200/400 there is no urgency to catch up. Yet you are probably only one pot away from the chip lead.

So, you can afford to wait till the next hand, there are few starting hands worse than 10,2!

[ddubois]

I read somewhere, with regards to limit ring games, to check with your best X% of hands (intending to check-raise) and your worst X% of hands (intending to check-fold). This keeps your opponents from knowing that any check you make represents weakness. I think some of this concept can be extropolated to heads up SNG play as well.

If your range of playable hands is: any A, any K, any pair, or any two broadway, and your default play is to push with them, then bet small with weak J8s-type hands and monster-JJ/AQs+ type hands. Once your opponent has seen you do the former a few times - some of which will successfully steal and some of which you will fold to a re-raise - the latter will be a well-disguised trap.

This is speculation on my part. I personally do this sort of thing to keep opponents guessing, and it seems to work, but I can't in any way prove that pushing every hand isn't a superior tactic.

[gergery]

I’ve found most people don’t know how to play heads up very well. Usually a minraise with these blind levels and they’ll fold if they don’t have a hand, so you save yourself the added risk of all-in. If my opponent is going all-in a lot it is usually pretty easy to see what range of hands they’ll do that with, and then I’ll call with any ace, any pair, and two face, any Kx, and I’ll start going all-in more aggressively myself to keep chip count even until I can bust them with their loose raising standards.

If it was just one hand you are playing, then playing T2o is fine. But over multiple hands, you are better off folding your worst 25% of hands or so to mix things up. So I fold this. Once he calls, it is pretty dangerous to bluff at this because you have no outs at all, and this flop is likely to hit a hand that would call. You also don’t need to bet that much on the flop to get a fold.

--Greg

[DVO]

"there are few starting hands worse than 10,2! "

Unless you are Doyle Brunson.

[Hood]

[ QUOTE ]

I’ve found most people don’t know how to play heads up very well. Usually a minraise with these blind levels and they’ll fold if they don’t have a hand, so you save yourself the added risk of all-in. If my opponent is going all-in a lot it is usually pretty easy to see what range of hands they’ll do that with, and then I’ll call with any ace, any pair, and two face, any Kx

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't see how it's 'easy'. In an SNG heads up rarely last more than a couple of dozen hands. I don't see how me going all in 20%, or 50%, or 80% of hands tells you what I'm going all in with being that you can't find out my hand without calling. What does 'a lot' mean? How long do you wait folding blinds (which are usually around 10% of your stack HU in SNG) until you think you've got enough data to work out what I'm going all-in with?

[DrPhysic]

J-Lo

Since I agree almost exactly with your hand choices here, I will ask about two classes of hands that I wonder about in the same circumstance:

What do you do with Q8s or better and J9s or better?

I do not call a push with them but will bet them some portion of the time.

Doc