Heads up Strategy against a Calling Station

[Cactus Cactus]

Let me just thank all of your who have been responding to my posts <very helpful> I believe that the easiest player to play against is the player that is constantly folding on the flop.

Sklansky's Book says that in order to not fold on the flop all the time you take off the top card nad make it a "2" to see if you have "two overcards" Now if this is the case the strategy (if you have the lead) is to bet out on the turn after you bet out on the flop and got called because there will be a lot of times that the other person will be calling on the "two overcards" and fold on the turn. ---I often find myself with QJ betting the flop with rags and then betting the turn again, only to find the opponent calling with ace high.

- So what is the best strategy to play against loose passive calling stations, only bet when you have something... for maniacs this works because your folds will be greatly offset from the enourmous implied odds from your good hands. But what about loose passive players do they still generate the implied odds needed to play this way?

Another thing I'd like to talk about is calling down with ace high. Unless you are against a total maniac i believe that you are getting reverse implied odds like no other. One situation where I think calling down on ace high might be all right is when the flop is AAB, e.g. 558, 6% he has a pocket pair, and i believe about 15% he was connected with the flop. What do you think about this situation and calling down with ace high in general...according to me, I believe it is a massive loosing play

[helpmeout]

Calling stations you just bet when you have something like you said.

You get good implied odds because when you hit they call you down. When you both miss no one bets and when he hits he bets and you fold.

[Cactus Cactus]

I was just wondering what you think about calling down on Ace high, are they any general strategies or guidelines???

[naphand]

Use position more. Take Sklansky's HU section with a pinch of salt, it is far too brief and falls short of a working strategy. The theory is correct, but the practice you will find is quite different. HU is much more about player poker, and less about theory. Sklanasky correctly identifies what you have to do to avoid automatically losing, and it certainly is an eye opener when learning HU strategy, but it is little more than a introduction on how not to auto-lose.