my heads-up NL SNG strategy and questions.

[Joe826]

i'm normally a ring game limit player but i decided it was time to branch out and play some other games, so two days ago i started playing the $10 NL HU SNG's on stars. this is tons of fun, and i can't wait till i'm decent. anyways here's my tentative strategy. can anyone give me any sort of general comments that may help? i'm still very very new, so anything would be great. also, any suggested threads on here would be cool as well. i searched but couldn't find much.

preflop: i'm usually raising to 3x the BB when i'm on the button about 80% of the time, and then folding the other 20%. occasionally i'll limp as well, but only so i can slowplay aces or kings later (is this a bad idea)? also i adjust to this to the types of players i'm playing. if they fold their BB alot i'll raise basically everytime and if they never fold i'll usually raise less.

flop: this is where it gets tricky for me. after i raise PF and get checked to. i'll bet half the pot like 75% of the time. this is just a standard bet for me no matter how strong my hand. is this a bad idea? should it be higher or lower of an amount? the other times i'll check behind if i don't hit. this allows me to slowplay some big hands and also steal a little more on the flop.

turn: i really hate my life if i bet the flop and get called. alot of the times i'm so spooked i'll check behind on the turn, and then when they bet out on the river there's nothing i can do unless i hit. i feel like they steal a lot here. any thoughts or comments? i usually try to win it or give it up on the flop when i don't have a made hand.

river: kind of plays itself i guess. sometimes i'll throw in a bluff if i've bet the turn through and no draws came in and other times i'll just give it up.

can anyone give me some general comments? i hope to start posting specific situations soon but for now i'm not even sure what to post. thanks alot.

btw - what's the "T" mean when people talk about their stack size, like T89000 or whatever.

[stripsqueez]

the T simply means tournament chips rather than real money chips

i dont play at pokerstars and i dont know the stack sizes you start with and blind levels - on party where you would start with T800 and by the time your heads up the blinds are 250/500 or 300/600 raising pre-flop has some value against the right opponent but i think most of the time its push or fold

advantages like allowing you to limp in with AA and KK without it being obvious are not much value - most of the time your opponents either wont notice or wont play you often enough to notice

stripsqueez - chickenhawk

[KJS]

Sounds too predictable to me. Standard betting patterns work better in full table games. To me, HU is all about mixing it up and keeping your opponent guessing. Always slowing down on the turn is especially troubling; good opponents will pull stop and go bluffs and you may be end up folding the better hand.

In terms of pre-flop, if I think I am the better player I will limp more. This can be a goldmine against people who almost always check when they miss the flop, are too easily scared by flush/straight card hitting or, conversely, can't get away from a not so strong made hand.

KJS