PDA

View Full Version : Heads up slump... please help!


daboze
01-14-2005, 03:19 PM
In the last 500 or so SNGs I've been doing fairly well with an ROI of just over 20%, but over the same period my HU stats have been absolutely atrocious (about 38% over 140 HU matches).

I am extremely aggressive HU, and almost always in push/fold mode, pushing with about the top 70% or so against most opps. Is this too aggressive? Or does this just cause more variance, and I'm having a bad swing of HU luck?

I'm not usually shortstacked going into HU, so I don't think that's it. Here's an example of some stats from my last 18 HU games which are particularly terrible:

wins: 3 (16.6%)
Chipleader: 8 (44.4%)
Shortstacked: 6 (33.3%)
Avg stack: 4 (22.2%)

So, top 70% means I am pushing hands like J5, Q2, & T4s from the SB, or vs a SB limper.
depending on the opp & stack sizes I will call a push with the top 30 - 35% of hands (ie: K7, Q9, JT, A3, etc)

I don't see a lot of flops, but when I do I may be playing too weak. Against an aggressive player what do you do with bottom pair vs a single bet? push? fold?


I guess an interesting stat would be to see how many 60:40s I'm losing, and maybe help determine if this is just a downswing or if it is truly indicative of my play.

Any thoughts on my HU strategy would be truly appreciated. I'm truly bewildered and growing more frustrated by the day.

Thanks All!

citanul
01-14-2005, 03:34 PM
Hey,

Sounds like your HU strategy isn't far off very good. What site are you playing on? What are the stack sizes in terms of blinds when you get heads up?

You say you are not short stacked. Does that mean that you usually have the chip lead, or that you are not down to 2 or 3 bets? Using proper hu play against a decent opponent, it's not going to be easy to get results much better than %Win=%chips you own at the start of hu.

You say that you see few flops.

Using your strategy, it's unlikely you should be seeing any fleops out of your SB, so i'm going to assume that flops occur when you flat call a raise, or when you check your bb. WRT flat calling, try not doing that, just push or fold. You're probably only calling with hands you think you're trapping with if you're calling, so just push instead. WRT playing post flop after checking, it's opponent dependent. If the guy is actually aggressive, and you're first to act with say, bottom pair, you might want to bet out instead of checking. If he's passive, bet more. IF the guy is aggressive and you have something better than bottom pair, checkraise, or bet, or whatever. Again, opp dependent.

Check out any of the probably hundreds of posts on heads up play that have been here in the past. Lately the "Daliman's heads up for the title experiment" has been interesting. But there have been many classic heads up play posts, just go looking for them.

good luck,

citanul