Heads-Up Tournament Strategies with a Big Chip Lead

[dabluebery]

I'm engaged in an intellectual debate with some poker friends of mine about the way to play a big stack / small stack when the chip ratios are say 7:1 or greater.

You know, such that the guy would have to double up at least twice to get things back to even, and many permutations of the argument.

What are the goals of both players? For example, we've basically agreed that the goal of a short stack is to double up.... and it might be necessary to take the worst of it, just to try. Is it a win-win situation for the small stack? If they lose, they were destined to, if they double up twice, it's the beginning of the "greatest comeback in poker history."

What's more daunting for the short stack? To double up quickly, or to play hand for hand, and slowly build up a bigger stack?

How does this change the goals of the big stack? What influence do the blinds have? How can you apply the theory of poker to fit these situations? And so on.

We've discussed quite a bit, but I'll reserve the rest for what anyone else might say. I don't want to bias anything, or narrow the scope of responses, because we're just a bunch of idiots shooting in the dark, and we definitely haven't thought of everyting.

Rob

[SteveTheTaxMan]

I would say that the short stack must double up to have a chance. This theory of desperation would lead me, as the big stack, to play a few more hands than I normally would. Any ace or basically any king & I'm calling or moving all-in. I don't see any reason not to.

[PokerFink]

A lot of it depends on the blinds. I've played HU matches on stars where I get a monster chip lead on the first level (players start with 150BB), and I'm more than happy to let the small stack take a few of my blinds before I get all in with a solid hand. If he has 300 left, another 60 or so won't make much of a difference while I wait for a decent hand.

If the blinds are larger, I'm going all-in with anything remotely decent with either stack.

[dabluebery]

Negreanu discusses a heads up strategy with a big stack. He's pretty good at poker.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker_magazine/archives/showarticle.php?a_id=14609&m_id=65558