I suck heads up ... what can I do ?

[theredpill5]

I won like one out of 6 heads up matches yesterday. I need some help.

Ok, most of the time I have been able to widdle the opponent's chips to where I have a 4 to 1 advantage. What do I do at this point ?

At this point, I have been tightening up and trying to pick a good spot. It doesn't seem to be working.

My new plan: once I get the 4 to 1 advantage, just keep going all-in every hand. He has to double up twice to get the lead again and that gives me 2 chances to win the tourney. Right ?

Also, Stack to blind ratio would have to be somewhat low. In other words, I wouldn't want him to be able to fold like 10 hands in a row and pick AA to go all-in with against me. Then the strategy doesn't work too well. Stack to blind ratio would have to be about 8 to 10 times the blind. Right ? Appreciate advice. I'm about to lose my mind if I get another 2nd place.

[johnnybeef]

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Ok, most of the time I have been able to widdle the opponent's chips to where I have a 4 to 1 advantage. What do I do at this point ?

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avoid big pots unless you figure to have a significant edge. conversely, if you are the smaller stack, big pots are what you are looking for.

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My new plan: once I get the 4 to 1 advantage, just keep going all-in every hand. He has to double up twice to get the lead again and that gives me 2 chances to win the tourney. Right ?


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no. be patient, thats what heads up is all about. you can afford to wait it out with a 4:1 advantage. he is the one that is under pressure.

[curtains]

Opposite of what he said. Usually the blinds will be so high at the end of sit and gos, that you shuold be pushing with a huge # of hands. For instance if the blinds are 200-400 and you 8000 chips in play, any Ace or King is an allin preflop. A large number of Q hi hands are as well ,and another large assortment of hands.

btw this assumes you are first in. You often would fold to a raise with a hand like K5o. However if you are in the SB you should move allin yourself.

[ColdestCall]

It is very likely that you are not being aggressive enough. Push from the small blind with any pair, any A, any K, and a bunch of others (QJ - Q9s, etc, etc) (in fact, any two, if your opponent is folding alot). From BB, push to completions and minraises (provided your opponent is not obviously pot committed) and call all-ins with any pair, a-8 or better, K-10 or better, maybe a few others, depending on your chip situation and your opponent.

Push Push Push! Push until your arm hurts! It is nearly impossible to be too agressive heads-ups in an SNG because the blinds are sky high by the time you get there. Keep pushing until you win (or finish second) - there is a lot of luck involved, which is unavoidable, but you should do a lot better than 1 in 6 by being super aggressive.

[ReDeYES88]

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He has to double up twice to get the lead again and that gives me 2 chances to win the tourney. Right ?

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Do a little math/pokerstove homework. Few times are your hands either way ahead or way behind when you are HU (meaning that typically the odds are 65-35, 60-40, 55-45, or 50-50)

As you said, when you are ahead 4 to 1 in chips, he has to double up twice just to break even with you. Take the above percentages and calculate the odds of your opponent hitting his hand twice in a row for every combo (i.e., what are the odds of him hitting a 60-40 fav right after hitting a 55-45 fav?, then look at him hitting a 40-60 dog right after hitting a 55-45 fav, etc, etc, etc.)

You should have a basic understanding by now of which hand combos result in which PF odds. A5 vs T9 all in is 55/45 (over/under vs middle connector), AT vs K6 is 65/35 (straddle), A5 vs K6 is 60/40 (over/under vs two middles), etc. For the most part you don't need the info for each particular hand combo, just the general groupings. You can come up with a pretty good range of hands to push with, then do it.

And all of the above completely disregards any FE that your PF push may have.

Make some charts (or dig 'em up in the archives), learn them, understand them, and use them.

Good luck.

[BradleyT]

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Opposite of what he said. Usually the blinds will be so high at the end of sit and gos, that you shuold be pushing with a huge # of hands. For instance if the blinds are 200-400 and you 8000 chips in play, any Ace or King is an allin preflop. A large number of Q hi hands are as well ,and another large assortment of hands.

btw this assumes you are first in. You often would fold to a raise with a hand like K5o. However if you are in the SB you should move allin yourself.

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I'm pretty sure he was playing 2 player SnGs in his post, so the blinds are extremely low for quite a while.

[raptor517]

curtains is pretty much dead on here. you have to be SUPER agressive in heads up. sitting there folding is NOT optimum.

[curtains]

Maybe, I just assumed he was talking about the end of a sit and go since the thread was posted here and not in the headsup forum.