Crapshoot Lowlimit HU SnG Players -- What do they get out of it?

[CMHPokerMike]

I've been enjoying playing $5 and $10 HU SnGs on UB lately. They're quick, I've won more than my fair share of them recently and it's giving me a chance to tune my focus on reading a single opponent.

So tonight I fire up UB and play one of these. It's a 19-minute affair with lots of back and forth. I get crippled when he rivers two pair against my AA. (No slowplaying, he just caught top pair on the flop and rode it to the river...)

OK, so that's a loss but no biggie. And it was fun, well over 100 hands.

So I fire up another one. And this guy is all OVER me. Raising from the SB, reraising my BB raises, betting out flops, raising my flop bets, you name it, he's doing it. I take a couple of pots but I'm losing ground pretty quickly. One smallish pot I call his 160 chip river bet just to see what the he** he's playing so aggressively. 85o. Ha. I figure. Caught you. And he dialed the agression back just a touch. Well, I end up losing that one. (In all of 4 minutes.) But I think I have his number so I go ahead and play a rematch. 3 minutes later I bust out with AKs to 55. He thanks me for my donations and I decide to give it one more go. This time I beat him. He's still playing the same over-aggressive game. OK, I'm rambling. Point is, this isn't "fun" to me.

So I go looking for a different game and find someone else on the $10 list. Play this and run into the same kind of maniac. If anything, worse. We end up all-in really early on with my AQ and his JT. I hold up and win. I ended up playing him one more time tonight on the 5s and won that one, too, again in about 3 minutes.

All this rambling leads to my question -- what's the point for these people? I figure it's one of two things : Either there are a lot of people out there that just can't adjust to their game and get mowed over thinking their opponent must be getting a lot of AA, KK, QQ, etc or they're looking for a cheap-ish way to gamble and just found out that despite the name Ultimate Bet doesn't have slots. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

This is a ridiculously long rant for a silly topic, I suppose, but I'm still a bit cranky about having run into two of these bozos in one night.

One more, substantive, question. How best to play against these guys? I'm thinking sneak in to as many cheap flops as possible and the first time you flop something decent bet hard and hope for the best. Along with that, if you get a premium hand, be willing to go all-in preflop but don't "telegraph" by putting in an unusually large first raise.

[lastchance]

HU, maniac is definitely the way to go. You need to reraise bluff, bet all your good hands (middle pair or better) to the end. I think your opponents are playing better than you are, because you can really chip away at someone HU.

Play position, pick up pots people aren't interested in. Resteal, constantly.

Complete any 2 early, mixing in a few raises. HU, you're not getting enough hands to win, so you need to pick up tons of pots.

[CMHPokerMike]

[ QUOTE ]
HU, maniac is definitely the way to go. You need to reraise bluff, bet all your good hands (middle pair or better) to the end. I think your opponents are playing better than you are, because you can really chip away at someone HU.

Play position, pick up pots people aren't interested in. Resteal, constantly.

Complete any 2 early, mixing in a few raises. HU, you're not getting enough hands to win, so you need to pick up tons of pots.

[/ QUOTE ]

OK, so that leans towards explanation A that I proposed. That this is basically a winning strategy against "most" players. And I agree that it's easy to chip away at someone quickly that way. Not to get all defensive on ya, but I'd say of the 2 or 3 dozen of these I've played in the last week, no one else was even CLOSE to this aggressive. Working from memory, in fact, I'd say I've probably been the third most aggressive player I've seen in these during that (small) sample of games.

And in a non-turbo UB SnG with 1500 chips and blinds starting at 10/20 and increasing every 10 minutes you can play a LOT of hands if you (and your opponent) are so inclined. More than you'd play in a regular full-table SnG sometimes. My (usual) strategy has been to take SMALL edges where I find them, pick up unwanted pots, bluff (or semi-bluff) re-steal once in a great while and generally try to whittle my opponent down without making them feel like I'm trying to run over them with nothing. I don't have stats, but I'd guess my average game has been 60 hands with 20-140 being the (broad) usual range.

Is just pure aggression the optimal strategy for these? And, if so, where's the fun in having your 86o go down to someone elses T2o when neither of you catch anything after going all-in? (OK, I exaggerate a bit...)

Ugh. I'm still sounding/feeling a bit defensive here. Which isn't really intentional -- I plead 0315 hours. Thanks for your comments and I'd be curious to know what your further thoughts are on whether there is such a thing as "too much" aggression in these.

[flyingmoose]

[ QUOTE ]
HU, maniac is definitely the way to go.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not true on UB when you have 75 BB stacks against a player who's quite likely to re-rebluff you.

I used to play the 10.50 SnGs at UB when I needed an ego boost because the berserko, Rambo-without-a-jock-strap player is sssoooo easy to beat.


Just be patient and let him bet the pot on every street when you have a set. The crazy aggro players would be a pain with like 20 big blinds, but UB's heads up format gives you PLENTY of room to work with. Don't get frustrated with his betting, be patient and know your game plan. These guys should be cake.

[spentrent]

Wow I don't know what you mean by "no fun." I'd probably have a ball playing match after match with the same villain. You both have to switch gears constantly and get reads on style. Sounds like it's not a crapshoot and it could be a lot of fun...

...but perhaps not very profitable hourly.