Heads Up Woes

[Jonsan]

Lately I am getting to heads-up regularly, but my 2nd place percentage dwarfs my 1st. Are there general guidelines or strategies? Anyone know of a good book or web resource for heads-up play?

Thanks,
J

[durron597]

[ QUOTE ]
Lately I am getting to heads-up regularly, but my 2nd place percentage dwarfs my 1st. Are there general guidelines or strategies? Anyone know of a good book or web resource for heads-up play?

Thanks,
J

[/ QUOTE ]

Be aggressive.

Don't fold too much.

Abuse the bubble and 3 handed so you have lots of chips going into HU.

Learn hand ranges and how other hands fare against those ranges so you know when it's correct to call a push with K7o.

[Jonsan]

What resources can I use to learn the hand ranges and their relative strength? Are you suggesting a push/fold strategy pf in heads-up, or should I be looking to see flops?

Thanks,
J

Do you have Harrington on Holdem Volume II?

[Jonsan]

Nope, I assume you are recommending it...I do not have any of the HOH books at the moment.

They really are excellent - the most comprehensive and best books on NLHE tournaments IMO. And the two volumes are complimentary and both necessary. Volume II has a good section on HU play. Do yourself a favor and order both volumes (~$25 each) off amazon.com - they'll be at your door in 3 business days.

[downtown]

[ QUOTE ]
What resources can I use to learn the hand ranges and their relative strength? Are you suggesting a push/fold strategy pf in heads-up, or should I be looking to see flops?

Thanks,
J

[/ QUOTE ]

HOHII has a good section on HU play and hand rankings. There are also other resources available online, though I don't have them available at my fingertips since I'm at work, a search should help you out.

In 8000 chip games I have very sucessfully adopted a push every hand from the SB strategy when either my opponent or I has <10BB, and it follows that it's push every hand from the SB at blinds of 200/400+. Likewise, I'll push into a limper if I have a top 50% hand, and check otherwise and play the flop. This is a really general guide, and I subject it to minor changes if the situation warrents, but overall it's helped my HU play a ton, and it's completely aggrivating and difficult to play against someone who plays like this.

[citanul]

Start learning to use the search function now.

Start by searching for heads up, or HU, or whatever, and do -Re in the search parameter, to not get any of the responses as seperate query results.

move to

+HU +strategy -Re, 1 year, show body thingy, for this forum.

you'll get a few good threads.

after that go look for a post by the shadow, called favorite threads, or something like that. fortunately he made few posts, so you can find it easilly.

then go look for posts by daliman called "heads up for the title" or something like that.

clues on how to use search:

+ means requred
- means no
if you have neither parameter it will sorta kinda search for those things, but do a bad job.

otherwise, consider using google to help you.

but yeah, search before asking general questions that have been asked a million times before.

citanul

[Freudian]

[ QUOTE ]
Lately I am getting to heads-up regularly, but my 2nd place percentage dwarfs my 1st. Are there general guidelines or strategies? Anyone know of a good book or web resource for heads-up play?

Thanks,
J

[/ QUOTE ]

Pay attention to the other guy. Most players have tendencies that are exploitable (most often folding too much).

[kong98]

[ QUOTE ]
but yeah, search before asking general questions that have been asked a million times before.


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't understand why this isn't part of the FAQ? No-one who doesn't know about it is ever going to find it.

Favorite Threads and Links for STT FAQ v.3 (long) (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1918735&page=&view=&sb=5& o=&fpart=1&vc=1)

[valenzuela]

Just push every hand.
problem solved.

[Weatherhead03]

Have you or anyone else actually tried this. I would be interested to know how it worked out.

[valenzuela]

With blinds 300/600 ,5000 chips each player...pushing every hand wins 44% of the time should the oponent play PERFECTLY. Just use the search function.
anyway pushing every hand is a good start to playing a good heads-up game on sngs.

[tom441lbk]

my main thing is keeping the pressure turned up on the shorty, or the bigstack by constantly raising and putting them to the decision.
Also i like to play tight for the first couple of hands heads up, if the blinds are still pretty small comparably
Another thing is, don't get in to deep with a bad hand, on the turn or river by continuing to bluff at the guy if you are even in stacks, save them to push next hand

Heads up play is usually just tons of experience, many diff styles of heads up, get a feel for your opponents style, some people play tighty mctighterson level 1 heads up still(donkeys) so just torture them by raising, some have big calling ranges and raising ranges, just change each heads up game to your opponent

tom


any comment on my commentary?

[Thriller]

I like to call from the SB with any two cards capable of making a straight. I've got position on him post flop and more often than not, I can pick up the pot, even when I miss. I'll raise with any two broadway and most Kings Aces and pocket pairs.

The most important thing I've found so far....be very aggressive. I give my opponent every opportunity to check raise me early in HU. If he doesn't then I will continue to hammer him when he doesn't lead out.