Head's Up Play??

[FeliciaLee]

Is there any literature around that deals solely with HU and shorthanded play? I know that a lot of factors depend on the individual opponent(s), but there must be general guidelines somewhere. I have read all of the chapters in the 2+2 series' books on shorthanded play, as well as other random books available, but I wonder if anyone has covered this topic extensively and exclusively.

[doormat]

Felicia,
The great thing about HU is the lack of literature, IMHO. The best way to learn how to play is to watch the top players on the net - there are some truly great ones out there. It's like a free school, which didn't exist before online poker.

doormat

[FeliciaLee]

Thanks for the reply. I am very much a reader. I get most of my knowledge from "book learning." Somehow the correlation between having something solid, in print, and then going out and putting it to practical use, helps me from making the same mistakes again and again.

I like to watch some of the top pros play on the Internet. I have watched several of the 1k HU matches on Stars. I just don't get that much out of it. It seems like they are either very evenly matched and trade the money back and forth (whomever is getting lucky at the time), or either one players is the sucker and one is very good.

Not being able to see their hole cards is a huge handicap. I absolutely cannot tell if someone is really a great player or not. I cannot see manipulation if a hand rarely goes to showdown. I would love to be able to see the hole cards, because then I would get more out of it.

Right now I am in the hyper-aggressive HU play. I feel that if I cannot play that well HU, I may as well be super aggressive, always putting my entire stack at risk. It has paid off pretty well, but I only have 34 NLHE sit-n-go's to use for statistics. This is new to me. I have switched from Stud to NLHE overnight, and not only is the game different, but the stakes are radically upped.

I am going to keep studying and working on my game. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

[tewall]

There are several books that cover NHLE, including Super System, Big Bet Poker by Ciaffone and Reuben, and a book by Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier called Championship No Limit and Pot Limit Hold'em. While these are not specifically heads up, the nature of the game is such that much of the time the action is heads up, so the book has principles that will apply.

Always putting your entire stack at risk will work poorly if the blinds are small compared to your stack size. A lot of times in tournaments the stack sizes are small, so an aggressive style can work quite well. Sklansky has an article in Card Player that discusses an all-in system (as well as a book on tournament play).

IMO the best strategy in heads-up play is to have a very flexible strategy which is based on determining an opponent's weakness and exploiting it.