OT: Heads Up Strategies and considertaions

[Landon_McFly]

I've been playing nothing but heads up matches lately as you know, and after 100 I feel that my game has definately improved, but there's some things I'm definately getting hung up on

1 - When to push harder with marginal hands.

I've noticed that when your opponent is in the 10-20 (rather than <8-10 like most SNG players use) BB range, they push. They usually only push with any 2 face cards, any PP, Axo and Kxo. They'll fold anything else to a decent size raise. What hands should I be raising here? Should I ever fold to a reraise for the rest of their stack?

Obviously I should loosen up as the blinds go up, but should I loosen up according to my opponents stack? One thing that wins me so many heads up matches is when I raise with crap like K6s and they min re-raise me and the flop comes 6-3-6. We have a quick raising war and they flip over JJ and cuss me out about "how could you call with that preflop?"

2 - When should I get agressive?

Usually I don't start out agressive, but I feel that I have better results when I get agressive as a big stack, and worse results when I get agressive as a small stack (when the blinds are low). When the blinds are higher, it's exactly the opposite.

Sorry this wasn't thrown together nicely. Just some random thoughts on heads-up play.

No one on this site really talks about HU SNG's, and I'd love to have some people to talk about hands with and discuss my game/ their game with. I'm trying to learn whatever I can.

[the shadow]

Hey Landon,

We're doing the same thing. I can't remember the last time I played a STT. I've been playing only HU and 4-way freeze-outs on Stars for a few months now.

1. Take a look at dana33's excellent 1st post on Simulated heads-up endgame in all-in or fold mode (http://archiveserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=595131&page=16&view=colla psed&sb=7&o=all&fpart=1), which includes some good posts by eastbay. dana33 suggests that a 70/50 push/call strategy is optimal for a 10:1 ratio, and a 60/30 strategy is optimal for a 20:1 ratio.

2. I'm still working out myself how aggressive I should be. These may be leaks, but here're some random thoughts on how I'm now playing deep stacked HU matches:

/images/graemlins/spade.gif I raise PF frequently. I generally raise 3xBB. I generally start out raising about 1/4 of my hands. If villian generally calls, reraises or pushes, I might tighten up. If villian generally folds, I try to see if I can buy the pot with a 2xBB or min-raise.

/images/graemlins/spade.gif If the flop hits me, I generally bet, regardless of whether I have two pairs, an overpair, high pair, mid pair, low pair, or even an under pair. If villian generally calls, reraises or pushes, I tighten up.

/images/graemlins/spade.gif Even if the flop doesn't hit me, I bet it about 1/2 the time.

/images/graemlins/spade.gif If I flop a set, I bet it about 1/2 the time. If the board is safe, the rest of the time I may slowplay it by check-calling the flop and turn and check-raising or leading out the river.

/images/graemlins/spade.gif If it's checked to the turn, even if the board hasn't hit me, I generally bet if I have an overcard.

/images/graemlins/spade.gif If I have a flush or straight draw, I generally bet.

The Shadow

[citanul]

shadow:

your initial writing here seems like a decent start of thinking about how to process all this stuff. i'm sure you know this already and have done more work than your post shows, but it seems like your post sort of only talks about button play, kinda. it takes in to account way too little what your opponent does.

saying that you raise preflop frequently isn't enough usually, as well, you have to play your out of position hands too! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

saying you bet a whole bunch of the time is fine too, but again, are we talkin about when you are checked to, or when you are first to act? what do you do when your opponent bets and you've missed? etc.

blah. that's mostly pointless from me,

c

[Hendricks433]

The hard part for me with HU is the playing OOP part. And being way to aggressive.

[citanul]

that's because it's hard to play heads up out of position. especially when your opponent knows that you're just betting all the time with crap.

[Hendricks433]

Im only aggressive on the button. I fold way too much OOP. and Raise too much on the Button.

[jb9]

[ QUOTE ]
2 - When should I get agressive?

[/ QUOTE ]

Immediately -- if not sooner.

Heads up I don't like to play in an unraised pot except to confuse my opponent (e.g., when I have 76s and want him to think I have Aces I'll just complete or check).

I will regularly raise (3-4x BB) if my opponent completes from the small blind to discourage this sort of behavior.

If my opponent starts re-raising or pushing preflop, I'll tighten up (but stay aggressive).

I will back off postflop if he shows he will call me down.

Smart opponents will try to trap me, so I try not to call when they flop sets. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Landon_McFly]

[ QUOTE ]
Im only aggressive on the button. I fold way too much OOP. and Raise too much on the Button.

[/ QUOTE ]

[xJMPx]

The first thing I do when I start heads up is figure out how they react pre-flop to my limps and min-raises.

If they are not going to come over the top of my limps from the button, then I'll raise less often with my marginal hands and see some cheap flops to outplay them later.

If they will fold to a min-raise, then I'll try to min-raise and c-bet them to death.

Typically, I try to figure out what their weakness is and how they are reacting to me.

If they are a calling station, I slow way down and value bet my medium/strong hands. If I'm really sure they don't have a piece of the flop, I push...no more raises that'll they'll call with nothing.

If they fold way to much, I just bet bet bet...anything and everything.

If they are aggressive, pushing a lot and re-raising me, then I go aggro back at them and hope the cards favour me in the end.

[Landon_McFly]

[ QUOTE ]
If they are not going to come over the top of my limps from the button, then I'll raise less often with my marginal hands and see some cheap flops to outplay them later.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please clarify this for me

[xJMPx]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If they are not going to come over the top of my limps from the button, then I'll raise less often with my marginal hands and see some cheap flops to outplay them later.

[/ QUOTE ]

Please clarify this for me

[/ QUOTE ]

If my opponent is consistantly raising when I complete from the button then I cannot limp as much because I would be just throwing away chips. However, I also don't want to fold from the button too often because position is so powerful heads up. So, I have to come in for a raise more often with marginal hands because you can't wait for premium hands when heads up.

[the shadow]

I wrote my earlier post quickly, just like I'm knocking this one out fast, so I'm sure that I could be expressing myself better. (DevinLake certainly made the points clearer.) That said, I was not limiting my earlier post to button play.

IMPO, passivity is more important than position. If villian generally is going to fold to a bet after he's checked it to me, I'm not that worried that I might have to play a hand out of position.

As far as deep stack PF play goes, if I'm checked to, I bet about 1/4 the time. If villian minraises, I always call. If villian raises about 3xBB, I'll reraise about 1/3 the time to see what he does. If villian is almost always raising >5xBB, at the first levels, I'll wait for a PP or AJo+ and push.

Keep in mind, I'm not viewing these as rules or as anything close to an "optimal" strategy. These are just rough guides to my starting parameters as I'm trying to smoke out the villian's style.

The Shadow

[zaphod]

[ QUOTE ]
Keep in mind, I'm not viewing these as rules or as anything close to an "optimal" strategy. These are just rough guides to my starting parameters as I'm trying to smoke out the villian's style.


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes,isn't it most important to try to find your opponents weaknes when playing HU SNG's and then use these weakneses against them?
I have just played a few low level matches, but some of the players were horrible. Some opponents will fold if you ask them to on the flop, so you just take a lot of small pots from them. It will take some time to get theire stack, but you will get there eventually.

Then you have the action junky, coming and wanting to bluff you all the time, and you just let him steal, steal, steal(then you trap him).

At the same time trying to wary your own play a little bit is a good plan.