Big hand in tourney.

[ZManODS]

Ive been playing some home tourneys recently and i play pretty well until it gets heads up. Like tonight for example i made it to 1-on-1 with an aggressive player.

I have around t6000, oppenent has around t4000. Blinds are 200-400. Im in the BB and get A /images/graemlins/heart.gif4 /images/graemlins/heart.gif. I just check to see the flop (bad move?).

Flop comes up Q /images/graemlins/heart.gifT /images/graemlins/heart.gif7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif
Oppenent bets out 1200. I call (anyone raise here?, anyone fold)

Turn: Not a hear, unimportant
He bets out 1200 again, i just call.

River: 4 /images/graemlins/spade.gif
He bets his last 1200 (or around that) and i fold.

Was this a horrible play? How would you play it differently. My heads up play is horrible! Thanks


P.S. I lost shortly after missing another flush draw (K high) and a K fell on the river. I went all in and was called by a silly straight. I believe he held 46o and there was a 357 on the board by the turn.

[CrisBrown]

ZMan,

I'd have raised big pre-flop with A-high, and probably moved in when I caught the A-high flush draw. Again, when you get to heads-up, loose-aggressive play will win in the long run.

Cris

[SoCalPat]

Heads up, you would only check or complete the SB when you want to set a trap with a very big hand. You should be raising here, as heads-up, your hand is still quite strong.

Unless you've got an exceptionally strong hand, I think merely calling bets after the flop, especially when you're drawing, is a sure-fire way to ensure you never win any tournaments. The situation you present is either to move all-in or fold on the flop, and it's not even close. You'll likely take the pot down right there, and if you're called, you've got lots of outs.

Heads-up, the vast majority of your moves should either be raising or folding.

[t_perkin]

The big thing to remember in heads up is that before those pocket cards are dealt you have a 50% chance of winning the hand.
That should give you an idea of how many hands you should be playing. (although there are a lot of other things to consider as well, such as the blind size relative to stack size, and your stack size relative to your opponent's stack)

You are not looking to make straights and flushes. You are looking for high cards and pairs. Flushes and Straights are bonuses.
You need to be much more aggressive, almost all actions should be raise or fold, I would make maybe 2 or 3 calls every 10 or 20 hands just to keep em guessing, other than that it is raise or fold.

Tim

[Jon Matthews]

Raise to 1200 preflop with this hand I reckon and push all in or check-raise the the flop, that's what I would do anyway

Aggression is key, you want to bitchslap your opponent bet-wise until they get blinded or play back at you, hopefully you can time it so that they do this when you've a top starting hand


Jon

[ZManODS]

I never really realized that when its heads up i have to play aggressive. I am mostly a limit player and loose aggressive is not my favorite type of playing. But now i know when its heads i should be raising or folding and calling only to trap.

thanks a lot.

Does anyone know of some reading material on this subject?