Help with Heads-Up Play in Stud Hi-Lo Tournaments

[Tom Bayes]

I just had my best multi-table finish ever, 2nd out of 311 in a Poker Stars $1 Stud Hi-Lo Tourney (turned a buck into $56). Now I realize that most of the competition in the freerolls and micro buy-in tourneys is horrible and it is easy to have a good finish just by playing reasonable poker. Obviously to make the final table you need to both play well and get some breaks.

My question is what to do in stud once you are heads-up. I had never played heads-up stud before (I really don't play much stud-only the cheapo tourneys) and even though I had a bit of a chip lead (about 60%/40%) on my opponent, he kicked my butt heads up.

I know I'm being vague and not talking about any specific hands, but does any have any general advice for how to adjust to stud hi-lo in shorthanded and heads-up situations.

[Greg (FossilMan)]

If you're not sure what to do, be aggressive.

Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

[Tom Bayes]

Thanks, FossilMan. I remembered your simple advice about aggression and have won 2 stud hi-lo tourneys in the last couple of weeks. Both of them were on Planet Poker. One was a freeroll where I finished 1st/589 and won $20-another was a regular tourney ($5 I think) with about 50 players which I won about $90. I was selectively aggressive and eventually wore down my opponent both times (it did take a while!).

[Gamblor]

Early in the tourney, you want to play for low and hope to get lucky and scoop, just like in a regular game.

Late in the tourney, you often don't have enough chips to see more than 2 or 3 hands through to the river, so you have to play for high and fold out the low draws, as they'll have to fold if they hit even one high card (they're paying too high a percentage of their stack for half the pot).

The more expensive the betting is (i.e. the higher percentage of your stack each bet is), the less you should be inclined to play for low.

Of course, in the low buy-in tourneys, nobody really cares about any of this, so don't bother trying to steal against a 45 showing or even a 67. They just don't get it. So wait for big cards and raise raise raise. When they don't hit lows you'll get paid off with a big scoop.

[BradleyT]

When you're heads up (well anytime for that matter but moreso heads up) there's one hand that ALWAYS pays and that's Hi.