Got owned yesterday heads up
 

To start, I play lots of stars heads up matches and do very well. However, lately I have been getting owned at the end of tournaments, especially when it gets to heads up in sattelites and such. The difference for me is that heads up tournaments start with deep stacks and low blinds so I can easily outwit the opponent and take him down, whereas at the end of the tourney I am facing a very high blind and aggressive opponent. Last night I was getting raised almost every hand before the flop. Blinds were 300/600 and I had only 8K and he had like 20K. Anyway, I was owned and he grinded me down. This situation repeated itself in 4 satts.

Any help with how to deal with this endgame situation?

Indy

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

Buy SnG Power Tools and learn how to use it.

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

I find these are the hardest opponents to counter. I see people that minraise 70% of hands on the bubble or ITM be insanely effective because people don't want to take a stand.

So when I play against players like that I just decide to take a stand and call their minraises and be very aggressive on the flop, especially if I catch something. If I happen to have J4s after I notice that tendency in their game, it really doesn't matter. His play tells me he is raising with crap most of the time anyway.

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

The short stack, unfortunately you, is 13 BBs. That's well within the range for an optimal push/call strategy. Thanks to dana33, eastbay and others, it appears 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. Try something in between.

With this approach, the villian's not going to keep raising you PF -- he'll probably fold the 1st time or two and then you're either going to double up or bust out.

The Shadow

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

I try to play small ball at first if I can get away with it. That is, see if they'll fold to a 3xBB range. If yes, how about 2xBB. Until I get a range. If I can win without risk just by raising more than they do, I'll try that. This lets you grind them away, and you can win without looking at your cards.

If this doesn't work, I would do just what the shadow said; using a 70/30 strategy. If your opponent won't allow you to grind him away, you have no choice but to follow a push strategy. I'd push slightly more than optimal and push slightly less because I expect my opponent to push less than optimal and call less. One of the results of the research eastbay and others was that it doesn't make much difference how far off you are in the push/call range as long as you're relatively close.

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

indy,

Don't you win like 70%+ HU matches?

Yugoslav

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

Yugo,

In fact, I do win 70% of heads up matches when the tourney is designed as a heads up match. However, at the end of a SNG or Satt I would say its closer to 50% due to the high blind structure.

Indy

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

Indy,

So your OP is really just a bad beat post? I mean, you can't do too much better than 50% with even stacks HU in full table STTs or Sattelites....it's all contingent on your opponent making mistakes.

Perhaps the issue is that you still expect to win 70% which is unrealistic unless you come into the HU endgame with a ton of chips every time.

Yugoslav

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

With the blinds and stack sizes you are speaking of (300-600 blinds, your stack around 8k), once you see that he's constantly raising you, if you have a hand you like, you have to re-raise and play for all your chips. That's the only solution really, you just can't let him chip grind you down.

Re: Got owned yesterday heads up
 

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks to dana33, eastbay and others, it appears 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

[/ QUOTE ]

is there a link to this? i'm really supposed to be calling my top 50% against a 10x push from an appropriately aggro villain?