Please help coach this heads up loser!

KSOT · #1 09-17-2005, 12:23 AM

Here's the story. I am a fairly good SNG player who is usually capable of making it to the bubble or further, however, I am not very good at short handed play and seem to fall short of first more than my share of the time. I used to only play SNGs, but I realized that the most important phase is post-bubble and that since it's my weakest area, it wasn't worth it to keep playing them.

Now I signed up for Party Poker and am interested in the step tournies. I just tried my first level 1 ministep, which only allows the first place winner to advance. I DOMINATED the whole table for almost the entire thing, taking out more than half of the people. Then of course, when it got to heads up, I choked. I am going to post the 11 HU hands I played and ask for anyone to share comments on them. Obviously you can ignore the ones where we folded pre-flop, I just included them to show you where the money went between important hands. If you kind people are willing to help me out, I will continue to post future HU dispair in this thread.

Villain seems pretty ABC to me.

Hand 1
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t4000)
Button (t4000)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 4[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Button calls t200, Hero checks.

Flop: (t600) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t400, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t1000

Results in white below: 
No showdown. Button wins t1000. 

Hand 2 (Should've put in a pre-flop raise here, I know. I guess I was trying to trap and end it all. I felt he'd been bluffing a bit)
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t3600)
BB (t4400)

Preflop: Hero is Button with Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], Q[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero calls t200, BB checks.

Flop: (t600) 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t400, BB folds.

Final Pot: t1000

Results in white below: 
No showdown. Hero wins t1000. 

Hand 3 (uh, he went all-in here... I dunno why the converter didn't reflect it)
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t4000)
Button (t4000)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
Button calls [t4000] , 1 fold.

Final Pot: t400

Results in white below: 
No showdown. Button wins t400. 

Hand 4
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t3600)
BB (t4400)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 5[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero calls t200, BB checks.

Flop: (t600) 5[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB bets t400, Hero raises to t800, BB calls t400.

Turn: (t2200) 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB checks, Hero calls [t2600] , BB folds.

Final Pot: t2200

Results in white below: 
No showdown. Hero wins t2200. 

Hand 5
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t4800)
Button (t3200)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
1 fold.

Final Pot: t400

Results in white below: 
No showdown. Hero wins t400. 

Hand 6 (Uh ohhhh... first attempt at making a play. Always a sign of bad things to come for me)
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t5000)
BB (t3000)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 4[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 2[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
Hero raises to t1000, BB calls t800.

Flop: (t2200) Q[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img], 9[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1800, BB calls [t2200] .

Turn: (t4000) 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)

River: (t4000) 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)

Final Pot: t4000

Results in white below: 
Hero has 4h 2h (high card, king).
BB has Tc Jh (straight, king high).
Outcome: Hero wins t2200. BB wins t1800. 

Hand 7
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t2000)
Button (t6000)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Button raises to t600, Hero calls t400.

Flop: (t1400) 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t1200, Hero calls [t1600] .

Turn: (t2600) Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)

River: (t2600) 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)

Final Pot: t2600

Results in white below: 
Hero has 7s 8c (one pair, sevens).
Button has 8h Ah (high card, ace).
Outcome: Button wins t1400. Hero wins t1200. 

Hand 8
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t4000)
BB (t4000)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Hero calls t200, BB calls [t4000] t400, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t600

Results in white below: 
No showdown. BB wins t600. 

Hand 9 (They say you HAVE to make moves heads up, but I'll be damned if they ever work for me...)
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t500 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t3600)
Button (t4400)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], J[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
Button calls t250, Hero checks.

Flop: (t750) 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 8[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks.

Turn: (t750) 2[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero bets t500, Button calls t500.

River: (t1750) 3[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero bets t500, Button raises to t1200, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t3450

Results in white below: 
Button doesn't show.
Outcome: Button wins t3450. 

Hand 10
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t500 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t2100)
BB (t5900)

Preflop: Hero is Button with 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img].
1 fold.

Final Pot: t500

Results in white below: 
No showdown. BB wins t500. 

Hand 11
Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t500 (2 handed) converter

Hero (t1850)
Button (t6150)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 5[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img].
Button calls t250, Hero checks.

Flop: (t750) 4[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 3[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img], 6[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)
Hero calls [t1850] , Button calls t1350.

Turn: (t2100) Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] (2 players)

River: (t2100) K[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] (2 players)

Final Pot: t2100

Results in white below: 
Hero has 9s 5c (high card, king).
Button has 6d 7c (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: Button wins t2100. 

So am I trying to bluff too much here or did I just try in the wrong places? See any other big problems anywhere?

Thanks for any help in advance.

#2 09-17-2005, 02:46 AM

Hand 1 Fine, maybe bet at the pot for 400 once in awhile but not too much

Hand 2 Limping is understandable with AA or even KK but with QQ you must raise this preflop unless you are sure that your opponent will reraise your limp.

Hand 3 Call the all in you weak tight wuss. JK

Hand 4 You're reraise is not enough here, push all in.

Hand 5 Fine

Hand 6 Dont make plays with 4 2 suited or not. Heads up is dominated by high cards and this is not going to be a profitable move enough to work out. Try this with J6 or 97 instead if you want to bet with a weak bluff.

Hand 7 well played. Middle pair on that board is huge

Hand 8 ok

Hand 9 not horrible, i'm guessing his reraise meant he might have had a flush but regardless your pair of 2's aren't good. Maybe check your pair of 2's but i would've bet also.

Hand 10 call the BB

Hand 11 good play when the blinds are big.

Basically keep in mind that the heads up game is dominated by luck when the blinds are this huge. My only other advice would be to push many of your hands when the blinds get really big (200/400) because this is how you can get the edge on many inexperienced players.