(11s and 22s) Heads up Play

So I primarily play the 22s on PP after moving up from the 11s a while ago.

After PT my stats, i realized that i only win about 40% of my heads up. I consider myself a good HU player, as i used to win the HU matches on UB and just in B&M games and such, and everytime i go into a HU situation i usually consider myself the better player.

One reason i think my win% is so low is that i tend to take coin flips a lot in HU, especially when the blinds are high.
As we know, PP has a horrible blind structure where HU at the end becomes 4k chip stacks and 300/600 blinds. I constantly run into LAG pushbots who are pushing with everything, and many times after folding a couple consecutive hands i find myself shortstacked and then call with a losing hand. Usually my play is based off the HoH model with the 10%, 20%, and 30% hands and situations, but i find that i have trouble with large blind situations.

I think i can isolate my HU problem to that because I tend to be able to outplay my opponent when there is more flexibility in betting and soforth

any thoughts?

[bmxreed36]

When the blinds are 250/500, there is about 1/11 of all chips sitting out there before the hand starts and once it's 300/600, they amount to about 1/9 of the total chips making them very significant. With even stacks, if villian's calling range is any pair, any ace, KT+, and QJs, pushing any two cards is +EV. Basically, this just shows that when the blinds are high you can push ALOT of hands and you also have to loosen up with your calls somewhat. Many of them come down to getting lucky, but over time, if you are more aggressive than the other person and can steal those high blinds more than they can, it will pay off in the long run.

[HesseJam]

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...i tend to take coin flips a lot in HU, ...

...I constantly run into LAG pushbots who are pushing with everything, and many times after folding a couple consecutive hands i find myself shortstacked ...

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Now, what is it then?

[SonnyJay]

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I constantly run into LAG pushbots who are pushing with everything

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You should be one of these. The blinds are enormous, once it's at 300/600 more than 11% of the chips in the entire tournament are in the pot before your cards are dealt. You have to make pushes to pick these up. Maybe not necessarily every hand, but pretty damn close.

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I think i can isolate my HU problem to that because I tend to be able to outplay my opponent when there is more flexibility in betting and soforth

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Here's the thing...if you're playing with blinds this size and you aren't pushing a lot then you're being outplayed. You really can't fear getting called by a better hand, because you don't need them to fold all that often to make pushing the correct play. You absolutely have to do this. It'll be streaky, but your results will improve.

The correct strategy changes depending on the number of people left and the blinds (among other things). In a way, this is the easiest part of the tournament and you shouldn't be getting outplayed. Just push.

-SonnyJay

[KJ o]

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The correct strategy changes depending on the number of people left and the blinds (among other things). In a way, this is the easiest part of the tournament and you shouldn't be getting outplayed. Just push.

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The first part of your post is obviously correct, since we talk about HU here. I find that the number of players vary very infrequently in HU play, untill the tournament is over, in which case my strategy is either "start another one" or "go to bed".

But you are right in the second part. Push. Push everything. Against perfect opponents, you will win 47% of the time if you push *and* call *every* hand when blinds are as huge as they are at PP. Think about that figure a little bit.

The one piece of software that would dramatically improve everyone's play HU late in SnG's would be a superfast simulator where you play against someone who always pushes and always calls. You could probably play 500 tourneys in an hour and get a good grip on where you stand really quickly.

[playtitleist]

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You have to make pushes to pick these up. Maybe not necessarily every hand, but pretty damn close.


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How close? Seriously.

[SonnyJay]

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You have to make pushes to pick these up. Maybe not necessarily every hand, but pretty damn close.


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How close? Seriously.

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Basically, every hand you're the small blind. If the stacks are really close to even and you're holding something like 32 and you've been pushing every hand for a while, maybe you fold. If there's any real chance of the other guy folding you have to push.

Example: If you fold a SB, fold your BB to a push from your opponent, and fold another SB, you've lost 1200 chips at 300/600 blinds. This is a lot to lose without confrontation. So maybe you can fold really bad hands from the SB in certain situations, but your rule of thumb should be to push if there's any reasonable chance of him folding.

-SonnyJay

thanks for the advice.
i think that i tend to play aggressively when first to act, but when im the BB i'll fold to SB raises when im looking at cards such as Jx or 10x.

In that situation lots of times he is just looking for a steal, if the blinds are not destroying you, say they're still at 2/4, what you can do to couteract this is just call his raise and then bet out on the flop, the flop isn't going to hit him that often, and you're betting into the pf raiser, I notice that this gets a lot of credit in the 11s and 22s, so you take down some extra chips, I really only try this if we're close to even stacks or I have a good chiplead but he isn't too shortstacked.

[Bluff Daddy]

I would recommend moving to another site with a slower structure or becoming a lag pushbot