OT: Thoughts and questions about heads up play with small blinds.

[FieryJustice]

First off, this should be in the hu forum, but I dont want to put it there. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Well, my hour long hu match with a guy at the end of a mtt got mt thinking about optimal hu strategy, as what he was doing really gave me a hard time. Basically, what the guy would do is call me down any time he had any piece of the flop. The guy wouldnt bet that often even when he had a hand like top pair. So, the guy was a typical calling station fish. It sounds like an ideal situation, but when they hold over you every time I flop some pair and try to value bet it, it turns into a nightmare.

In this specific tourney, there was about 150k chips in play with 750/1500 blinds when we got heads up. I was fairly content with just limping in every hand, since he was never raising from either the sb or the bb AND he never called my raises. I guess this is my first question. Against someone who plays preflop like this guy, should I be raising with random hands, and if so, what should I do with my huge hands?

Ok...On the flop, when the match first started, he would usually check, I would bet 2/3 of the pot and he would fold. This lasted for about 8 hands then I noticed he started calling me a lot more, around 90% of the time. So, I started checking the flop and betting the turn, which worked for a little while until he started calling me down with any piece of the flop all the way to the river with K high and sometimes worse. This is normally great, but he was folding over me every time I had an ok hand. When I started the hu match, I had about 120k chips to his 30k chips and he worked me down to me having 60k to his 90k by just calling every time i bet. I finally figured out he could fold if I made bets on different streets every hand and this got us about even in chips.

At this point, he started pushing for 25bbs from the sb. This was after about an hour of play, so I thought I might have finally got him to break down. Here is the last hand...I have some questions about it.

***** Hand History for Game 2766589530 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:16018785 Level:15 Blinds (1500/3000) - Saturday, September 24, 09:14:45 EDT 2005
Table $1000 Daily Guaranteed(465533) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 5: FieryJustice ( $72152 )
Seat 6: GdCrdsNSmTeq ( $79348 )
Trny:16018785 Level:15
Blinds (1500/3000)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to FieryJustice [ 3s 3h ]
GdCrdsNSmTeq calls [1500].
FieryJustice checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Jh, Ac, Ad ]
FieryJustice checks.
GdCrdsNSmTeq checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3d ]
FieryJustice bets [3000].
GdCrdsNSmTeq raises [6000].
FieryJustice raises [12000].
GdCrdsNSmTeq calls [9000].
** Dealing River ** [ 3c ]
FieryJustice is all-In [54152]
GdCrdsNSmTeq calls [54152].
FieryJustice shows [ 3s, 3h ] four of a kind, threes.
GdCrdsNSmTeq shows [ 2c, Jc ] two pairs, aces and jacks.
FieryJustice wins 144304 chips from the main pot with four of a kind, threes.
Game #2766592356 starts.


His raise on the turn made me think he had an A. So, was the push on the river correct of me, assuming he will onle call with an A? I didnt think he would call a push with a J, but he obviously did. Perhaps he was just ready to get the hand over with.

Ok...here is my main question. What is the default "optimal" heads up strategy? It seems to me that if this guy just bet more, I would have been totally stumped because he would be taking some pots away from me yet I wouldnt be able to take any away from him, as he was calling me down. Also, it is obvious this guy is overplaying his hands. I was quite sure if I could ever hit a strong hand, like a boat or a flush, I would take his stack just because he couldnt fold. So, it seems to me that a fairly good strategy would just to be a calling station fish that doesnt pay people off when it is obvious you are beat. Maybe I am just stupid...i was just amazed by how this guy calling every continuation bet I made really really killed my game.