Need help at the final table HU

[bcubed72]

Just played a 190 person, $30+3 tourney at pokerroom; came in second. Instead of being happy about winning $1100, I'm p.o.'d about leaving the winner's $1700 behind. Here's the scoop: I bust out #4 and #3 to get to even w/ the chip leader. We seesaw back and forth for 5-10min, with him slowly gaining on me. Puts me out when I hold top pair-mid kicker against his top two pair. I've historically had trouble getting 1sts, in single or multi tables. I admit to being outplayed and want to improve. Two things: first, does anybody know a good book dealing primarily w/ HU play? second, where can I find a poker site w/ a lot of cheap, HU tourneys to hone my skill? BTW, I'm a winning player in limit, NL and tourneys, but I'd like to quit getting taken to school against HU players. My typical strategy is to play tight and allow everyone else to beat each other up, while looking for opportunities to increase stack size. Obviously, this strategy won't work HU, because there is noone else to allow to beat up on my opponent for me.

[LethalRose]

put some money in stars and play some HU matches. I dont think you can become good playing HU by reading a book, its something you get a feel for depending what type of opponent you are up against.

[Exitonly]

in MTT's you won't be playing heads up with 50+BB's

play a lot of Party SnG's, those are a little closer to an MTT heads up situation.

[ansky451]

I play a lot of heads up SnGs on stars, mainly 100s or 200s, and the play is pretty poor by a lot of players. The way i tend to categorize the players initially, is either rock-tight donks, or maniacs. The rock-tight donks, simply dont adjust enough for the change in hand-value, and the importance of bluffing heads up. Its not that you should bluff every pot, but if you only play your big hands strong, you will never win a big pot. They also don't raise from the button enough, and fold preflop way too much.

The loose maniacs, take everything too far. They think EVERY hand is going to make or break them, and raise/ call off bluffs all the time. In the 100s these are less common, but there are more in the 200s.

Position is everything heads up, especially with deep stacks. I very rarely reraise preflop out of the BB to a button raise because the worst thing ever with AQ is to have a huge pot, and have the flop come T87s or something crappy like that, with you acting first.

Finding your style and your best gameplay is of less importance the bigger the blinds/ relative to the stacks. Then it is more about push-botting, which you should go to the 1 table tournament forum for, cause they love knowing everything about preflop play.

There is no subsitute for practice, a book won't teach you HU play.