Trying not to go insane - HU play

[Dr_Jeckyl_00]

I am by no means an expert (far from it), but FWIW...
Do you ever do anything beside's go all-in HU? If you insist on going all-in then maybe you should stick to Ax, Kx, pocket pairs (Q and lower is just not that strong HU since many people will call w/ the above hands) and once he catches you on an all-in with garbage you're going to get called.. like your all-in w/ J6.

I think that it is important to see flop... so I call using Sklansky's recommended HU hands and then some more. I often call a single raise so that villain knows he won't get away with raising me. If flop misses me, but is not threatening to me I may bet it, if raised I may call, reraise or fold based on my feel for how opponent has played that night. When you're heads up your chip stack can go up and down quickly so take a shot (single sized bet) at the pot. If there is resistance fold and pick up the pot next hand. You just risk so much going all-in HU w/ Q and lower

[microbet]

Shouldn't play like that when the blinds are so high compared to the stacks.

[Dr_Jeckyl_00]

[ QUOTE ]
Shouldn't play like that when the blinds are so high compared to the stacks.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you have identified another leak in my game... So correct HU play (what about ITM play) is all-in or fold? I assume I need to know what hands my opponents are likely to push/call with to determine my push/calling hands. Anything else? Thanks.

[microbet]

There are no absolute rules. Sometimes you need to be deceptive and all that. But...

Generally do not raise the minimum. Generally do not make a raise that is more than 30% of your stack without pushing.

For the most part, if you follow those two you will either push or fold heads up in a 10 player Party Sit-n-go. On a site with more chips or 6 player or obviously a HU tournament, things are different.

[deathpotato]

[ QUOTE ]
***** Hand History for Game 2211702578 *****
500/1000 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 13120039) - Wed Jun 15 17:28:26 EDT 2005
Table Table 35278 (Real Money) -- Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 3: monjogey (2750)
Seat 6: DasLeben (5250)
DasLeben posts small blind (250)
monjogey posts big blind (500)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DasLeben [ 5h, 9c ]
DasLeben folds.
** Summary **
Main Pot: 750
monjogey balance 3000, bet 500, collected 750, net +250
DasLeben balance 5000, lost 250 (folded)

[/ QUOTE ]
I push here

[ QUOTE ]
***** Hand History for Game 2211709671 *****
600/1200 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 13120039) - Wed Jun 15 17:30:03 EDT 2005
Table Table 35278 (Real Money) -- Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 3: monjogey (1900)
Seat 6: DasLeben (6100)
monjogey posts small blind (300)
DasLeben posts big blind (600)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to DasLeben [ Kc, 7s ]
monjogey raises (1600) to 1900
monjogey is all-In.
DasLeben folds.
Creating Main Pot with $2500 with monjogey
** Summary **
Main Pot: 2500
monjogey balance 2500, bet 1900, collected 2500, net +600
DasLeben balance 5500, lost 600 (folded)

[/ QUOTE ]
You probably don't need another person to tell you this, but you MUST call this

Other than that it looks OK. I think calling 96s is read dependent, if he is excellent HU I call, but I usually fold.

[KJ o]

When blinds are big enough, yes, it's only push or fold.

Assume a HU-game with equal stacks of 8xBB. Player A always pushes and always calls your pushes. If you play perfectly against such a person, you will win 53% of the time.

Think about that for a while. Against a true maniac, your edge is 3%. If you just fold ever so slightly too often, you will be a huge dog against such a simpleton.

I think that a HU practice program where you could play against such a person and check your results in a few hundred tourneys would be truly valuable and enlightening. With a good GUI, I think one could play two tourneys a minute or mor, so 100 tourneys in less than an hour. Would be good practice.

[kyro]

This isn't to DaLesben, but more a general observation of the posts thus far.

It is absolutely astounding to me, with all the talk about correct bubble/ITM/HU play, that people are trying to [censored] around with minraises and "outplaying" your opponent on the flop. How many more threads outlining the "push or fold when the blinds are higher than AfroMan" method will there need to be before people get the hint?

[Moonsugar]

As others have pointed out K7 fold is a big mistake.

I missed a call like that against Gigabet's brother when I was the chipleader. It probably cost me 1st place, instead I got 3rd [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]