interesting heads up problem

[Dominic]

I play a lot of SNGs on UB, where I'm fairly successful...I've recently started playing the heads-up SNGs for practice and I'm now very confident in my HU play... Over the last three months, I'm averaging over a
%75 win rate HU. Not bad.

The other day, however, I came across an opponent I didn't know what to do with. He was obviously inexperienced but hit upon a strategy that was working very well until I got lucky and sucked out on him once or twice. He iether had no clue what he was doing or he was incredibly clever - I can't figure which! Anyway, here it is:

Not every hand - but close to every hand, he would move all-in. Whether he was ahead or behind, it didn't matter. Everytime I limped, he pushed all-in. If I made a reasonable raise, he pushed all-in. Any other time, he'd just fold pre-flop. It had me flummoxed! I started folding hands pre-flop I never would've previously, like 10-9 or J-8 suited...It became strictly a big-card, showdown game. All the skill had been taken out of it! Was this a moronic thing for him to do or do you suppose this to be a pretty good strategy for when you know you're outclassed after the flop?

[tewall]

Sounds like "The System" by Sklansky. Not much you can do about it.

I've posted asking what hands you should call with in this situation, but didn't get any responses.

[PrayingMantis]

[ QUOTE ]
I've posted asking what hands you should call with in this situation, but didn't get any responses.


[/ QUOTE ]

There were many discussions here about this matter. Try searching some of eastbay's posts, for instance.

Regarding the HU situation discussed:

Well, if it's a long enoug HU game, and the blinds are still low and you have time, all you have to do is to wait for a nice hand and let him put you all-in. If he's pushing almost every hand, a hand like 88 is a monster. Take a look at this table: HU Holdem

If the blinds are relatively high, any advantage you could have is significantly reduced, and he's playing in a rather efficient (not ideal) strategy, especially if you're on the tight side.

[AtlBrvs4Life]

That's pretty much how I play HU on party, unless by some miracle, the blinds are still low when it gets down to two people.

[yenforyen]

I was getting a lot of seconds before I started using this approach (when the blinds are large). It significantly improved my HU game and evened out my number of first and seconds.

[eastbay]

[ QUOTE ]
I play a lot of SNGs on UB, where I'm fairly successful...I've recently started playing the heads-up SNGs for practice and I'm now very confident in my HU play... Over the last three months, I'm averaging over a
%75 win rate HU. Not bad.

The other day, however, I came across an opponent I didn't know what to do with. He was obviously inexperienced but hit upon a strategy that was working very well until I got lucky and sucked out on him once or twice. He iether had no clue what he was doing or he was incredibly clever - I can't figure which! Anyway, here it is:

Not every hand - but close to every hand, he would move all-in. Whether he was ahead or behind, it didn't matter. Everytime I limped, he pushed all-in. If I made a reasonable raise, he pushed all-in. Any other time, he'd just fold pre-flop. It had me flummoxed! I started folding hands pre-flop I never would've previously, like 10-9 or J-8 suited...It became strictly a big-card, showdown game. All the skill had been taken out of it! Was this a moronic thing for him to do or do you suppose this to be a pretty good strategy for when you know you're outclassed after the flop?

[/ QUOTE ]

When blinds are relatively big, pushing every single hand is a "pretty good" strategy. Pretty good in the sense that no matter what you do against it, you're not going to get that big an edge. With even stacks of 1000 and blinds 50/100, I think the best edge you can get against this opponent is something like 5%.

When blinds are small, this is decreasingly true, and the counterstrategy is obvious: wait for a pair or AK/AQ and go with it.

A slightly more selective approach, something like pushing with the "top 70%" of hands and calling down with the "top 30%", is almost impossible to beat to any significant degree with big blinds (say, 10% of stacks). About the best you can do is mirror the strategy and hope you catch better cards.

eastbay