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  #1  
Old 12-17-2005, 01:30 PM
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Default I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

Every Saturday me and my friends get together and have a buy in. I read the "Harrington On Hold 'Em" book last summer. It really has been doing me well. It has really helped my game out. It has taught me many things such as observing your players which has really seperated me from the rest of my buddies at the table. It seems I always make second place to heads up play. But I always lose it there. Im not skilled at heads up and I always seem to have a chip lead and lose it. I haven't gotten a chance to read the 2nd volume to harrington on hold 'em which talks a lot about heads up. I have a poker game tonight. Do you guys have any tips for me? I'd appreciate it. Thanks.
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  #2  
Old 12-17-2005, 01:32 PM
TheProdigy TheProdigy is offline
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

I would suggest...reading the 2nd book, or reading a book on heads-up play
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  #3  
Old 12-17-2005, 01:45 PM
PJS PJS is offline
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

When you are heads up, you should take advantage of your chip lead and become more agressive. There is no "quick fix" but my only bit of advice is to be aware that hand values change heads up. For example, where a hand like A6 offsuit may be poor in a multi way pot, it has quite a bit of value heads up because there is only one other hand out to contend with as opposed to a full table. My guess is that you may be playing too tight heads up.

Good luck,
PJS
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  #4  
Old 12-17-2005, 01:54 PM
Catt Catt is offline
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

[ QUOTE ]
Every Saturday me and my friends get together and have a buy in. I read the "Harrington On Hold 'Em" book last summer. It really has been doing me well. It has really helped my game out. It has taught me many things such as observing your players which has really seperated me from the rest of my buddies at the table. It seems I always make second place to heads up play. But I always lose it there. Im not skilled at heads up and I always seem to have a chip lead and lose it. I haven't gotten a chance to read the 2nd volume to harrington on hold 'em which talks a lot about heads up. I have a poker game tonight. Do you guys have any tips for me? I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well there's really not any time for you to learn and master new skills before tonight's game, so I'd instead try to focus on and improve your established strengths.

You mentioned that one of your advantages over your buddies is your ability to observe the oither players. I'd try and take this one to the next level, so when you get it HU your improved observational skills can carry the day (tells are so important HU).

A good observational exercise is to head into town for the afternoon -- pick a spot where there is a decent amount of foot-traffic, but not so much as to be too distracting (you won't have to deal with that sort of distraction at the poker table). I find a local bank to be a great place; take a seat in the lobby area or just stand at the counter where people complete deposit slips, etc. Focus your attention on one particular employee - I like to start with the security guard before moving on to the assistant manager and then a specific teller. Your task is to observe every single muscle movement of your subject and really get inside their heads. But you also need to maintain enough peripheral perception to monitor the comings and goings of the customers. And of course, you must do all this somewhat furtively without seeming to be the most observant person in the bank (you really don't want your buddies to recognize the extent of your study of them). Be sure to occasionally doodle on blank deposit slips to simulate having to handle cards and chips -- no need to retain the slips of course, just crumple them up and throw them out. After an hour or so of this, when you feel in the groove, try and extend your observation to two individuals at the same time, making sure that they're not in the same general area. I find that selecting the secuirty guard, who is usually out on the floor, perhaps near the doors, and the manager or assistant manager, who is behind the counter and making the occasional trip into the vault, is quite taxing but hugely helpful to your skills development.

If you can get comfortable doing this, you'll be able to sit in your home game and capture every single movement from the 3-seat and 8-seat at the same time, all the while appearing to be more interested in your buddy who is grabbing another bag of chips or a CD or something away from the table. It'll be like your friends are playing with their cards exposed! Hope it goes well and let us know if you get it HU and do better this weekend!
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  #5  
Old 12-17-2005, 01:58 PM
NLfool NLfool is offline
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

sounds like a game with a bunch of newbies.

Wait for a good hand and overbet the pot. AA, KK preflop allin - no joke either
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  #6  
Old 12-17-2005, 03:33 PM
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

Hey man I just wanna thankyou for your in depth response. I really appreciate it. I'll let you know how I did.
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  #7  
Old 12-18-2005, 02:44 PM
Catt Catt is offline
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

[ QUOTE ]
Hey man I just wanna thankyou for your in depth response. I really appreciate it. I'll let you know how I did.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm glad you found it helpful; and it might prove to actually help your observational skills.

But truth be told I was yanking your chain a bit. If you do this exercise, and somehow wind up at the local precinct station to answer a few questions for the detectives, just be sure to point them to this thread and explain you were really trying to work on your poker game, and honestly had no ill intentions with regard to the bank. And for goodness sake make sure you have nothing on your person that could conceiveably be considered a weapon or a pretend weapon.
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  #8  
Old 12-21-2005, 01:42 AM
AndrewtheBold AndrewtheBold is offline
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

I guess I'm too late for tonight's game, but that book makes 2 points about heads up play that are not hard to understand and can improve your results immediately...

1) With 2 players left, assuming those players are of equal skill, each players chances of winning are equal to the proportion of each stack to the total number of chips.

2) Typically (that is, when the blinds are huge and quickly increasing) the only major mistake you can make is folding too much.

Actually, one or both of these might be from Sklansky's book. In any case, assuming your tournaments have a pretty typical structure, make sure you aren't doing the second thing. In fact, depending on how poorly you are playing this situation (no offense) you might improve your results with a very simple all-in strategy.

For instance, you might consider raising all-in with any ace, king, or pair and folding everything else. When to call an all-in is a little trickier, but probably more often than you are right now. This isn't a great stratrgy, nor can I really give you a great strategy, but if you are seriously getting run over at the end, it will probably work a bit better.
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  #9  
Old 12-21-2005, 03:32 PM
Buccaneer Buccaneer is offline
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Default Re: I NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!!!!!

Durring the games mention that you read that the pros don't bother with that stupid hu crap like on TV and that real pros make a deal when it gets to the end. Problem solved

I was in a home game the other day where we split most of the $$$ but not all. Then we played for the rest of the pot. It was interesting, and two guys got to play hu.
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