HU defense against min raiser

[rachelwxm]

Hi, here is the situation happens to me alot lately. Down to final two around 8-10 bb, some guy min raise everyhand from button as if only I come over the top does he look at his cards. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] He is not risking alot of chips so he could be doing this with pure trash and still gets away if necessary. Calling min raise and play out of position is aweful too.

What is your best defense here? Is this a good strategy to use? Any help appreciated. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[jb9]

I'd re-raise (probably all in) or fold, and I'd try to re-raise more often than I folded. Once I got down to 4-5 bb, I would re-raise all in with almost anything.

If you fold too much, your opponent will just keep raising.

I'd also raise from the button with any reasonable hand and would go all in if re-raised.

Usually when I'm in these matches it ends up with a coin flip like Q6 vs. J5, but I prefer that to losing 50% of my chips to blind steals and then having to win 2 or 3 hands all in in a row.

[Creeper_thp]

It sounds like a terrible strategy to me; he's basically putting you in the SB every single hand which I think is a better position to be in heads-up anyway. I'm a push/fold kind of guy so I'd probably just play normally, push on cards I would have pushed with anyway and fold cards I would have folded with anyway. He's not making any decisions regarding his cards so all his minbet does is put more money in the pot for you to steal.

[morgan180]

I love min-raisers heads up. I find them very easy to play, especially if they do it constantly. I think that as with anything in poker you have to mix it up.

When someone min-raises me heads up I look for any excuse to push. Either a top 40% hand or a hand with high card value that can run hot/cold. When someone completes in the small blind I also like to push from the big blind, no limping on my blind.

Now after I've done that a few times if the opponent is smart they try to adjust and for a while i'll see very little completing or min-raising, mostly pushing or folding, if you have them pegged as a tighter player who can't open up well then you are in the driver's seat as you'll be beating them in to a lot more pots and slowly taking chips.

But as I said above everything is about mixing it up, so after I've been pushing for a few hands, then I'll start just calling or if i pick up a big hand i'll min-raise/call. This will usually illict a push from the opponent who finally sees an opportunity to bully the bully back and then you get all your chips in as a favorite.

JMHO, but seems to work pretty well at the $10/$20 level.

[AA suited]

you could also do a stop and go. call then push no matter what hit the flop.