heads up play - just one tip

{starting a discussion}

what do you think?
This was sent to me via email by a very well-known source.
Not my words, but he has helped me more than (just about) anyone.

tell me what you think

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Forgetting about straights and flushes head’s up and in tournaments is a smart move anyway, they are chip burners unless you get a dream flop and have the nutz. The idea is to play premium cards against one opponent and win more hands than you lose. Note: if players would remember this earlier in the tournament and raise hard to eliminate the field, you would see more one-on-one play and have better successes. The idea at a full table (tournament or ring game) is to reduce the field immediately when holding a big pair, so it stands up. You can’t allow chasers to run you down and catch. Sure, sometimes you may have a drawing hand (hopefully to the nut), and you want lots of bets and action, but more often than not, you want Head’s Up play with the top cards.

---author - Al Spath

Very sound advice. Is that Roy Rounder Btw?

No. I'm a member of PSO over at bugsys.

That's Al Spath.

I dunno if I can post the whole entire email up here, so I just put a fragment of it.

Just for people (like me!) to think about when in a heads up play.

{heads up is not my strong suit}

Hey soulite just to let you know you are allowed to post the whole mail BUT you must credit the original author unlike what you have done in your first post.

This just covers off all copyright laws and various other guidelines regarding other peoples work, there is a whole thread concerning this, I am unable to find it at the moment I'm sure some one who knows where it is will post it for you.

If you look at my signature you will see that I have named the people who said the quotes as with other member’s signatures on here (well except the really clever members that have come up with their own quotes.)

So in summary soulite if you post anything written by somebody else whether it is in part or whole you must credit the author or just supply the link taking us straight to any article you wish to inform the forum about.

I hope this helps dude and more to the point is understandable....?

__________________
Call Of Duty 4........

Snake_Legend........

Listen...Look.....To Late Your Dead......

We shall have to make sure you are in the next THF HU tourney then dude....its for play money on Bugsy...it good fun and of course you get to be THF HU finest.

I do agree with playing this way, except that playing heads up it is important to steal pots as well, as you will be having the best starting hand half of the time. If you play this way at the beginning and your opponent senses you are only playing strong hands then it will present you with opportunities to steal pots later into the match, not to mention I have won and lost some battles where I couldnt catch a good starting hand to save my life, but definately calling to catch a flush or straight is a bad idea, you are much better off commiting chips in a semi bluff on a good drawing hand this way you have a chance of winning the pot two ways either by betting your opponent off by putting him in a very difficult situation, or catching your card in the event he calls.

Very strong and sound advice just the same. When heads up the biggest problem is remembering to loosen up your starting hand requirements. Where a K-9 at a full table may not be worthy of playing its actually a raising hand heads up. Same goes for low PP's. You need to get very aggressive heads up. You cant wait for premium hands. Some of the guidelines I use for heads up are as follows. theres 13 cards (2-Ace). 6 of them are below the "8" (2-3-4-5-6-7) and 6 of them are higher than the "8" ( 9-10-J-Q-K-A). Whenever I have 2 cards above the "8" I figure I'm ahead of my opponent and play accordingly with raises and such. Also, Unless i have a very good read on my opponent I never go by his first actions. I always assume my opponent never hit the flop and I always play like I did. I bet if he checks and i reraise if he bets. His 2nd action is the action i generally go by. If he reriases or check raises I'll play the hand according to my holdings and what the board has to offer. If I'm up against a very aggressive opponent who commonly reraises and check-raises with most hands, I'll usually look to trap that opponnet and will consider playing slightly lessor hands than i would against a tighter opponent. Its best to play back at the aggressors at least 1 in 3 or their play becomes too profitable for them to get away from it. But if they know that you will play back at them at least 1 in 3 hands they usually will abandon that aggressive play after it no longer is proffitable.

Hope this helps

I think Harrington on Hold'em II has a good section on heads up play.

The main point, highlighted by some here, is to stay the aggressor. Push your big hands to the max and hope for a bit of luck. Hands that are usually ditched preflop at a full table can suddently become huge hands.

I'll post a list from HOH2 which shows the ranking of hands heads up either tonight or tomorrow. Actually it'll be tomorrow as I'm heading to the pub soon to watch my beloved Leeds United!

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The views of Mattastic do not necessarily reflect the views of THF

I find that the key to heads up is to mix up your play constantly. Being the agressor is important but confusing your opponent is more important. Try to keep the pots small and play post flop poker where your skill can take over.