NL Hold'em Heads up and Ring stategy

{edited title - a500lbgorilla}

Hi All

When playing heads up in NL Hold em what are the playing stategies against loose opponents and also tight opponents?

For example,do I tighten up against a loose opponent and loosen up against a tight opponent?

Any help much appreciated,
vbfgredfty

Depends on how loose. If they won't ever fold, then yes - tighten up to the point that you're only betting if you have middle pair or better. If they will fold when they don't have anything, you should be betting the majority of the time. Slow down if they start calling more often (unless you have something).

There's only a 30% chance that you and your opponent hit a flop, so feel confident in betting if you have a peice.

Want me to throw in the meaning of life while I'm at it?

Last heads up game I pushed allin with 64s and ran into pocket aces. My straight did hit as expected.

My ex girlfriend started dating my father. Should I push or fold?

Not that I havn't got a sense of humour but this is the wrong time for absurdity laced with apparent profound wisdom...just wanted some basic strategy advice on heads up NL Hold Em play...please spare me your gobbledy gook oh mystical comic gurus of poker truth....

vbfgredfty, the point is, heads up NL and ring game NL are complex... can't just type out a 3 line paragraph explaining the two.

I know that...but there are basic strategies for the type of player you are up against.

The heads up dynamic...

Heads up against a worthy opponent is a complex dance. You get aggressive, and he starts camping to trap. He stings you with a trap taking advantage of your aggression, and you tighten up to avoid being trapped. He then bluffs you out a couple times and you loosen up to catch him betting heavy on low pair a couple times. He then tightens up, and you start bluffing him out of pots and so on...

So to answer your question, it's very easy to annihilate someone who refuses to stray from one set style heads up because it's a dance. So many times I've been up against someone that thought they would just bully my stack down and that's that. I don't get angry and fight back with aggression against these types. I dance. I wait for my made hand, and let him take control by putting a large stack of chips in the middle on a bluff which will soon be mine.

These poker players are not dancing. They overexpose themselves by increasing their bluff tactics as they continue to work you over not knowing that you are fully aware and lying in wait to strike a crippling blow.

It's not always simply about playing the player against themselves, but also recognizing when the player is playing you. It's all about who makes the fastest adjustments at the right times. Step one, step two. Mistakes are magnified as the blinds increase. To me that's what makes heads up so attractive.

So to say that you play loose against tight, and tight against loose would be correct, but also understand that a worthy opponent will not remain one or the other very long if they become aware you are playing against it.

It's a dance or a domination depending on whether your opponent is aware of the dance. Always come prepared to dance and adjust, and you'll be in a good position to win your fair share. Don't be surprised if you run into a couple players who dance faster and better than you. Experience in heads up poker and dancing have very similar benefits.

*Last edited by dsaxton on Thu, 31 Mar 2005, 11:00am; edited 1 time in total*

I'm taking a long (perhaps permanent) break from online poker, but when I was playing a lot, one on one matches were my favorite. To me, they were essentially about trying to enter the mind of your opponent, by understanding how he approaches the game, how he acts in different situations, how he is likely to respond to your actions (e.g., does he have an inclination to call large raises with mediocre hands, or does he fold easily in the face of pressure?), and by paying attention to whatever information he may be giving you. Once you know how your opponent is approaching the game, then you adopt your own approach which is specifically designed to work against the weaknesses in your opponents plan. If he is playing hands primarily for value, then you can exploit that fact by simply betting and winning a lot of the time, since, statistically speaking, he will usually have nothing. When you're playing an overly aggressive player, your style should probably depend on the nuances of the players personality. This, I think, is because some aggressive players can be tamed, and others can't. Once I was playing against a player who simply had to control the action on every single hand, regardless of how much I raised him by. I had tried a few tactics to slow him down, such as calling out of the big blind when he raised from the button, then check-raising on the flop regardless of what I had, or by limping from the button and then reraising once he raised, but he would almost invariably reraise. In this type of situation, the best plan is probably just to wait for a hand, at which point your opponent will be glad to give you all his money (In the game against the overly aggressive opponent I faced, it was a hand where I had 2-4 offsuit in the big blind, and my opponent limped in. The flop came 2, 2, K with two clubs, so I check-raised him, and he quickly reraised me. I called, a blank fell on the turn, and I checked to him. He moved all-in, so I called and won the pot when he showed jack high.). If you're facing an aggressive opponent who can be slowed, I think that it is probably advisable that you do so, since you will otherwise be giving up too much equity when you're unable to find a hand, since it will be difficult and often very risky to win a pot without one. This can be done, I think, using tactics like the ones mentioned above.

Usually, a good player will have at least a moderately dynamic style, and therefore it's important that you're able to quickly pick up on patterns in his play and also be able to adjust your play just as he is beginning to figure you out. In many ways it becomes a sort of silent dialogue between two players. In these cases, your success will probably largely depend on how alert and deceptive you are.

I think those are the essentials of how to play heads-up poker. The fundamentals are very simple, but once your opponents become increasingly more intelligent and informed about the game, then the game can quickly be brought to a level of fairly sophisticated psychological strategy.

That's more like it,cheers Smile

I'm a tiny bit confused by your topic, are you asking about the 2-person ring game tables that places like PokerStars have or are you talking about the heads-up matchup at the end of a SNG tourney? I have a good amount of experience with the latter, but don't know many players who participate in the former.

The latter...

This will help:

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1110

Ripptyde = One of the best HU players on FTR.

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