Printable View
I have been getting very good with moving from making top 3 to heads up in sit n gos consistently. Now im having trouble winning and only coming in 2nd. Can some players in here please give me some insight on how to become a better heads up player. I normally raise 4xbb in a tourney, I think this is too much now to raise heads up. How much should I raise, and what hands can I raise? And even if im short stacked shoud i consider raising mediocre hands heads up? Please help me out
Ultimate bet has a pretty good series of articles on playing heads up
http://www.ultimatebet.com/learn-pok...ournament.html
Some things in general that I have noticed is that aggression is King in heads up. Checking is a recipe for disaster, unless you have the nuts and are looking for a check raise. Playing the player is also key in heads up, you should be mindful of their betting patterns and starting hand requirements from the latter part of the tourney.
I generally throw out a standard raise of about 3-4x bb with almost any cards except complete garbage. Then i will almost always back it up with a raise on the flop, depending on what the board shows. This usually throws alot of players off, and forces them to make hard decisions, if they raise you it should be a fairly easy fold.
If you are short stacked and the blinds are eating you up then you are obviously looking for a push or fold situation, but when i have a decent stack i generally avoid all-ins when playing heads up, unless it is to call with the goods. I don't know if this is valid advice but my reasoning for this is that, you will usually only win the blinds with your decent hand, be called with a good hand and be dominated or lose to a suck out. Now of course i'm not saying to never push all your chips in, because there are many situations where that is the right play, but i notice that many people (well in the lower limits i play in) tend to push all in way to much. I just bide my time, folding until i get a good hand, call and i usually will have them dominated.
All that above was specific advice, but the most important thing is to get a feel for your opponents game and act in ways that will bother them, and force them to make tough decisions.
If you need an easy-to-remember strat, try this:
-any suited, any ace, any pair - Raise. Otherwise fold
-if called, bet any flop
-any time you're raised (PF or after) fold anything that doesn't beat a pair of nines.
Play with this a bit and refine it for your own style/comfot zone. e.g. some possible additions:
You might limp with offsuit broadways. These are cool because opp will often interpret a limp as a weak hand like little suited connectors. If you pair, opp will frequently put you on a draw.
If opp realizes you're stealing quite a bit/raising with anything, tighten up
etc.
...
It's pretty easy to beat a mediocre player heads up. Basically, you just manipulate them mentially. If they are weak, push at them to steal blinds. If they are aggressive (and the blinds are small) roll over and trap them.
Against a good player - they will be looking to do the same to you. So you have to be unpredictable. The best thing you can do is to screw up their read. The reason is simple - in a heads up match, you want to get all your chips in with the better hand - which means you have to play HIS cards more than your. So conversly, he wants to play YOUR cards, not his. Which he can't do if you are constantly shifting strategies.