ISF's HU Cash Thoughts

After about 2 months of playing 90% HU, I have become really confident in my game and feel like I have knowledge to share about it. Initially, I wanted to write a strategy guide but my thoughts are just so scrambled Idk that I could organize it. My thoughts will be in bullet points.
Before I start I'd like you to know that this is really a intermediate and beginner guide. Once you start facing better players (very few at 400nl, but a good amount at 600nl and 1knl), this advice may become faulty.
Here we go!

1. The most important thing in HU is focus. If you have any sort of tilt tendencies you really need to get those under control, or you'll be spewing off loads of cash. Adjusting is a premium. You need to get your opponents tendencies down... and the way you get that is focus. I really don't like putting emotions and mind state before skill (The reason is that I feel like it becomes more of an excuse than a fix), but the fact that I do should make you realize how important it is.

2. Adjusting. If you don't know how to adjust than don't play HU, because adjusting is what seperates mediocore players from good ones.
-Things to look for and examples of how to adjust: The most basic things you need to look for when you're playing HU are your opponents threebetting frequency, how often he is calling threebets, and how much he is opening from the BU. A lot of HU players call 75% of your threebets, which is a gigantic leak. The only adjustment you need to make for that is just to only threebet good hands. If someone isn't calling a lot of your threebets what you need to do is
-threebet more frequently
-polarize your threebetting range. Polarize means that your range consists of very weak hands and very strong hands, and not much in between. So threebet hands such as low sc's, low pp's, and of course our big hands.
- flat call your mediocore hands to a raise. Hands such as KJ, KT, QJ, AT, 88, 77 play great against his raising range but really poorly in a threebet pot with someone who is playing tight.

There are many other things you need to look for. Does someone always raise when he has top pair or better and doesn't raise when he doesn't? Does he raise draws? Does he bluff? Is he tilting? Is he giving off bet sizing tells? There are many more but you can figure them out for yourselves.

3. Early on tight is right. In fact, you can be a complete nit and make a lot of money. A lot of people will play against tight players and just start tilting because they can't make any money off of them quickly. Playing tight also helps you get a feel for the player before you have the chance to make a mistake because you don't have a read.

4. HUDs are pretty worthless HU, they are probably more of a distraction than an aid.

5. Everyone thinks you're bluffing and just because someone bluffed once doesn't mean they are bluffing now. Always put people on ranges, on every street, no exception. Just because you're facing a maniac and have middle pair or top pair doesn't mean you have to stack off. Just because you're facing a tight player doesn't mean you have to bluff every street to make money off of him.

6. People never fold a pair of Aces

7. Just because you have tptk or a weak two pair it doesn't mean you can't fold.

8. If you're having trouble against an opponent, even if he is worse than you, leave. It's not worth staying. You're likely to tilt and make some bad calls. There's no sense in staying when you're getting pwned, there are plenty of games out there to play.

9. On the flop when you have hands with sd value when you are the PFR, like bottom pair, A high, and sometimes K high, it's often better to check and see a turn. logic is that the only thing a bet does is stop them from drawing 3 to 6 outs, which isnt nearly strong enough to warrant a bet. Hands like tpwk where you're playing a decent player is also a check some of the time on boards like K33. Reasoning again is we're only betting to stop someone from drawing to possibly 3 outs, and the rest of his range you can only get one to two streets of value with anyways.

10. Versus less than 30bb stacks, preflop has to change a lot. This isn't proven but has shown success with me. Raise strong hands with high cards in them, but limp medium cards and some weaker hands. Reasoning is 20bb deep we dont need to build a pot so raising weak holding hurts us more than helps. position is also less relevant.

11. Mix up your game. Don't always raise your draws in spots where you raise draws, don't always reraise your big hands, don't always lead out tp or better in limped pots, etc.

12. When facing a super lagtard, don't start "playing back" at him. Instead of trying to out aggress him, use counterplay. Start value betting lighter and extending your calling range. Just because someones a maniac doesn't mean you have to play every pot with him.... if you do you're playing in his game. We call them maniac because there strategy doesnt work. Just stay in your game and when you think you have the best hand call and when you think he's going to call with worse bet.

13. When facing nitty players, end your bluffs on one street. Most of the time nits will never fold when they call the flop barring no scare cards.

14. Versus a lot of players its often correct to open 60% of your hands from the BU. If a player defends his blinds heavily the number obviously is going to go down, a lot.

15. If you're looking to widen your flop raising range because of a nitty opponent, make sure its not complete air. Hands like Jd9d on a Td7c4s board is a great raising candidate. If villain calls we can hit our gut shot, turn a diamond draw or hit an overcard to possibly win.

16. If someone is calling a lot of your threebets but then folding his air on the flop, threebet a shitload.

17. It's really hard to play against players who are tight preflop. Because of this I recommend you as well play tight preflop.

18. Your preflop button play is directly dependent to how much your opponent is defending his blinds. If he's not calling/threebetting very much you raise a ton. If he's calling and threebetting a lot you don't raise a lot. Note however, that whether he's frequently threebetting or frequently calling also is a huge factor. For example, if he's calling a lot we may feel fine about raising 86s, but if he's threebetting a lot we may not.

19. K, Q, and J high flops are great to float. Note many opponents aren't playing hands like Q7-Q2, but play hands like 87 very easily (Note also that most opponents play any ace no matter what).

20. Beating huge nits is tough. I recommend you don't sit in a game with one, but if you are determined this is what you have to do. Pretty much its all about early street aggression. Raise 100% of hands from the BU is one thing. 2nd is, if opponent is calling less than 25% of your threebets, you should threebet very frequently, but not everytime so they adjust. Threebet your Ax's, as it plays well against his calling range, as well as low connectors and sc's. Really, it's all about making sure your finger doesn't stay on the trigger, because they win when you make a really big bluff against them and they call you with the two pair that they played like they really wanted to fold it.

21. Practice good game selection. If a table isn't good leave, it's that simple. If there aren't any good tables don't play, it's just not worth your time or frustration. This is easy for me since I'm a student and have so much free time, for those who don't I suggest you find a time where the games are normally good and make a habit of playing at those times. (Hint: night time in the U.S. is the worst)

22. Play up to three different opponents MAXIMUM. You're winrate should go down a ton if you do more than that, and that's coming from a guy who thinks 12 tabling 6 max is boring.

23. Mostly everyone you play will float OOP. Most people don't fold a high to a cbet. Look for times when an overcard comes on the river and opp comes out firing (obviously it doesnt make any sense unless opp is really thin vbetting or hit the overcard or has better than one pair).

24. In general, bets that were typed out are value bets. Bets that aren't are more likely draws or bluffs. Even if this isn't the case, most bad HU players vary the types of numbers they use for vbets and bluffs (I.E. 60 is a bluff but 57 is a vbet)

25. If your best reason for making a thin call is "they can't have it everytime," ..... fold.

26. Don't ever fold without making an attempt to guess your opponents hand range.

27. If you get your opponent to play his range passively, you win.

28. On the same note its better to balance your ranges using aggressive play rather than passive play.

Very nice, ty ISF. Looking forward to other HU players responding and adding their thoughts.

I've played less than 500 HU hands in my life, but I'm thinking about playing more regularly soon. I'm comfortably rolled for 3/6, where do you think I should start? 1/2? 0.50/1? I know variance is crazy and it would suck to lose a bunch of buyins at my normal stakes while I'm getting my feet wet at HU...

200nl and 100nl are really soft, tons of fish and the regs are huge fish. 400nl is soft but not unbelieveably so.
I think you'll be a winning player at 2/4 so I'd play that. A lot of the time when i play under what i can afford i have some tilt problems, if you have the same issues 400nl sounds good.

kthx. I'll probably start at 1/2... the skill jump from 1/2 to 2/4 at 6max was the biggest I've encountered, so I imagine it could be the same at HU. How many tables do you play at once? I feel like more than 2 would be tough to start...

I play 3 if they are all different opponents, I play a max of 6. It's a lot easier to play if you play the same guy across 2 or three tables. I always play 3 different opponents.

Is there etiquette involved between regulars? Like don't leave for x number of hands after you stack someone and they reload? Warn them before you're going to leave? (Or is this silly?)

Originally Posted by zook

Is there etiquette involved between regulars? Like don't leave for x number of hands after you stack someone and they reload? Warn them before you're going to leave? (Or is this silly?)

No a lot of people like to know when you're going to leave, and a lot of people will use this etiquette. I don't tend to leave when i stack someone off just so they will play me again. When the regs know who you are you don't always get action, so it's best to be nice and not too tight.

{"8. If you're having trouble against an opponent..." added to OP - Xianti}

Nice post ISF

-polarize your threebetting range. Polarize means that your range consists of very weak hands and very strong hands, and not much in between. So threebet hands such as low sc's, low pp's, and of course our big hands.

This is true against unknowns and tighties. But if you notice someone calling your 3-bets a lot or showing down an A3 or a K9, you can start 3-betting A9+ and KJ+ instead of sc's.

Is there etiquette involved between regulars?

I'm pretty sure a general rule is that if you join a table and that person won't play with you, it becomes your table. Just sit down until he leaves or starts playing.

4. HUDs are pretty worthless HU, they are probably more of a distraction than an aid.

With preflop stats, that is probably the case. Street specific postflop stats are pretty sweet though. Raise flop and c/r flop % are very helpful.

I'll probably start at 1/2...

good idea.

Nice write-up, ISF. I've added this to the new HU Digest sticky, along with SmackinYaUp's earlier "Something obvious..." post.

Ty X I will.

Interesting, I know this is a cash HU guide, but other than obviously 8, to my mind all of this applies equally well to HU tournies.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Interesting, I know this is a cash HU guide, but other than obviously 8, to my mind all of this applies equally well to HU tournies.

It probably does so hopefully it can help with that too.

BTW guys this thread isn't going to be bumped unless you have questions, because i've been adding points through edits of the first post.

I hate asking stupidly general questions like this, but do you have any thoughts on playing ace-high after the flop if you just call a raise with say A9 or AT? I mean if a guy is raising 75% of his hands and c-betting almost every flop then obviously it's horrible to just check-fold unless you hit a pair but I feel like I don't play very well in these situations.

Originally Posted by mcatdog

I hate asking stupidly general questions like this, but do you have any thoughts on playing ace-high after the flop if you just call a raise with say A9 or AT? I mean if a guy is raising 75% of his hands and c-betting almost every flop then obviously it's horrible to just check-fold unless you hit a pair but I feel like I don't play very well in these situations.

A high is a great floating hand, so if you play back i recommend float. If a guy is calling only top pair or better to a c/r Ace high is a decent hand to c/r with.

Being OOP is just a sucky situation in general.

OOP, I've found a c/c on the flop, then lead turn is a great line with something like A high in the situation you've described. Thats low stakes tournies. Your level and cash might play different v's better quality opposition.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

OOP, I've found a c/c on the flop, then lead turn is a great line with something like A high in the situation you've described. Thats low stakes tournies. Your level and cash might play different v's better quality opposition.

I've never tried that line as something i do a lot, but let me ask you... why not just c/r the flop instead? It's a more balanced line and is literally putting the same amount of money in the pot, right?

The only time I do that normally is to manipulate a donk.

Well, I'm normally manipulating a donk.

The theory is that it looks less like a bluff. Every person whos spent more than an hour playing poker knows what a c/r is, and its usually everyones favorite bluff technique. I find people are more likely to think a c/r is a bluff and 3-bet the flop, where for the same money they're more likely to think 'oh, he must actually have a hand' if I call and lead turn instead.

The other advantage is it lets you take advantage of scare cards. If a 3-flush hits the board. If an overcard comes. Stuff like that, when you lead out they might think you'd floated them but now hit your hand.

Personally I'm also more inclined to believe they have something if they call or raise my turn lead, than if they call or raise my c/r flop.



I feel confident saying that at the $5.25 and $10.50 HU tourney level this move has been my most profitable. Thats not to say its still good at higher levels, and as with everything HU its probably read specific and your timing needs to be good, but its been a great tool for me.

I see your reasoning behind it. I tend to take the logic "Lets not reinvent the wheel (lol sauce)." Players have already come up with certain lines which are the best to be balanced, we don't need to come up with new ones because they have already been deemed inefficient. I assume the reasoning is really intricate but mostly involves.
1. Not balanced
2. Doesn't build a pot well enough

Am I saying it may not be a great move at low stakes sng's? No, it very well could be, but its not something I'm going to teach people at games that are higher.

Can you explain why a c/r is more balanced?

For that matter can you explain what you mean by balanced?

And yes, I'm in the land where a lot of opps have the 'everyones bluffing' mindset, so it does pay to look less like you're bluffing when you are doing so. Thats an adjustment I'll probably need to make as I move up, but for now I think its an edge I can exploit.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Can you explain why a c/r is more balanced?

For that matter can you explain what you mean by balanced?

And yes, I'm in the land where a lot of opps have the 'everyones bluffing' mindset, so it does pay to look less like you're bluffing when you are doing so. Thats an adjustment I'll probably need to make as I move up, but for now I think its an edge I can exploit.

A flop c/r is a move that fits a lot of hands. We can do it with a wide range of draws and air, and we can do it, and do it a ton with our really strong hands like sets and two pair. We want more action on our sets and two pairs naturally so we play weak hands like them so they do get that action. If we simply c/r with strong hands a good player would fold to it unless they were winning.

Playing strong and weak hands with the same line is referred to as balance. Balance is very hard to play against because you often have to just guess and weigh a plethora of hands he could have to decide whether to call/raise/fold.

IMO 99% of my bluff catching calls are because someone is using an unbalanced line.

Is it possible to balance in such a way that our opponent is making a -EV move whether he calls or whether he folds?

Mathematically yes, read Slanksy's game theory sections of ToP.

Thanks ISF, I get what you mean now.

I tend not to use c/r very much, probably a holdover from my STT game, so the line I take really does balance my game, however that doesnt mean that changing to using c/r more for a range of hands wouldnt perhaps be better. Something to experiment with I guess.

Originally Posted by Ash256

Is it possible to balance in such a way that our opponent is making a -EV move whether he calls or whether he folds?

The answer is yes, whether or not you want this to happen in general is something i cant comprehend myself. It's always been a mind fuck for me.

Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan

21. (Hint: night time in the U.S. is the worst)

Are you saying night time is the best or worst time to play?

I've playe at night lately (10PM EST) and it seems to be a bunch of regs who all know each other, and now they know me, and just politely ask me to leave once I sit (that means Im teh good, right?)

night time in the U.S. is filled with regs, it is the most unprofitable time to play poker as of now. A year ago, it was by far the best.

Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan

night time in the U.S. is filled with regs, it is the most unprofitable time to play poker as of now. A year ago, it was by far the best.

Same for eurosites.. 5pm-10pm GMT is by far the sexiest time to play.

Originally Posted by Ash256

Is it possible to balance in such a way that our opponent is making a -EV move whether he calls or whether he folds?

Very good question, in game theory what you are talking about is "the indifference method". You make your strategy unexploitable by making a rational opponent indifferent to calling or folding. An example would be making a pot sized bet on the river with a nut hand but for every 2 nut hands you throw in one stone cold bluff. Since the probability that you are bluffing is 1/3 calling and folding give him the same EV, making him "indifferent" to calling or folding. Either way he loses whatever money he has already invested in the pot in the long run.

An interesting thing about that is that although he has the same EV either way( and lower variance when he folds ) his proper counter-strategy is to call you half of the time. This makes you indifferent to bluffing when you have nothing. If he calls all the time obviously you don't bluff, but if he folds more than 1/2 the time you should bluff more.

This is overly simplified I know and poker has several betting rounds with more options than calling or folding for your opponents( this is why calling stations lose ). Google poker and game theory if this kind of stuff interests you and you might be surprised at which bracelet winner(and his father) has done extensive research in this field.

btw: Great post ISF

Good post ISF. I've played a few hands of HU recently and I agree with pretty much all of this.

Great post ISF, it has helped my heads up game immensely.
In general when villain is 3 betting light what do you think is a good range to call his 3 bets with? Is it the same as a light 3 betting range like premium hands and low pp's and sc's. Or in this situation should we be 4 betting lighter and if so what hands should we be adding to qq+ and AK? If you could talk about being 3 bet light a bit that would be helpful.

Thanks.

This post is great.

What is an adequate BB raising range versus loose passives who limp-call to much? Should your raising range be leaned towards your 3betting range or more to your button range?

in cash games u need to always raise

I have just started getting into HU games at 50nl and I have a question. I haven't really encountered this yet because most everyone at 50nl sucks but I think its relevant to the bigger picture.

Villain is a good aggro opponent.
he raises 4bb
we call on the button with Ad2d

flop is A78 or something like that.

Whats our plan? If we check-call a couple streets I feel our hand is face up. If we check/raise the flop to take the intiative we have a bloated pot with a hand thats not that good. At the same time villain will not give us much credit for a strong ace because we would have 3 bet pf.

You have to give me better reads than that. Your reads HU should be very exact. How much does he raise on the button? If you don't have HUD, estimate. More info is great too .

Every hand in poker just comes down to opps tendencies. Clearly, we don't have a hand we want to play for stacks given non-insane history. So c/c and lead both seem decent. I likely go for c/c, unless opp plays super exploitable to a lead. After that your just playing a guessing game, i'd peel some turns, fold others. On the turns i peel im likely just c/f river unless this guy triple barrels ace high boards like a mofo and thin value bets horribly.

Originally Posted by IowaSkinsFan

You have to give me better reads than that. Your reads HU should be very exact. How much does he raise on the button? If you don't have HUD, estimate. More info is great too .

Every hand in poker just comes down to opps tendencies. Clearly, we don't have a hand we want to play for stacks given non-insane history. So c/c and lead both seem decent. I likely go for c/c, unless opp plays super exploitable to a lead. After that your just playing a guessing game, i'd peel some turns, fold others. On the turns i peel im likely just c/f river unless this guy triple barrels ace high boards like a mofo and thin value bets horribly.

yea i have never been in this actual situation yet, just a general thought i had when thinking about hands can play out.

Ive been playing like 35/34.. pretty much never calling oop because I find it hard to play oop. Im trying to open up my claling range a little but I find that it always feels really awkward oop.

Originally Posted by boost

Ive been playing like 35/34.. pretty much never calling oop because I find it hard to play oop. Im trying to open up my claling range a little but I find that it always feels really awkward oop.

This is perfectly fine, but if someone is raising like 80-100% on the BU your letting them punish you if your not threebetting or calling a little more than usual. But hell, you can always just game select passive fish!

I like your post, I dont play much headsup so this are good advices for me

Marshall sucks imo.

Originally Posted by bjsaust

Well, I'm normally manipulating a donk.

The theory is that it looks less like a bluff. Every person whos spent more than an hour playing poker knows what a c/r is, and its usually everyones favorite bluff technique. I find people are more likely to think a c/r is a bluff and 3-bet the flop, where for the same money they're more likely to think 'oh, he must actually have a hand' if I call and lead turn instead.

The other advantage is it lets you take advantage of scare cards. If a 3-flush hits the board. If an overcard comes. Stuff like that, when you lead out they might think you'd floated them but now hit your hand.

Personally I'm also more inclined to believe they have something if they call or raise my turn lead, than if they call or raise my c/r flop.



I feel confident saying that at the $5.25 and $10.50 HU tourney level this move has been my most profitable. Thats not to say its still good at higher levels, and as with everything HU its probably read specific and your timing needs to be good, but its been a great tool for me.

I use this line vs fishy min raises on dry boards in 6max and I can say its worked wonders so far. Say you raise a limper on the button with J10s and the flop comes 622 rainbow. You cbet and the 50/0/1 villan instantly min raises you, in my experience the results are A: fish is almost always weak B: if you push he will think this A high is good and call. If you just call tho and bet the turn if checked to it costs you the same price and is stronger in their eyes. Hell just last night I stacked someone on a 10 x x board with top set and he called with K Q o!! For whatever reason they always think your bluffing just because they never have a hand in these spots.

Another common loose passive hu line is if you lead the turn oop in a limped pot they will call with any 2 and fold to a river bet 90% of the time.

This is worth reading at the end of each month imo. quality.

''28 - On the same note its better to balance your ranges using aggressive play rather than passive play''

I think Ive an example of this.

Opp calls c/b's a ton, turn gos check check and he fires a ton of rivers. Also opp folds a ton to turn barrels making barrels with good hands a bad play until he adjusts.

So with our good hands that should check back turns IP, we should instead of just calling off his river bet instead we should raise it up for value. Obv we are trying to get loose calls from opp since opp think ''we are prob bluffing since we always bet turns with hands''

This has other benefits, we may no longer need to turn barrel some showdown holdings like A & K high or bottom pairs on turn since we cud get to showdown if opp adjusts.

Of course we are playing a totally unbalanced range by doing this but until opp adjusts its sweet. if he does adjust by say not betting rivers then we get more showdowns, if he starts calling river raises less then mix in bluffs, if he c/r's turns now then dont check back big hands.

I just skimmed it but thats exactly how u balance ur range versus that opponent. very nice

I have mainly played heads up SnG's but am considering trying out HU cashgames.

Two questions:

1. What is a decent winrate for a HU CG (in bb/100)?

2. Will not the rake be vastly higher in hu cashgames vs hu SnG's? In a SnG, one pays 5% rake per game (each game consists on average of 40 hands). In a cashgame, one pays 5% per pot. That would mean that even if you bust your opponent of a buy in, most of that could very well be lost due to rake. I know people who claim that it is almost impossible to win at lowlimit HU cashgames due to the rake. Any truth to this?

Originally Posted by Dai

I have mainly played heads up SnG's but am considering trying out HU cashgames.

Two questions:

1. What is a decent winrate for a HU CG (in bb/100)?

2. Will not the rake be vastly higher in hu cashgames vs hu SnG's? In a SnG, one pays 5% rake per game (each game consists on average of 40 hands). In a cashgame, one pays 5% per pot. That would mean that even if you bust your opponent of a buy in, most of that could very well be lost due to rake. I know people who claim that it is almost impossible to win at lowlimit HU cashgames due to the rake. Any truth to this?

1. 5 or 6ptBB/100 is not very hard at lower stakes if you game select hard core.

2. Pretty much yeah, the rake at 100nl or less HU cash is brutal. However, the play is so bad and the games are so easy that its beatable. I wouldn't start HU until i was playing 200nl 6 max or higher though.