Heads Up Strategy?

[Papa Georgeo]

Recently when Ive been playing in heads up games I have been using the loose aggressive style shown best by Ripptyde's posts. Against the average player this has been working very well accept when it comes to two sitautions.

1) When im playing a player I play often he usually grabs a hold of my strategy and starts to reraise me or just call me on almost everything. I need to start to change gears however if i conitnue to fold 5 times in a row (wait for a good hand) and get back onto my regular startegy it will probably be in effective as hell just fold. Most of the time it turns into complete luck as we just keep reraising each other with mediocore hands as we both know the other one has nothing.

2) Is when I play against a calling station. I oftenplay against players that will check and call almost everything but usually wont raise anything unless its very strong. This sometimes turns into a game that results in luck as ill continue to bet trying to get him to fold but will just go all the way to the end and the player with the low pair or high card wins. Again though with this player I cannot just wait for the good hands or theyll fold as soon as i bet.

Which type of strategy should I use against these types of players in order to dominate the game?

Thanks for any replies (looking especially to Ripptyde for some tips).

[michael1123]

I dominate against the calling stations.

The key for me is that I only preflop raise on my pretty good hands (anything callable in a normal game - but I bet the same with AA as I do with JT), usually only when I have the button, and I preflop raise about 5x BB . Since I do this very often (but still fold about 50% of the time), the calling stations never pick up on this, and usually call every bet I make preflop. Then at the flop I fire out the same bet, no matter what I hit. Here players often fold if they don't have anything. By the turn, if I have nothing (no pair, no draw), I slow down, and since I'm usually on the button, I can now check to get a free card. The calling stations barely ever bet more than the minimum, so I either get a cheap call, or I really know they have something if they bet big. If I know they won't fold, I won't bluff at the river.

The key is, my big hands are very disguised, and I can hammer them on each betting turn to take a big lead. I just fold the crap hands, or check on the BB when they call and I have nothing. I lose very little on these hands, and make a lot when I have something.

The only player type I really have problems with heads up are the maniacs. I've played against some players that'll preflop re-raise all in half the time I preflop raise (but not often enough to trap when I have a killer hand), and I'm not sure how to handle that, besides just take a wild chance.

[Fnord]

The key for me is that I only preflop raise on my pretty good hands (anything callable in a normal game - but I bet the same with AA as I do with JT), usually only when I have the button, and I preflop raise about 5x BB .

5x the BB? At that price it's almost correct to wait to re-raise or call/check-raise with a strong hand. I find there is a careful balance in these games between pushing pre-flop and having good enough hands to punish them post-flop.

[michael1123]

Yes. Amazingly I run into players that'll call that bet with ANYTHING.

At least I do that early on. I bet 50 when the BB is 10. I only go up to 60 or 70 at 20, etc. Once the blinds are bigger, it obviously doesn't make sense to bet that much.

This is partly for my disdain of small blinds though. What's the point of limping in and then bluffing at the amazing pot of 20 chips? I get them use to my 50 chip preflop bet early, so I can punish it with them 4 times (preflop, flop, turn, and river) when I do have a hand. And I'll push it up to 100 at times, both on bluffs when I think they'll fold, and on real hands when there's draws out there.

[Toasty]

2) Is when I play against a calling station. I oftenplay against players that will check and call almost everything but usually wont raise anything unless its very strong. This sometimes turns into a game that results in luck as ill continue to bet trying to get him to fold but will just go all the way to the end and the player with the low pair or high card wins.

Why try to bluff a calling station? why do you think they are called calling stations ?

Just bet your good hands that little bit bigger and min bet / check your missed hands.