HU SnG advice required. Villain is going to be exceptional...

[The Norg]

I am going to play an on line HU match against Jake Cody, best of 3.

Lol - It will be fun right?

Any suggestions for a winning strategy against someone of this caliber? Could shove lots I guess and hope he calls with worse, but it seems a little weak....

I have little HU match experience, and I think I'm going to need some dark magic of a strategy here to not get whitewashed. Still, there is always shove and pray.

[baudib]

I've never played anyone of this caliber but this is what I would do:

You'll want to play a strong range in position so I'd give up the worst hands on the button. He'll probably start out by giving your 3-bets more credit so 3-bet early with Ax/Kx hands and suited trash and strong hands. I'd flat with some big broadway cards that make good top pairs and suited connectors that flop good equity. Try to get it in on the flop when you have ~35% or so equity.

I noticed he likes to limp some pretty good hands from the BTN on occasion so watch out for that.

good luck, should be a good experience! report back.

[Numbr2intheWorld]

Don't get too tricky. Play TAGG and don't assume he'll play well or knows what you're going to do. Try to bluff in spots you know you'll have better. Just play your best and see what happens!

[The Norg]

Looks like I have two weeks to practice for this, so please all feel free to suggest further strategies, and also point me in the direction of good HU strat articles.

I've never played anyone of this caliber but this is what I would do:

You'll want to play a strong range in position so I'd give up the worst hands on the button. He'll probably start out by giving your 3-bets more credit so 3-bet early with Ax/Kx hands and suited trash and strong hands. I'd flat with some big broadway cards that make good top pairs and suited connectors that flop good equity. Try to get it in on the flop when you have ~35% or so equity.

I noticed he likes to limp some pretty good hands from the BTN on occasion so watch out for that.

good luck, should be a good experience! report back.

I think I will try some of this style in some random HU games I will play, and we'll see if I can get the hang of that.

Don't get too tricky. Play TAGG and don't assume he'll play well or knows what you're going to do. Try to bluff in spots you know you'll have better. Just play your best and see what happens!

Yeah, I think if I try to get tricky I'm on a hiding to nothing. He also will not have any idea how I would play. TAGG is fine I guess until he starts putting pressure on everything I do post flop. Then how do I deal with that? Start shipping it over the top?

[daven]

how much is on the line here?
why not play a few of these at super low stakes to get a feel for things, then do some study, then play a few more

[The Norg]

how much is on the line here?
why not play a few of these at super low stakes to get a feel for things, then do some study, then play a few more

I've been playing quite a few of the $1-$10 range tables. The standard is terrible at those stakes, which is fine if I want to win some money, not so much if I want to learn from it and practice.

The match itself is a one off because he offered it up to whoever came up with an idea for him to use for a strat article for the website, and he decided to go with mine. I've chosen $50 tables, because I fugure that at least he'll have some incentive not to lose, quite appart from the fact that it would be bad for his cred to lose to someone like me

So no money presure, just presure to not look a complete numpty.

[The Norg]

Going ahead tomorrow night (Wed 7th).

I shall report back after.

Anyone who can offer up any further gems of wisdom please?

[Sykedupp]

Run well?

[sah_24]

Play tight early let blinds go up and play big pots !

[kickass]

how dit go? you hold your own?

[The Norg]

Sorry, I had planned to try to put together a bit of an analysis thing here, but I haven't had the time. Poker and non poker stuff alike has taken up too much of my time lately.

The match went ahead whilst we also sat next to each other on a six seater MTT, which was a little odd. He was also playing a few other things, so his focus wasn't perhaps what it would could have been early doors.

The first game was a drawn out tussle. Nothing too adventurous, where we ended up with him marginally up and then finally all the money went in pre 88 v A6. Unfortunately A6 > 88 on that occasion.

I can't remember exactly how I lost the second game, but I think I was slightly tilted at my bad fortune in the first, and I think he was paying more attention now (I'd stacked him in the MTT already ). Either way, it was a pretty poor show on my part iirc, and I lost it convincingly.

We then played the final game, and having calmed down a little I made a good read for an AI call and came up trumps giving me > 3/1 chip lead. He probably overplayed it, but then he had already won the match I guess. He then tried to bully me off a flopped straight which could only have one result of course, and it ended up 2-1.

So, I lost 2-1, which of course flatters me more than him To be fair, most of my HU experience is at the end of MTT's where the stacks are generally already pretty much at push fold stage or close, so you can put a lot more pressure on villain than you can at the beginning of these matches. I'm starting to see how you can play tight HU (I was struggeling with that concept a little tbh). Once you get down below 20BB stacks it becomes more like the game I know, though we only ever took the 1st game that far.

Nice guy though from chatting, and nice of him to let me win that last game So thanks for the lesson Jake, hopefully I can put it all to good use.

Since I had written off the amount for the 3 buy ins in my head, I donated the $100 for the final game to charity


Edit:

Play tight early let blinds go up and play big pots !

In retrospect, this is probably the best idea given the gap in experience and skill. Too easy to spunk your stack all over the place getting outplayed otherwise.

[Numbr2intheWorld]

Sounds like you did a good job. Congrats