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Server Time: 11/22/2008 12:10:19 AM PACIFIC |
 Heads up, NL Holdem, pt_Gatsby, 14. Jul 2003 22:18 | ||
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| Hey all, I have been playing a bit on UB sit'n'gos just to get used to the interface for the UB tourny (which I like less than pokerstars, but is still quite good). Anyway, I played my first last night and managed to bully and luck out to get to the last two. I entered as chip leader (roughly 3:2 ratio), but a series of bad cards ate away at me. Quite literally, I lost 8-9 pots where we both had cards that didn't even pair up - and I lost every one as a high card! That aside, I am not a very good heads up player. I can't seem to get a feel for the rankings of the cards. I notice that the smaller the table gets the more mistakes I seem to make (a trend, nothing specific... I just seem to start dying off time in and time out). I reviewed my stats and I tend to play most hands, helped by my opponent who was quite passive. Is this a mistake, generally? What hands are suitable to play? The final hand came down to about even chips, I called with a 10sQs. We checked around all the way to end, and the table looked like this: 5d,8c,JS,KS,7S. This gave the ace-flush the nuts. He bet about pot size (roughly 1/3 of our chips) and I pused all in. My logic went that the odds of him having the As was 1/45. Despite his show of strength, I figured it was possible he caught the flush at the end, but it wasn't going to beat mine... or he had paired up and was slow playing (which he did a lot because I nailed him 2-3 times on check raising, so he was hesitating bullying me). Was that the right move? Should I of called/not gone all in? Or even folded? He had the ace and that was that. My problem wasn't the last hand... and not even reading my opponent. I just couldn't calculate my odds properly. Even a book mentioning would be appreciated! Amazingly, for the table, I got dealt AA three times! I also got dealt 8 connected pairs in the heads up match (in 11 hands!), all 8 and under, and not one single one even paired, never mind a straight or flush. But anyway, that's my detilting rant. | ||
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| Re: Heads up, NL Holdem, MozMan, 14. Jul 2003 22:36 | ||
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| Hey Gatsby- I'm no expert when it comes to NL or heads-up, but here's a couple of things I do know: 1- You have to change strategy considerably, including starting hands. Don't play drawing hands; they play better in multi-way pots. Pocket pairs and big cards become much stronger heads-up. 2- No limping. You should be playing a raise-or-fold game. As a result, there should not be a whole lot of flops happening. 3- When you do raise, make sure your raises are big enough that your opponent does not have proper odds to draw. Pot-sized bet work really well for this. Another good rule of thumb is 3xBB. 4- Don't let your opponent put you all-in. If you go all-in, make it your decision. If you choose to go all-in, it should almost always be pre-flop. Sklansky has some good writing on heads-up play in either "Sklansky on Poker" or "Hold'em Poker For Advanced Players" (I forget which offhand... might even be both). Anyhoo, I hope this helps. -Moz "The reports of my assimilation are greatly exaggerated." | ||
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| Re: Heads up, NL Holdem, Schuster, 14. Jul 2003 22:48 | ||
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| > If you choose to go all-in, it should almost always be pre-flop. I'm not expert, but I disagree with this if you're playing against an opponent that is worse than you. I watched a buddy of mine in a tournament last weekend move all in with AQ after the button had raised. The button called with QJ and I thought that would be that, but he caught a jack on the flop. At first I thought, it's just a bad beat, what can you do about it, but then I thought, what if he had just reraised less or called and played the flop. Would he be better than 68% (the percentage of the AQ beating the QJ) to win? I think he might have been. Obviously calling an all in bet (which was a significant overbet of the pot, too...) with a QJ is not good poker, but this guy didn't know any better, and he got lucky because of it and ended up winning the thing. Sklansky says you should avoid taking gambles where you have slightly the best of it for a large portion of your chips. Granted, he was a little better 2 to 1 to win, but is that a large enough margin to risk everything? I guess it depends on how bad your opponent is! Perhaps the NL experts can chime in and tell me if I'm way off, NL tournaments are probably one of the weakest parts of my game. Lee | ||
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| Re: Heads up, NL Holdem, Jav, 15. Jul 2003 10:19 | ||
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| I agree. If you feel you are evenly matched or overmatched, then definately take advantage of holdings that you think might be slight favorites (A-K, any Pair, etc). But if you really feel you are the better player, in a heads up situation (at least when the blinds are still small), I would rather wait and give myself the opportunity to outplay my opponent. I would rather build a bigger stack and put him at a big disadvantage, than ever put the game on the line with a coin-flip all-in play. | ||
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| Re: Heads up, NL Holdem, pt_Gatsby, 15. Jul 2003 12:16 | ||
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| Thanks Moz! I have started to read up on theory and am number crunching - currently generating winning hand statistics. I think I'll post them after I'm done... hopefully it will get some more people talking about it! > 1- You have to change strategy considerably, including starting hands. Don't play > drawing hands; they play better in multi-way pots. Pocket pairs and big cards become > much stronger heads-up. I have noticed how true this is now. I knew I could play 'worse' hands because they were even more likely to have bad hands. However, I started playing hands that I had no business playing - and the odds show it. Since I thought that A6 wasn't bad, it really only has a slight advantage. (Roughly 57% win rate). It never even occurred to me that A5 is a better hand!! This means that I was not putting enough pressure on the opponent with the good hands... and playing weak hands like they were strong. Playing both of them out was a huge mistake and probably cost me multiple bets. > 2- No limping. You should be playing a raise-or-fold game. As a result, there should > not be a whole lot of flops happening. I don't know about this... But obviously I am doing something wrong... I'll have to go over my strategy again. > 3- When you do raise, make sure your raises are big enough that your opponent does > not have proper odds to draw. Pot-sized bet work really well for this. Another good > rule of thumb is 3xBB. Definitely make calling unattractive. It is very hard to generate pot odds in your favor here since there is no 'amount' that will keep a certain amount of people in (or out). In hands like AA, you want as much money as possible - normally you want to drive people out in a 9handed game, but with 1v1, you have a 85% chance of winning if you both play it out to the end every time. That makes you want to drive the pot up. Its a far cry from the 30-40% the power hands in 9people tables have... That's the challenge. What is normally the strategy isn't the same for small tables (or heads up, especially). > 4- Don't let your opponent put you all-in. If you go all-in, make it your decision. > If you choose to go all-in, it should almost always be pre-flop. Or when you have the nuts, of course :) > Sklansky has some good writing on heads-up play in either "Sklansky on Poker" or > "Hold'em Poker For Advanced Players" (I forget which offhand... might even be > both). I'll have to read it then. This has become a major stepping stone... I seem to be playing quite well up until the table is at 4-5 people, then I start heading downhill. My opponents may be getting better as the weaker ones drop out, but I have a hankering that it has to do with my skill decreasing substantially. Or, as Sun Tsu said... Know yourself and your enemy, and you need not fear 100 battles. Or something like that. | ||
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