Joined: Jan '10
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 65
ok I know this is a lot to ask and a lot depens on guy you are playing but...... 1. when on the button what range of hands should you be raisesing with and can you just limp in and with what 2. if you are playing some one who is rasising more hands what should be your calling range 3 If i'm going to 3 bet should a should I do it with. At the moment I limp or min raises with omost 100% of hands on the button and call most raises from the big blind.
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
Well im just getting in to HU, its my weak spot, but here is what I think.
1. Pre flop HU never call the small blind, HU its always raise or fold, you should raise about 70% of your hands in the small blind. 2. Just dont let yourself get run over. SCs over 45 are good, K8+ all PP etc. 3. 3- bet Jacks or better, push AK to a 3 bet, can do it with worse if players quite loose.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
I think it depends mostly on your stack size compared to blinds and compared to your opponent. I think this should determine how much you raise and how often. More important even than the reputation of your opponent and more important than the cards.
Most people will change their style of play heads up so forget everything you already know about them. And preflop the cards hardly matter if you need the blinds enough. I will re-raise anything if I haven't raised for a while and my opponent is bullying me.
If you are seriously big stack the temptation is to bully your op but you don't need to. If they need to double up four times to get back in it you can afford to wait. Raise with ak or aq but not any since they will only call with better. Instead raise or call with any two live cards.
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
HU the handsstrength is much lower. One has no time to wait for big hands. Position is very important, so try to play most of the hand when you have the button.
virtuajulian, it is really difficult to advise anything range wise in HU. You probably know that Q7o is a median hand in HU and is better than any random pocket hand. In HU the range with which opponents raises, 3-bets or calls changes greatly as your stacks fluctuate. I would say that HU strategy is less math-dependent than full-ring or 6-max strategy. I mean, forget about ranges... If your opponent figures out that you can be bullied, he will raise you every hand with ATC. The key to success in HU is to figure out your opponent's psychology and degree of aggression.
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 696
stack and blinds decide the playin and the style from the other players and your image.When your stack is good u can call more, in the most times when you hit the flop ur in front equal what for card you have.Heads ups is coin flip situations AQ vs 64 is 60-40% +/-.When the blinds are high and you have a good stack fold is not a mistake.In the most times the agressive player wins but not play to agressive.I think a good player raise not every SB or bet on every flop is to dangerous.Sometimes raise,sometimes check,sometimes fold When a players raises too much or every hand he lost many times.So when a player make this u can wait and fold a few hands when u have a good stack, against a raising player i like to play suited connectors
Joined: Aug '09
Location: Spain
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 574
Posted by virtuajulian: ok I know this is a lot to ask and a lot depens on guy you are playing but...... 1. when on the button what range of hands should you be raisesing with and can you just limp in and with what 2. if you are playing some one who is rasising more hands what should be your calling range 3 If i'm going to 3 bet should a should I do it with. At the moment I limp or min raises with omost 100% of hands on the button and call most raises from the big blind.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: Belgium
Age: 64 (M)
Posts: 751
i like to play HU but it's not that easy , most of the time i don't raise but just check - call with medium hand and higher and just if i have a pair or hit i reraise or even go all in .
Joined: Mar '10
Location: Romania
Age: 64 (F)
Posts: 55
When playing a heads up match it is important to vary how you bet pre flop. If you throw the same bet every time you have a decent hand, your opponent will quickly catch on and know when you've got something. The same goes for your opponent as well. I know your thinking that no one can be dumb enough to make the exact same bet every time they have a good hand, but it happens more often than not especially when the game becomes fast paced.
Posted by giginicola: When playing a heads up match it is important to vary how you bet pre flop. If you throw the same bet every time you have a decent hand, your opponent will quickly catch on and know when you've got something. The same goes for your opponent as well. I know your thinking that no one can be dumb enough to make the exact same bet every time they have a good hand, but it happens more often than not especially when the game becomes fast paced.
Most of the pros will disagree with you on this subject. Fixed bet amounts (3BB, half-pot, 3/4 pot) mask your hand. When you bet same amounts your opponent never knows what you are holding. If the size of your bet depends on the quality of your hand, your opponent will figure that out pretty soon. If the size of your bets varies in a chaotic way, it will certainly give your opponent a headace. But you will loose money if you overbet weak hands and will earn less if you mini-bet strong hands. I tend to agree with pros. Make standard bets and raises but with different hands.
Joined: Nov '09
Location: Poland
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1189
Posted by duck_1991: you just have to find your own game and figure what's working at your limits and opponents you head into
Did you win anything with it? I tried to play some Hu sit and go (i think they are quite nice to try some new things) but got so many times weird suckouts ;p. Need to get used to it Heads up is variance is really high...
B1gfoot - Sorry ment to say "And try NOT to raise everyhand you get preflop the same."
