Value of Position?

How much value do you think you gain from position in HU play?

I've long tailored my HU play toward trying to exploit my opponent's tendencies, using a mixture of trickiness/trappiness/aggression to mitigate position.

I had a discussion recently that was rather eye-opening. Another player, whose HU game I respect very much, told me that he made a majority of his profits just by forcing his opponents to play OOP. He played primarily for value when he was OOP, and then applied an incredible amount of pressure when in position.

Which of the two lines do you lean toward: mitigating position through exploitation and aggression, or (ab)using it to the point that you have a significant advantage in the majority of the hands you play?

I use the latter.

Your friend is 100% right.

Unless you're playing a super aggressive player its often correct to raise nearly 100% of hands on the BU.

Thanks, that's awesome I've never thought of HU that way. Obv you've either got the absolute best position on the table or the absolute worst. But realizing positional advantage is heightened by having fewer opponents at the table is pretty important. The problem is that whenever I play heads up it is not deep stacked due to tourneys or sngs, so this kind of strat to always raise in position with the assumption that you are going to have advantage post flop is not as relevant, since you really aren't playing post flop poker. But for cash or heads up sngs this makes excellent sense.

i play btw 100-65% of hands in position

i play prob 15-25% OOP

i mostly have the initiative