Heads up with HUGE blinds, do you push?

IAccumulator $ 6,220.00
jakewhite $ 3,780.00

IAccumulator Set dealer/Bring in spot 2
IAccumulator Ante/Small blind $ 400.00
jakewhite Big blind/Bring in $ 800.00

IAccumulator Card dealt to a spot

IAccumulator All-in $ 5,820.00

Good?
Bad? Why?

Bad, you stll have lots of time I think. 54 isnt something i want to push anytime. JMHO

terrible. you're heads up, when you're heads up the worst hand is no longer 72o its 23o, which this is pretty close to. you're first to act, you have the chip lead, you have absolutely no information on his hand, all you are doing is going all in to steal blinds that you dont need assuming he doesnt have a half decent hand. you should definitely fold here.

You have the lead heads up, there is no reason to take a chance like this. Just play good poker, and beat him post-flop, he is the one that has to get super aggressive, just wait till you have good cards and take him down.

Heads up w/ decent sized blinds, I will usually raise 2x the bb a couple times to see if he'll fold. If he does I'll do it with just about every hand I get no matter what I have, if he doesn't I'll tend to limp more often, even with monsters, of course at the same time, raising when you have marginal hands and monsters too...I guess I did a horrible job explaining my heads up strat...



Back to the question, bad push, like the aggression, but all he needs to do is pick up a hand one time doing that and hes got a sizeable chiplead over you.

Do not push this. Either call or fold. I like to complete a few blinds, cause some people will get in the habit of going all in when you call a BB, and this is very useful information to have when you get a monster. Actually I'll call this 90% of the time, I won't call only if I'm sure he'll raise and don't need the information.

, just wait till you have good cards and take him down

With blinds this big, you might not have time to get a half way decent hand. When blinds are so huge and short stack has nothing to lose, you might want to choose anything with in reason and call. 9J,109,Q8 etc.

With this particular hand it is a clear fold but you might need to get agressive without the cards. Some times these games turn into a total push fest, you gotta just hope you come out on top. Just my 2 cents.

describe your image and his image.

is he calling station?

are you aggro maniac?

images decide this move.

Originally Posted by Aüervelk

Do not push this. Either call or fold. I like to complete a few blinds, cause some people will get in the habit of going all in when you call a BB, and this is very useful information to have when you get a monster. Actually I'll call this 90% of the time, I won't call only if I'm sure he'll raise and don't need the information.

calling is terrible. blinds are huge, its push or fold.

im an aggro maniac, and with that realized, its probably not that good of push. Iv been running him over the entire time. So at this point hes probably loosening up his calling requirements.

Originally Posted by gabe

Originally Posted by Aüervelk

Do not push this. Either call or fold. I like to complete a few blinds, cause some people will get in the habit of going all in when you call a BB, and this is very useful information to have when you get a monster. Actually I'll call this 90% of the time, I won't call only if I'm sure he'll raise and don't need the information.

calling is terrible. blinds are huge, its push or fold.

I disagree. Calling is terrible in general with 5 people or less in tourneys, but heads up it becomes a valuable weapon. I feel like I outplay most people on the flop, so I want to see as many flops as possible. There's no one easier to play heads up than those push/fold guys.

when the blinds are so big, the push/fold guys are at their best.

its all math when the blinds are big in relation to the stacks. I dont kno how much ur reads will make a difference. If you played a guy who was perfect at push fold, Id put money on Him to be making hte most money in the long run.

Originally Posted by vqchuang

its all math when the blinds are big in relation to the stacks. I dont kno how much ur reads will make a difference. If you played a guy who was perfect at push fold, Id put money on Him to be making hte most money in the long run.

isnt that kind of stating the obvious? you're saying the perfect player will make the most money in the long run, i think we all know that. no one can be perfect at push/fold, thats why you increase your winning percentage by doing it with marginal hands or better, which your hand comes nowhere near. this will probably be the worst headsup hand you will get in the entire heads up game. this is an OBVIOUS fold here, let him have your 400 when you have an atrocious hand, it wont make much difference.

no im saying that the perfect push fold player will beat the perfect post flop player in this type of play.

You've got a very good point...Been playing too many HU challenges recently. But dont push the 54...raise 2x his blind, and hope he folds, if he calls then you still got plenty of outs. Calling is not horrible w/ monsters...People do tend to go over the top because they sense weakness. If you find that out early, you can really use that to your advantage.

As far as pushing your whole stack as the chipleader i'd say Ax Kx Qx looks pretty good...when you get down to J's not so much. I like to be a favorite when im the chip leader...unless its something like 8.5-1.5 or 9-1.

Originally Posted by Symbolic

You've got a very good point...Been playing too many HU challenges recently. But dont push the 54...raise 2x his blind, and hope he folds, if he calls then you still got plenty of outs. Calling is not horrible w/ monsters...People do tend to go over the top because they sense weakness. If you find that out early, you can really use that to your advantage.

As far as pushing your whole stack as the chipleader i'd say Ax Kx Qx looks pretty good...when you get down to J's not so much. I like to be a favorite when im the chip leader...unless its something like 8.5-1.5 or 9-1.

Yes I made bad play =(. Stop rubbing it in .

I just really really like hte connectors. They have been treating me good. I like pushing more with suited connectors then I do with aces. Why? If A2 gets called, Im probably dominated by an AT. If my 89s gets called, I have 2 live cards.

If he's real tight and has shown that he's rather likely to fold in this spot without a big hand, its a good push. Against that type of player with the chip lead and his BB, its a good push with basically anything, since he's most likely going to fold 1/5th of his stack to you, you can't refuse those odds.

Obviously if he's shown that he's willing to gamble, its a horrible push. Its all the dependant on the player.

I just really really like hte connectors. They have been treating me good. I like pushing more with suited connectors then I do with aces. Why? If A2 gets called, Im probably dominated by an AT. If my 89s gets called, I have 2 live cards.

Not if they have TT. Heads up with big blinds, you should much rather see A2 than 98s.

This whole "not dominated when pushing" thing is interesting though. When players first start out playing they don't get this at all, and think A2 is a good shoving hand when short stacked, and 65s is horrible. Then they reach another level of thinking and start doing the rag shoves at times, and hating the weak aces.

Now I still think there are definitely times for moves like that, but there's a level of thinking after that that puts a different spin on it (recently ran across Daniel Negreanu talking about this). There's different levels of domination, and one nice thing about A-rag in a desperation shove situation is that it even while dominated, it has a better chance of winning than you'd think (unlike the low rags that can be up against a higher pocket pair). A2 against any hand that dominates it (be it a bigger ace or a pocket pair), other than AA , still typically has about a 30% chance of winning, while rags against an overpair puts you dire straights (20%).

Not really all that useful of stuff, but somewhat interesting.

It's a push or fold situation, and I'm going with fold here.

You have plenty of chips... considering, and you can pick a better spot to finish the guy off than with 54o. Just wait until you see an opening, and push it harder than you have ever pushed before.

i guess these days when im pushing, im looking for cards that can do the following for me.

1) be live
2) be suited and there have flush possibilities
3) be connected with zero one or two gaps thereby giving me straight possibilities
4) have both cards be above their lowest card
i.e. 89 vs A4

now when i push i realize that the general player will start calling my "maniacal" all ins with Arag, Therefore QJs is the perfect pushing hand. It wont be dominated has staright and flush possibilites. And if i catch a Q or a J and they cathc their rag, then I still win. I will run the numbers on it later, but there has to be like a "prime" range of pushing hands against the Ax Kx caller.

Originally Posted by Symbolic

You've got a very good point...Been playing too many HU challenges recently. But dont push the 54...raise 2x his blind, and hope he folds, if he calls then you still got plenty of outs. Calling is not horrible w/ monsters...People do tend to go over the top because they sense weakness. If you find that out early, you can really use that to your advantage.

As far as pushing your whole stack as the chipleader i'd say Ax Kx Qx looks pretty good...when you get down to J's not so much. I like to be a favorite when im the chip leader...unless its something like 8.5-1.5 or 9-1.

Raise 2x the blind? That's half his stack no player in his right mind is going to call half his stack especially when he already has a quarter of it in there, he's going to push if he has something playable, and by playable it maens "Any two cards besides 72o". Are you going to call his all in when he pushes because you're pot commited (Against AKo you still have 3-2 odds and the pot is laying you 2-1.) with your weak raise if the answer is YES, and it should be, then spare yourself the stupidity of calling with 45o and instead put him all in with the hand to begin with and give yourself two ways to win it instead of one; sucking out a better hand.

Edit: That's if you think he's likely to fold, push, if you've smacked him around already, easy fold.