Heads up play - $2.25 SnG

[ManicLombax]

I think my heads up play is not terrible, but probably needs work. I've struggled with patience in the past, ended up shoving in stupid spots. I was trying to be aware of that here, but now I'm wondering if I was a bit too passive in some places.

Opponent looked to be a pretty solid tagg player, through 30/60 level stats were 13/7/50. He started opening up at this point as we were 5 handed already and he had a pretty good stack. He was letting me push him around 3 handed and then for a while heads up, but then seemed to wise up and started 3-betting my raises. I didn't want to call a shove with K6o, but he ended up bullying me out of a bunch of chips after this point. Lost my stack on a flip, but pretty sure this part was ok.

Any suggestions here? When he gets pissed off and starts shoving over my raises do I try to make a guess as to when he doesn't have the goods and call, or try to wait it out? Do I stop raising K6o and just let him take the blinds for a little bit, or step up the aggression?

Here's the tourney. Mostly interested in the later part but if you want to go over the whole thing that's obviously fine too.

Thanks!

$3.30 Buy In

Edit: just going over this again, it doesn't look like he really stepped it up as much as I was thinking right after I played it. There were a couple of spots where he could have been bluffing, but he was still doing a fair amount of folding.

[taipan168]

Sorry for the delayed reply, been very busy at work.

General comments:
- Preflop raise sizing: Sometimes you raise 4x BB even when the blinds are big. No need for this - it's just wasting chips if you need to fold to a shove over.
- Preflop limping with big blinds: Why do this unless you're trapping (and the hands you limped with were not trapping hands).
- Flop bet sizing: Sometimes you either overbet or shove the flop when only hands that beat you will call and every other hand will fold. Why do this?

Overall though, I thought you played OK, definitely more than well enough to have a good ROI at the $2.25 tourneys.

4. A8s - I just dump this in the BB to an UTG+1 raise. You're OOP for the rest of the hand and you might suffer seriously bad reverse implied odds.

6. 77 - I'd probably fold preflop here because there are three players left to act and the raiser is from UTG.

7. KJs - just fold it, even to a button raise. Firstly you're up against the big stack, secondly it's a 4x BB raise which is kind of expensive to call. Just let it go.

14. 66 - fold it preflop. You don't really have odds to play for set value and if the big stack squeezes you have to let it go. As played your river bet is too small, I bet at least 2/3 pot here or 500.

18. K2o - if you raise it preflop it makes your flop bet much more convincing.

19. ATo - I definitely bet the flop after raising preflop, that's a safe flop to bet and I suspect that you'll get folds most of the time.

20. A5s - not sure that I like this one, given that opp is raising into the two big stacks you have to give him credit for at least something of a hand.

21. AKo - easy reshove preflop, he may be picking off your aggressive raises with hands that you beat. Let him decide whether he wants to play for his tournament life here! Plus if he has a lower pocket pair you only really get full value if you can see all 5 cards.

23. Q6s - why just limp this, raise or fold only unless you're trapping (and Q6s isn't a great hand with which to trap).

24. 86s - why reshove here? You have no fold equity since opp put in almost 30% of his stack with his first raise, and since you're showing down your hand doesn't have very good showdown value. If opp's stack was deeper I wouldn't mind this but this really isn't a good spot.

26. ATs - normally I would recommend c-betting the flop, but the flop texture here isn't particularly conducive (ie. it hits a lot of opp's range) and you've been c-betting a lot.

27. QJo - why limp here? Raise it up.

28. KK - definitely bet the flop. You've been c-betting a lot so you might even get a shove over. As played your turn bet is too small - there is 600 in the pot so make it at least 400 here. As played I would bet the river again. No reason to believe that an overpair is beat here.

29. A7s - c-bet the flop here. Sure there are two broadway cards on board but it's a rainbow flop.

30, 31 and 32. AKo/A9o/QTo - why make it 400 rather than 300?

J 9 SB (Hero's M = 36.00; f+F) (between 32 and 33) - raise it

35. QQ - I can see what you were trying to achieve here by making this massive overbet, but I'd just make a normal raise to 600 or so and take it from there (and hope somebody shoves over).

9 J Button (Hero's M = 33.38; F) (between 37 and 38) - I would definitely raise this

38. JJ - why the overbet? 500-600 looks like a c-bet and might induce a shove over.

39. A5o - 400 is plenty big enough for a raise here.

40. J9s - since this guy seems pretty tight I would fold preflop. As played the rest is fine - you could try for a check-raise on the flop but you'd hate to see another heart fall.

41. JTo - c-bet the flop here.

46. K6o - definitely c-bet the flop.

47. AKs - 800 on the flop is plenty. Make it look like one of your c-bets.

50. K7o - I'd fold preflop. Opp has been pretty tight, folding the majority of his hands to you. I'd take a guess that K7o doesn't fare too well against his range.

51/52. Just for the avoidance of doubt, these are both fine.

4 Q Button (Hero's M = 23.40; F)
Q 7 Button (Hero's M = 23.40; F) (between 52 and 53) - I'd raise both of these

53. J2o - I'd take a stab on the turn for like 250 or so after opp checked behind on the flop.

54. 97o - why shove the flop? This is the sort of bet that only gets called by hands that beat you. Just make a normal bet and take it from there.

4 2 Button (Hero's M = 4.17; F) (between 57 and 58) - shove it again - you have some fold equity and you can't even afford not to shove even this crap.

[ManicLombax]

Thanks much for taking the time to go over this, it was a long one. Got some good stuff to try to remember now.