I need some heads up tips

[Aceofone]

I've been playing in small limit tourneys and nl tourneys all night (single table) and i've been quite successfull so far, only one bad finish, one 1st finish, but my problem is that i've had about 3 2nd place finishes, if anyone can offer some heads up tips it would be greatly appreciated.

Fnord or Ripp im speaking to you two, as you seem to be the resident gurus in limit and NL respectively.

[Toasty]

Ripper, is probably the best heads up player at FTR, he plays them a lot and plays them very aggressively.

Here is one of his most recent ones, do a forum search and read some of his posts on heads up play and you will get a good idea.


http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...ighlight=heads

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[Toasty]

Runner Runner Couldn't be Funner!!!

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[koolmoe]

I've been playing in small limit tourneys and nl tourneys all night (single table) and i've been quite successfull so far, only one bad finish, one 1st finish, but my problem is that i've had about 3 2nd place finishes, if anyone can offer some heads up tips it would be greatly appreciated.

Fnord or Ripp im speaking to you two, as you seem to be the resident gurus in limit and NL respectively.

I feel that you just have to know your opponent. I pay special attention to boards and bets that each one of my opponents folds to during the tourney so I can use that information to my advantage later. I especially watch for those that will fold to a min bet with a large pot early in the tourney. A lot of times a tight player will make it to the money but be unable to close because he/she is unable to adjust to the changing demands of shorthanded play. You'll be more successful if you can identify those players early on and play aggressively against them in the late stages.

Here's a cardinal rule that I use - if you're going to play a hand when it's heads up, raise. Make the other player decide to play. I would generally only call or check if I wanted the other person to get himself into trouble post flop.

Your aggressive play will have to continue after the flop as well. You need to be skilled at representing your opponent's fear.

If you play well enough post flop, you'll find your opponent folding to you from the small blind more often, which makes it that much easier.

So much of it depends on your opponent's style, which you hopefully know after dozens of hands leading to the final two. For an opponent like Ripptyde, you need to learn to push back hard (i.e., reraise) and to use his aggression against him by feigning weakness when you're strong. Against an aggressive player head-to-head, your odds start to approach a coin flip, IMO, because he'll force you to play marginal hands or get run over.

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[jobupoker]

Ripp, I would be interested to see some hand histories where the other guy tried top be aggresive back at you. Do you find that this makes it more a coin flip for you?

Probably the best heads up aggressiveness I've seen between two players was on WPT when Gus and Hoyt were the only ones left. The way they went at each other was great to watch.

[koolmoe]

Sorry, Ripp. Didn't mean to imply that there was a formula one could use to beat you. You must be a very formidable opponent, indeed.

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[Aceofone]

Thanks for the tips ripptyde, i started playing my heads up like that last night, as long as i maintained the discipline to fold when i knew i was beat it was pretty easy to steal blinds and grind them down.

[GDS223]

I'll throw in my own two cents about playing heads up here.

1) Aggressiveness is KEY (as stated before by rippy) -- but it can also get you killed by a player who recognizes your strategy (therefore, try not to let your opponent see your cards often)

2) Pocket pairs go up in value tremendouwly -- taking what rippy said one step further. Going all in with ace junk can win a few hands against KQ, but pocket sixes have even greater potential.

3)I want to act last as often as possible whether it's to get a free card, or to make my opponent tell me something about his or her hand before I have to act. Information is rarer and thus, more important to get in heads up. Usually, if I'm going to fold, it's in the small blind. If I ever do play a hand out of the sb, I make sure to put in an imposing raise. Try not to ever simply call in the sb, unless you are sure you want to show weakness.

4) Post flop, be willing to go farther when you pair any card on board. Also, loosen up when you're holding overcards (not too much, obviously) because you may be able to bust a guy who paired 7s and doesn't believe that you paid to the river to pair your king.

That's it for now, maybe more later.

[evilevilmatt]

I won my first tourney last night, thanks to rippys advice. I used to be the guy to get steamrolled waiting for "the big one". Only had one hand heads up in the tourney, but if not for rippys advice I wouldn't have called the guys all in with my Q6o. He ended up having 7's but I caught a queen on the flop and it was goodnight linda.
Sure it not as dramatic as calling with 72o but I honestly wouldn't do it before I read this post.

Thanks again rippy.

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