HELP!!! and nice one to MICWILS!!!

THEBOMB88

Hi everyone i just like to start of with saying congrats to MICWILS who completly owned me when we were heads up playing cash. I thought my poker was better than it actually is.  So down to my question which i hope someone can help with.

Q. Whats the best way to tackel heads up. I hardly play it so when i did that night i got completly smashed and lost a fair bit of profit.

I play very tight when in MTTS and cash. but when it come to the heads up i found myself playing stupid hands like 9 4, K 6. Should i be playing these hands or just folding them. Also how aggressive should i be playing heads up. Hope it makes sense and cheers.  

Lambert180

You could write a novel in reply to this. A few things to remember about HU cash are...

1) It's very swingy, so you can be a great player but you still will have to cope with times of losing 5 BIs in a row, or winning 5 BIs in a row.

2) There's no guide saying these are the hands you should play and these are the ones you shouldn't. It's massively dependent on your opponent.

Just bear in mind that statistically the average hand strength is Q7, so when you get dealt K4, A2, Q9, etc these are good hands HU. You have to completely change all your old ideas about hand ranges essentially, but be willing to adapt if you see your opponent has really tightened up and is waiting for a monster to smash you when you're being aggro.

IDONKCALLU

in heads up the hand range widen so much any ace or king is a very good hand if u just sit there and wait for hands u will lose so many big blinds almost 90 percent of the time u should be raisng the button 

Lambert180

In Response to Re: HELP!!! and nice one to MICWILS!!!:

in heads up the hand range widen so much any ace or king is a very good hand if u just sit there and wait for hands u will lose so many big blinds almost 90 percent of the time u should be raisng the button 
Posted by IDONKCALLU

That's true to an extent, but it's vital in HU that you adapt to your opponent. I've played some will that wil 3bet virtually 100% of the time when you raise the button, so obviously against these people you have to stop raising the bottom end of your range etc.

Like any form of poker really, just pay attention to what they do and exploit it... if they call everytime you raise the button, then start raising bigger with strong hands, if they call with ATC pre and check-fold alot then start c-betting ALOT, if they are super aggro betting non-stop as bluffs, then you can slowplay alot more, and conversely if they are very loose-passive, then you need to value-bet non-stop when you have a decent hand. Pay attenion to what they call down with, some peopel will call flop and turn for a FD with bad odds, some people will call 3 streets with bottom pr etc etc.

percival09

I raise almost 100% btn. But I also 3b a lot oop. If they 3b a lot I 4b a lot. Bet flop, bet turn, shove river!!!

rancid

exploit your oppo, HU is the hardest form of poker so good luck - beware of the rake !

unknown_username

Heads Up?

This is my next foray into learning poker. From what i've read so far there are certainly a lot of depth to this form.
Stack sizes are a big part of how you approach hands you play but it's very psycological and can be looked upon as the  purest form of poker. I'm looking forward to giving it a go.