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Head up play on the Button
Hey guys/gals,
Last night I was lucky enough to get heads up in the home game. My question is more of a general strategy question.
At what point or at what BB level do we start open raising the button heads up? Or when we are in a tournament where the blinds go up, do we limp 100%?
My thoughts are once I’m less than 20bb effective I’m either shoving, limping or folding the button. Is this a leak in my game? Admittedly I don’t work on my heads up game a whole lot as most tournaments I play, by the time heads up starts both players are either very short or one player is at least.
Thanks everyone and I will see you at the tables!
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2 Replies
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Heads up at the end of an MTT is different than other poker. Not only is there a completely different dynamic in the game, but your opponent will probably play differently than you’ve seen him play up to this point.
On the BU/SB you should play the vast majority of your hands. Completing the SB risks being raised off the hand and if the BB is playing with proper aggression he should probably do just that very often.
In my own humble opinion 20bb effective is too deep to start open-shoving. You can still play poker on the flop.
You will have to figure out what open sizing will get your opponent to fold and deter him from 3-betting. Every opponent is different, you will have to experiment.
In heads up play there are three supremely important things to remember: aggression, aggression, and aggression.
Here’s an example: In a live tournament last year I got heads up with about one-third the amount of chips as my opponent. I just started raising 2.5x from the button with maybe 80%. He kept folding! He didn’t adjust. In the BB position I figured out he would fold if he limped (which he did alot) and I raised 3.5x. This went on for a long time. I kept waiting for him to adjust, but he let me run him over like that until I got all his chips.
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That is a really good point about adjusting and I have had some big comebacks in other heads up matches but I find in the home game I was tending to be a little gun shy because its a winner take all. The thing is I hate loosing lol. So I want to make sure that I give myself the best chance to do just that. And some of the time I guess we still coolered.
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