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On to May..

Jody and I found out last week that we are going to be having a little baby girl. I'm very excited about this news obviously.

April has come and gone and what a month it was for me. I had a career month in terms of money earned and felt that I played my A game for most of the month. Here are some fun hands from the past few days:

This wasn't fun:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548004

Sweet call IMO

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548005

SHIP SHIP

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548006

Okay so maybe I value bet a little thin?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548012

So a friend from one of the forums PMed me asking for HU advice and I sent an initial long message which I think contains some basic but solid info for anyone who wants to learn to play HU. Here it goes..

The first thing that I would tell you is to be a complete game selection nit. It's not very difficult because there are so many horrible players that play HU. There are a few very good ways to determine if someone is going to be easy money. If they buy in with less than the max then they are most likely not going to be good. I don't play anyone that buys in for min, I'll sit out and ask them to add a little more money. The best people to find are the ones that buy in for 40bb or some odd number that looks like the rest of their bankroll. If a player sits down and buys in for the max buy in, I will player search his name to see if he's on any other HU tables. As a general rule I won't play him if he's multitabling HU. The only way I would play him is if I have played him before and knew him to be bad or if other people I know have played him and told me he was bad. If I get through those steps with a fullstacker, usually in about 20 hands you'll be able to tell whether he's competent or not. I use realtime HUD to display stats and the pertinent stats that I keep available for HU play are: VPIP/PFR%/3bet%/CBet%/Aggression factor/ fold to cbet%/Checkraise%. There are all different kinds of bad HU opponents but when you first start out playing the best ones to play against are those that call too much from OOP and don't play aggressive enough in position. Pre-flop stats aren't as important in HU because things change based on the opponent you are playing, but you can be pretty sure that if you play someone who is playing like 65/18 (and believe me there are a TON of them) you are in a game where you should be able to make money.

Now that we understand a bit about HU game selection, let's move on to a few strategy tips. When you are playing the shorter stacked players you have to recognize the adjustments you have to make to your game. Oh, one other thing I forgot to note. Shortstackers tend to be hit and runners which is one of the most frustrating things in HU. When you get hit and run you need to be able to shake it off and focus on the next opponent. I usually put a note on a player if I can get to hit before he leaves the table that he is a hit and runner and I won't play him next time he trys to sit down. Okay so back to strategy. Some short stack players will play super aggro preflop to try and take advantage of their short stack. We can counter this by minraising our hands from the button and stacking off a little more light before the flop.(Note: against fullstack players that 3bet a lot pre, I minraise a lot as well.. if you have a leggo membership check out the video by AlusivePnkBny) The most important adjustment to make against shorter stacks is to make sure your playing pretty tight OOP. Just like in 6max or FR, we don't have implied odds to hit our hand.

As far as playing fullstacked opponents our strategy should be based on how our opponent is playing. Pre-flop I'm likely to raise between 90%-100% of buttons until my opponent proves to me that he is semi-competent. I vary my raise size based on how he is reacting. If he calls too much OOP sometimes I will start making it 4x to punish him for calling so much. I will be very happy if he keeps calling at the same rate because that is adding another BB to the pot when I'm in position. If I'm getting 3bet a lot I'll begin minraising and looking to either 4bet bluff crap hands or take flops in position with hands that have value. If someone is balancing their ranges well and calling some and 3betting some then most likely your playing someone who is competent and you can sit out. As far as your 3betting tendencies in general my 3betting range is going to be something like 88+, sometimes AJ and KQ, AQ,AK and then a lot of suited connectors probably like all connectors 45s+ and two gaps like 35s+ but it depends on the opponent obviously. Playing well in 3bet pots is the most difficult thing to learn imo. It's really all about experience and knowing your opponents tendencies. I've talked a lot about pre-flop play so far, I think I'll save some of the post flop stuff that I do for the next little chapter I write for you, lol.

A few other important things with HU. Tilt control is absolutely one of the most important things you'll have to learn to play HU. If you begin to feel like you HATE your opponent or you HATE poker right this second.. STOP PLAYING!!!111!!! So many times it will happen that your oppponent will go on a heater and hit every hand. He'll run his $50 up to $400.. you'll grind him back down to $50 and boom next thing you know he has $400 again somehow. You have to learn to deal with this. You have to learn to keep your ego in check. Bad players are going to beat you from time to time. I'd recommend that you start out by 1 tabling. I never play more than 2 tables and often if I feel like I'm starting to lose my focus I'll drop down to one table. Just try to focus on each decision and make the best play possible.

-Tre