hi,
is it correct to play any 2 cards with a 2 or 3 in it in the BB as long as it is just singleraised?

if no against which position you fold?

W/o spelling out my exact strat, there are plenty of hands I would fold to UTG raise, such as 36xxx. I wouldn't even call that facing a BTN open if she has a clue. Most 2wxxx you can play, though 26xxx I'd fold to good TAG, to clarify.

72 I defend. 92 I do not.

Depends what the exact two cards are---playing the hand just because there's a 2 or a 3 in it does not a good hand make. And knowing who the raisor is and how well he plays this game is also another factor.

Me and a friend had an argument about this type of hand just a few days ago at the $4/8 Mixed Game here in town.

To mediate our argument, I asked Daniel Negreanu when we played soccer together last night and he said:

Basically calling with 23, 24, 25, 27 is 100% fine. The hand plays better heads-up then multi-way, but in essence, you can catch two good cards and take the lead. He wouldn't play, say 34 or 26, but those other 2-card hands with a draw to the wheel holding a deuce he would due to pot odds and implied odds against the range a raiser may have.

Thinly veiled brag.

wow 26xxx seems like a really tight fold vs a btn raise , even if they are taggish

I thought the previous sentence put my statement in context, but maybe not - 26xxx I'm folding to reasonable UTG 6max, not a BTN open.

ah ok

If your opponents play well in position folding 26, 34, 37 etc is absolutely fine, regardless where the open comes from. If your opponent often gives up or grants free draws then you should defend wide, in extreme cases (button open from player who plays transparently and will not call rivers light) as wide as any two wheel cards plus 28, 38. The combination of the chance to pick up a draw and the chance to catch enough blocking cards to make plays then makes wide defense profitable. As a rule of thumb vs opponents of equivalent skill and no exploitable tendencies the positional disadvantage makes playing a weak defending range expensive in a full ring context (not a HU match where there's a lot more to consider).

What else is there to consider other than the opponent just having a wider opening range in a HU game?

What hands you've been seen to pat light, how frequently you and your opponent take snow lines vs draw to develop equity, which streets will opponent peel, does his defense usually consist of flatting or 3betting...The way one opponent plays when he's forced into playing a wide range by the nature of HU matches is the dominant consideration there.

Ok, but unless they are beginner to the game, and if they are reasonably competent so that you wouldn't be playing seriously exploitatively, I think most of the answers to those above are within a relatively standard margin, which would mean not drastically deviating from a general threshold/margin.

And for those first 1 or 2 points, you normally need to have logged quite a number of hands against that opponent.

Exactly for those reasons stated by electrical i would call a raise from BU with 26 every single time against any decent player with whatever dynamics we have, just to keep him honest. Weird as it might sound, I am more comfortable playing against BB who draws 1, when against competent BB who draws 3. It usually means he draws smooth, and it's tougher to bluff catch, and it's tougher to figure his drawing tendencies. 37 is much worse, so is 34, i feel it's unfair to put 26 to the same cathegory.
I would snap fold 26 against George Danzer though, since he folds 235 from SB against BU raise. I can extrappolate, that only a really honest player does that.

When playing HU you see a lot of hands in a hurry so you build (ought to build) a player profile within the first 50 hands or so, then adjust as you both learn things about each other.

I would snap fold 26 against George Danzer though, since he folds 235 from SB against BU raise. I can extrappolate, that only a really honest player does that.[/QUOTE]

I cant imagine a decent lag like Danzer would do anything but 3! 235xx from SB against BTN open. "really honest player" is not the first thing that comes to mind.

I have seen this with my own eyes on Twitch. It was daily 2-7 MTT, he commented, that BU seems quite tight, and folded. Also, 3beting from SB a good 2 card draw or any 2 card draw for that matter is not proven to be better than flating. There are many factors to consider.

OOP flatting entire range of defending hands (2CD and 3CD) is fine. You can really only 3b for value if you have 2CD with wheel pairs since positional advantage is of greater value than most slight equity edges at the beginning of the hand. You maintain ambiguity about hand strength because you can c/r both your stronger and weaker flops, you like it when your opponent draws rougher than you even if you both draw the same number of cards and your bluff catchers are more likely to catch a bluff if you haven't represented a strong hand.

Position is still the most important consideration in this game, so over-playing starting cards (where your raise isn't knocking anybody out) is a leak. From SB, where you may have to convince BB to fold you should raise more often than from BB because getting the pot HU is worth more than the extra bet it costs you.

Danzer is doing some 2-7SD videos on RIO, which are getting lots of likes. He seems tight in those. Can't see why you would ever fold 235 to a button raise. If button is that tight, he is probably a bad player you would want to play a hand with.

Can't see never reraising from the BB. Wouldn't you usually reraise 1-card draws and pat hands?

Can't see why this isn't correct (depending of course on the strength of the 1-card draw).

No one said, tat u should never reraise from BB, i am pretty sure i t was meant to say that never no need to reraise from BB with 2 card draw for obvious reasons. You always wanna reraise 1 card draw, premium or ****y HU, again, for obvious reasons. You can make a peel in MW pot with 3457 or sth and try fill that gut shot, that's about it.

for HU, its correct to defend any hand containing 2 wheel cards right?

I've been railing a few high stakes TD games and some of the better players (isi, san1ker, kagome) are playing 90%+ hands. Hardly any folds pre (this includes the BB and the btn)

1. Yes, absolutely.

2. Those three you mentioned are among the very best at deuce. They make close to perfect drawing decisions and bluff/snow with optimal frequency. They balance extremely well. Playing 90% of hands is not something the majority of players should even attempt to do.

I don't want to give the impression that they play perfectly or anything, but those three are really ****ing good, so they can afford to play hands that most others should be folding

Except you did give that impression. Since you seem to know that "extremely well balanced" stuff, could you please explain to me, why Ivey is 3betting 3 card draws HU? Can he also afford that, because he later makes optimal drawing/snowing decisions or is he bloating the pot to leave himself the odds to calldown/keep that 90 % opener honest?