Hi guys, I´m a 6max mid stakes player mainly. Do you think it´s worth to learn HU strategy in order to improve my game?

Thank you.

I'm all with Bruce on this one -

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times"

Just stick to one type of game and master it.

Thank you for your answer, I have always thought that, but lately I´m thinking that it might be worth it, since the most common pots are Button vs blind, so its a HU pot with wide ranges, and also my weakest part of the game is SB vs BB.

You can probably try but I heard it was dying out because of bots and simulations producing nearly optimal heads up strategies.

Edit: I think there is still a heads up specialty forum somewhere they may have better answers.

But Yadoula don't you think heads up is the format that require the most exploitive play ?

HU isn't the same as SB vs BB. The positions are reversed.

I know man That is why I opened this thread, if it was the same situation the answer would be obvious. My question is because of the wide ranges and HU nature of most pots in 6max.

I have been thinking the same thing, I think learning heads up would
be very valueable to any poker player.

However it might be tough to find any decent games, and you may end
up starting your heads up play vs someone who has been at it for years.
Or vs bots etc.

So it might be painful to learn.

I'm still gonna learn it one day, not anytime really soon.
But maybe we could message on 2+2 and set up a match sometime in the future. We could play for play money and just transfer some small amount of money later for the winner of the match. Another problem playing head up is to win any money must have a pretty good edge, cause a long back & forth match and the rake will start to eat up both players. GL

Since i worked out how to beat GTO I've started thinking tourneys are the best for exploitative Poker! But yeah, HU is good too. Recently I've been thinking about making a switch to one of these, but I wouldn't play one to improve my 6 max game.

6 max is the game of masters. It's the most diverse game. If you can beat 6 max there will be very little adaption needed to beat HU or tourneys. However, is it very different to both. In tourneys chips are way more valuable so you have to be far more conservative. You dont get nearly as much room to manoeuvre. It feels very restrictive to me. HU is different because you learn so much about the opponent, and the opponent learns so much about you. It would take far longer to learn about each other while playing 6max, which means that you find yourself sprinting towards GTO. I will often exploit players for years without them even noticing what I'm doing. But when you play HU, you're in the spotlight. And again, this restricts you and confuses things up. 6 max is much cleaner.

Leonard, if you're playing 6 max, and are struggling with those button vs blind situations, you need to just practice them. Study a few spots. Post a few spots perhaps. Button vs BB is very, very different to playing HU. That wont help you much. If you are struggling with SB vs BB, just fold almost everything and you'll do fine. BB vs SB is different. But again, its very different to HU.

The only time I can see it being worthwhile to learn HU is if you wanted to open tables. And this is such a small part of 6 max, I dont think its worth the effort.

you can learn a lot of fundamental stuff playing heads up. Playing with wide ranges. Organizing your ranges because you have a lot more room and opportunities to do it. Actively adjusting.

If the button raises like in a heads up game, it will be worth something. Although the psychology of the game is often different and it takes time to put the opponent on like 90% range perhaps.

I think learning as much of NLH as one thinks is gold, is a good idea. Mastering other games is another issue.

I know quite a bit of heads up nlh; pretty much as much as of ring nlh, but I am not happy, needing more some day, but I don't feel like I need more for ring at this time.

Nor for MTTs, and MTTs is the reason I don't see it necessary to improve in one table tourneys, while in heads up and 3+ handed tourneys, I would need to grind all the push and call stuffs into my memory and that isn't for me.

But heads up cash and somewhat heads up tourneys, I think I would be missing in information if I wouldn't have that stuff also.

One gets rarely two handed in MTTs, and the psychology tends to be different. The same for 3+ handed even if there would not be the money reasons also to play differently.

My strategy is different in ring games (blinds and B) and it isn't a high priority to add heads up for that. But I happen to like it, for the reason of being cultured, more complete, and who knows.