Ok, I'm new to HU sng's but have multitabled thousands of mtt sng's. I've been single tabling HU and have problems with tilting when I get sucked out on.

I've tried moving up stakes 3 times and each time have run like crud. Here's usually what happens. I get it in good and get sucked out on. Ok boo hoo me right, but after losing like 3-5 buyins from run bad I get down on myself & my play is effected. I tighten up and don't bluff like I should. Maybe this is reverse tilt? I usually am a very aggressive lag player but after a small losing streak I turn into a nitty tag player who is afraid to bluff in big spots.

I really don't care about anything other than learning right now, so I've been single tabling to try & get the most out of each match. When I 2 table I don't get to see the bad beats as much & I can keep up my aggro lag style, but I don't learn as much.

I know Tommy Angelo is really great teacher of tiltless poker, I may go listen or watch a couple of his vids.

Anyways, what do you guys think I should do? I think I tighten up b/c of the higher stakes, so maybe I'll keep playin the lower buyins until I can play & not let the bad beats tilt me.

lol

This is not the help you are looking for.

If you cant help but spew after losing a few buyings then take a break and calm down rather than continuing when you are aware that you are playing poorly. Try to focus more on expectation and stop being so near-sighted. Look at the big picture.

Sorry, couldn't help but lol at him tilting after running bad 3-5 bi's..come on man, that's NOTHING. You have a ton of tilt issues. You really should start at micros, 1-table, and play a ton. You'll see variance first hand and be able to appreciate it while playing stakes where the $$$ doesn't matter too much to you. Learn to cope with tilt at the micros. Then, slowly move up in stake.

Ok cool. Thanks for the advice.

I'm currently playin micros.

My run bad is over for the moment. I had a really conservative bank roll management in the mtt's & want to make sure I don't make that mistake HU.

Right now I'm only playing 20 bi's behind, so the suckouts sting a little more. I also started off with a pretty small roll. Im trying to get in as many quality matches as possible. I can grind most fish down to a 2-1 chip stack before shove fold begins. Then sometimes the poker gods seem to always hand me 2 badbeats.

Anyways, enough crying for me. I'm gonna grind up the micros until I can play the mids fearlessly.

Thanks again for the advice, sorry for the tilt post earlier.

If you're just starting I'd say use more than 20 bi's.

I hope you're not the one playing shove fold, unless blinds are huge. Effective stacks are important. Treat the game as if you and your opponent have equal stacks. The size of your equal stacks is equal to whomever is lowest.

Hero 1800
Villain 1200

Blinds 50/25
Your effective stacks are $1200, or 24BB. Even though you have more chips than your opponent, play as if you only have 24Big Blinds in your stack as well. The deeper effective stacks are, the looser you can play. There is more room for you to maneuver on each street. As effective stacks get shallower, the more tight or fit/fold you should be as it is much easier to become pot committed. As effective stacks near the 10BB stage, play seems to become All In/Fold. Google: Nash Equilibrium Poker Chart for a general guideline of what you can shove, or call shoves with PF. Merging Nash EQ with your reads on the villain will give you a good direction to go into.

Also, to help you with your tilt... People playing standard HUSNGs would agree that winning 58% of your games is good (I think, please let me know if that is too weak, or too strong). If you're only a 58% favorite, it's not unforeseeable to loose 7, 8, 9, 10, + games in a row. In fact, this happens from time to time to the best of us. (I forget who, but I was reading about a HU-pro that had a 7k tourney break even stretch) So be happy that your current loosing streak is only 5 games. Think in terms of months and years, instead of days and weeks.

Here's an experiment you can do.... flip a coin and see how long the streaks are. If you do it for about 10 min, you'll see you might get the same side 10+ times in a row.

what would you suggest for the mid stakes?

Thanks for this post Dead Straddle. Pls give me a minute to reply

ok deadstraddle,

with less than 10 bb I'm all about nash & shove fold poker. 10-15 bb's I still mess around with min raises. I've been trying to follow Mersenneary's cheat sheet for less than 12bb.

here's a look at my cheatsheet, let me know what you would add to it.

Try this husng-variance-calculator

HU SNG is not about charts, it's about adjustment(those charts are good in most of cases, but there are still a lot of situations where it doesn't work).

Wow I just took a look at how wild the swings can be over 100 games. Thanks for the link & the heads up.

I don't just follow those charts without thought. While I don't think they can make you a good player, I do think they can prevent you from leaking equity. I couldn't agree more that you need to analyze each situation differently. It can vary a ton based on each opponent. Gameflow can have a huge amount to factor also. I used to be able to autopilot 30 mtt's. Im finding it difficult to play my best at only 2 hu matches at once. So much of my edge is paying attention to every villain action.

Heads up is awesome, even though the swings can be massive. You really need to work at all areas of your game to be good. It forces you to think at all times. It can be a grind, but very fun as well. To hand read & pick off bluffs, to get your opponent thinking one way and then adjust is really cool. Leveling each other & staking off light as hell to the good regs.

Thumbs Up

Im running good now so this made me laugh. Got to love playing the micros

You should be "messing around" with minraises (and limps) at least till the 8bb region (even a little lower against certain opponents)

I can not bring myself to do this yet. I live for nash with less than 10 bb. Unless your playing someone who folds all day isn't it better to stick with the nash charts?

There are so many unknowns & variables in poker. Nash sets all that crud aside & tells you if you play like this, your opponent can only break even with you & can't beat you. At least in the low to mid stakes I see huge shove/call errors with up to 20 bb's. I don't think im good enough to pass up on using those charts yet.

what does every1 else think, I thought using nash was pretty standard with 10 or less bb's?

Merseneary quote: ''You're not playing against Phil Ivey''

You want to be exploitable, because you want to win money right? Or do you want to be breakeven?

At least in the low to mid stakes I see huge shove/call errors with up to 20 bb's.

Don't get me wrong, you can play better EV poker w/o nash. However, I love the fact that players in my games stack off horrible and nash is like the bible for me under 10bb.

I made a living shove/folding in mtt's & not playing huge pots postflop.

Is really dumb from players.

IF YOU PLAY POKERZ YOU WILL GETZ BAD BEATZ.

IF YOU WORK AT MCDONALDS, YOU WILL GET FIRED.

IF YOU SELL NARCOTICS, YOU WILL GO TO JAIL.

IF YOU A HOOKER, YOU WILL GET HERPES AND/OR HIV.

IF YOU OWN LIONS, YOU WILL GET BITTEN.

ON AND ON. GET IT.

yes sir. well said, I completely agree

had the same problem and it helped me to tell myself before i started a session that i want to see my opponents do as many weird ****play as possible
because thats what i profit of over time.
So if they give me sick badbeats i just tell myself: oh well you pay me with that over time.
If i get angry about something i tell myself wtf are u angry about u did
all right so there is no point to rage.
If u get many badbeats in row u should take a break

Omg, is that just a brag or should I say nice workout, man !

Speaking of your new avatar

You sound like you've got a good head on your shoulders. Once you get used to the variance in husng, I think you are going to do fine in husngs. I can sense you have the correct outlook for the game. GL.

haha, thx, no brag, just showing how nice a male body can look with some work. Tho I must say, I prefer women NOT to be cut, I like a little jiggle to them