I seem to have found my niche with these single-table satellite (STS) tournaments. My game usually got me heads-up, and I usually agreed to chop at that point.

But when I tried to play heads-up for the whole wad, I magically transformed from Bruce Lee into Mickey Mouse! The opponent calls or raises (or re-raises) pre-flop on every hand. He knows that I'm scared. But when I'm looking down at 4 6 what can I do? He must be looking at the same trash, but my chips slowly-but-surely bleed over to his stack. I suspect that the opponent is shoving with any Broadway card (i.e., any ace or face) or any pocket pair. Or even nothing-but-air (NBA).

Heads-up seems to resemble a game of chicken.

The good thing about playing tight is that is that when I shove, he runs. But one of these times he's going to wake up with AA-JJ, AK, AQ, etc. --something in that range.

I don't know how to drive!! Help! Is there a TwoPlusTwo book on heads-up play?

use time bank make opponent impatience,

here its time change your playing style.

its obvious he is opening any two.
shove with trash, reraise strong cards to make villain push his entire stake .

change open raising every time.

2x , 3x so on .........

...not sure what is meant by "time bank."

OOOOHHH! That's CUTE!! I like that. And will ruminate on it.

Thanks, Hettie!

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruminate)

its just online poker term.

what i mean is request clock.

In a STT if you are heads up with even stacks under most circumstances you should chop unless you think you have a big edge. Let's say you are playing a $100 STT and the total prize pool is $1000. How often would you enter a $500 heads up match where you and your opponent only have 15bb? Because that's what you are basically agreeing to by not chopping. I played several $525 STT at WSOP last week. I got heads up with a slight chip lead against somebody whom I thought was competent but not as good as me. Total prize pool was a little over $5k. We agreed to take $2,000 off each and play for the remaining $1,000. I wanted the heads up experience so I didn't want to chop. But I didn't want to play a $2500 heads up match with a 15bb stack.

On a separate note, I think you have to learn how to play a short stack heads up match. Sure if you have 46o and you raise and they shove there is nothing you can do but fold. But you have to have a plan with different types of hands. Here's an example of a strategy that would be better than what you're doing.

Assume you have 15bb and you are on the button first to act.
1) min raise on the button with the strongest hands in your range and some hands you will never call a shove with. Make sure that the weak hands you raise with play well post flop when you are called. e.g., 79ss, 58ss... hands that you wouldn't shove but hands that are not the absolute bottom of your range.
2) shove all in with hands that are +EV to shove. E.g., A2ss, all pairs, probably most medium to high suited connectors will fall into this range as well. I'm assuming a lot of broadway hands and suited Ks are close with 15bb heads up.
3) fold total garbage hands

When you are in the bb.
* You can call or shove with your biggest hands depending on how aggressive V is post flop.
* reshove with suited connectors like 78ss+, any pair, any A, suited broadway cards (KTss). You could reshove a little wider but you don't need to be reshoving T2o
* If you have around 15bb and you are not comfortable heads up, I think it's probably better to start by either folding or shoving and doing nothing else oop. When you are deeper you will need to mix in calling, 3b, 3b shove also.

Isn't this a terrible thing? The last thing you want is for him to run when you are shoving strong hands. You are playing your hands face up and you will never do well heads up if you only shove your good hands and fold all your bad hands.

You need to balance your shoving range so that he is running when you are bluffing. But you want your shoving range to do reasonably well when called. That's why you are reshoving hands like JTss, pairs, and A high hands.

No, no --that's understood. (What I wrote was not clear.) What I shoved with pre was stuff like 82. I was "inverting the blinds" as described in the section with that title in Sklansky's green book (the book pictured in my avatar).

Question about your notation: by "ss" do you mean "single-suited"? (Most folks I've read just use "s" to mean "suited." Example:

...means "jack-ten suited"? Just making sure.

And YES I will chop those from now on! I like your thinking on that. Amen. And thanks!

I meant JT suited for JTss. Accidentally wrote JT spade spade.

I highly recommend you don't chop but make it effectively a chop. E.g., if you have the opportunity, take more than 90% off the table and play for 1st place with a small amount of money so you can practice your heads up play. You are clearly struggling with this and the only way to get better is to keep playing them and get a feel. So if you can get your opponent to agree to a scenario where you are playing for the title but the money difference is insignificant then do it.

Get your starting hands right. There are charts for this.

Then just play decent post flop poker and get into da rhythm of da contest.

Yes, that is exactly what I aim to do henceforth: in a $525, make $2000 "safe" for each of us and play heads-up for the remaining $1500 --if even that much.

And yes, "struggling"' is precisely the right word. (I felt like I was drowning in quicksand.)

And who needs a book? I am printing off what you wrote. Thanks again!

No

headup and bubble is where you make the most money in an STT.

Learn to play at headup and don't chop.

Fun idea. Either your opp won't notice/care cause he plays a lot of tables or you're getting on the nerve of a fish and driving him away from your games. You sure know how to make decisions buddy.

OP:

http://www.husng.com/
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18...-sng-spin-gos/

That using the time bank must be one of the worst advice ever. Find ways to beat the players not try to annoy them lol

HU is alot deeper then you realize. Your main objective is to figure out the villians style of play and counter it. If I have a stack or at least even. I like to raise a couple of times first and see if he folds or fight back. That's just the very first thing I try to figure out. Anyways there is too much strategy to cover. Watch some vids or just keep on playing more HU, so you learn with experience.

^^ This

Also post hands in the Heads Up SNG strategy forum. Plus lots of free heads up videos at HUSNG.com, deep-stacked and short-stacked.

Well there's a reason HU players made the most money in SnG over years, it's obv the toughest gametype. (Or the market does sth weird here, which I'm pretty sure is not happening)

I got an inkling when I saw Leaks's post mentioning an entire site dedicated to it (http://www.husng.com).

Amen, Bro. Someone turned me on to Colin Moshman's book so I plan to read that, too. Thanks!

Now I realize that heads-up play is to single-table tournaments what putting is to golf. It's half the game.

get a three sided dice to tell u what to do. your opponent will never be able to read u. preflop? roll the dice. call, fold, or raise. sucks folding AA but what can u do? listen to the dice bro

Roll same dice in bb. Gotta balance folding range vs limps like a pro.

This is a joke, right?