Hi!

First post

I like playing heads up, and sometimes 6 max games. I've been playing micro stakes for some time now.

In almost all of my heads up games, I lose money by one of the two actions(mistakes?) 1. Bluffing too much/too big 2. Calling too thin.

When I look at the statistics of sessions, I almost always (over 200 hands) have won between 60-70% of the hands. That said, I'm almost always down at least one buy in (if not two).

I've managed to curb my excessive bluffing, and I now only pick spots that make sense with a "range" that I think I may have. Interestingly, I somehow don't get called as often when I have a big hand and bet as big as my big bluff bets.

But, my calling thin still seems to hurt me most because I often lose at least half a buy-in (or villain all-ins) on one hand. The times when I call, I call with *at least* top pair, and I call because I feel that I've been running over my opponent so (s)he is tilting and betting high to get me off of my hand.

How do I know what range of my hands to make thins calls on? I've tried using the "Minimum Defense Frequency" but since my preflop range is so wide a lot of hands fall into my MDF.

Could someone please suggest a way for me to decide when to call-or-fold on boards when it can go either way?

Thanks!!

Heads up really isn't a beginner's question if you ask me, it's something you progress to once you kind of know what you're doing if you have ADHD and can't stand going more than two minutes without being involved in a pot

Haha, that's pretty funny

This ADHD afflicted gambler is still open to suggestions though...

In general, people don’t adjust well enough. Unless you’re getting played back at multiple times or the amount the give up goes way way down it’s more likely their just hitting cards. Just like with bluffing though it all comes down to ranges

Thin calling is a cascade effect. You call on the flop because you "have enough" with 2 cards to come. You call on the turn because it was a brick and couldn't have helped your opponent. You call on the river because "well, there won't be another bet after this one and the pot is pretty big now, soooo....".

Fold more on the flop, and/or find other ways to win pots so you're not bulldozed by flop betting.

p.s. rake in a heads up game can be real killer.

“Calling too thin” is a bit vague. This is how I think about thin calls: if I can beat the top of a good players bluffing range, but not any reasonable value hands, then I have a strict bluffcatcher, which is break even unless you make a serious error later in the hand.

However that’s not the whole story because every one of our opponents will either bluff too much or not enough. If they bluff too much then we call more. If they don’t bluff enough then we call less. Notice here that its possible to be tricked by the numerous times that you can catch a lag bluffing, yet calling may be incorrect given that he holds many value hands in his range. Conversely, it’s easy to be tricked by the very few times that you can catch a tight players bluff, yet calling may still be correct given a lack of value hands in the tight players range.

Thank you all for replying, this was very helpful!

I was also going through other threads, and I found the basic but useful(!) comment, "Stop hoping that your opponents are bluffing you."

And, yes, I only just realized how bad the rake is for heads up

some of what many players lose is because they call wanting to have the opponent have what you want them to have. instead of figuring out what he really has. get the drift?

generally calling is more likely to be wrong then the alternatives.