[99%evil]

Lately I've been playing low buy in 6 person turbo SNG's. Been playing ok at them. Question, there's 6 people total of 9,000 in play. I'm down to heads up with about 2,500...playing against an ultra aggressive player. Blinds at 150/300 with 25 ante. I hit a horrible run of cards heads up, about 7 high unsuited 5 hands in a row, the villain raises from $600 to $800 everytime I'm in the BB. I'm looking to at least a picture card (an ace or a king would be nice) in hand if I'm going ot go all-in, so if we both miss I at least have that fighting chance to take a pot... What do you do in these circumstances? I was dealt 3,8 - 2,7 - 9,4 - 10,2 ...you get the picture in consecutive hands...I'm getting bled away and the guy has shown he will call any raises, so bluffing won't work. Is it time to try and get lucky? or do you fold and hope you get something before you are down to 5 times the BB? I ended up pushing twice and got lucky suck outs, but the cards continued to suck and I could never get much more than the flop or turn before the villain bet enough to put me all-in everytime...I could not catch, not even bottom pair.

How do you play ultra aggressive players when you are heads up with blinds? I didn't have enough to scare him off a hand, he called all raises, even put himself all-in during the game a few times with suspect hands and caught.

Is there a defense to this? Or are you pretty much hoping the cards turn? I took second...could never get a hand, went out when I had 1,750 and was dealt A,7 and he called with J,2 and caught a J.

[jojobinks]

i would fold 0% of my hands (from the button) with the blinds that big and only 2500 chips.

i'd push every hand from the button until i doubled up or busted. waiting for a face card? come on. stick it in there.

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 43.133% 40.35% 02.79% 846332445 58421559.50 { 6h5h }
Hand 1: 56.867% 54.08% 02.79% 1134396836 58421559.50 { random }

[99%evil]

I know...but with 5 high...you have to hit...usually it's not bad. This one case the guy was extremely aggressive...to a fault, but kept catching. Doubled my buy-in so...on to the next one.

[Wooderson]

JoJo is right. To help you figure this pickle out long term, get SNGwiz or SNG Power Tools and analyze push/fold situations so they become second nature. I would say fold equity, fold equity, fold equity, but given the stacks here you really don't have any.

[jmc]

If you read Harrington, he'll tell you that heads-up matches at the end of a tournament are, ugly, brutal affairs mostly dominated by the cards.

Sorry, but the poker gods hated you that day. Cheer up and keep playing!

[Couga]

What Jojo said.

- Couga

[guitarizt]

Yep, Jojo's right. If you're stack is less than 10x the bb push any two on the button.

[abby99]

This is interesting:

"Are You Sage? Getting an Edge in Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em" by Lee Jones.

http://www.cardplayer.com/magazine/article/15250

[Seraph]

I ran into the same problem over the weekend... We started with 10 of us, and a few bad beats very early on almost put me to the felt. Thankfully, I was able to make a few hands and mount a comeback, and eventually took the chip lead.

When it came to heads-up, I got absolutely screwed. The deck went cold, and I think the best hand I had were pocket 3s, which ran up against hit pocket 10s. He'd continuously raise against anything I had. Even worse, he was showing his hands afterwards; lots of pocket pairs and paint. When I finally saw a flop, it was so random that there was nothing to bluff with. Everytime I pushed, he'd fold on it. Great strategy, except that it only has to fail you once... which it did.

Eventually I busted, but besides pushing, is there even a way to outplay someone like this?

Originally Posted by 99%evil

How do you play ultra aggressive players when you are heads up with blinds? I didn't have enough to scare him off a hand, he called all raises, even put himself all-in during the game a few times with suspect hands and caught.

Is there a defense to this? Or are you pretty much hoping the cards turn? I took second...could never get a hand, went out when I had 1,750 and was dealt A,7 and he called with J,2 and caught a J.

[guitarizt]

You can't play flops once the blinds reach a certain point. I used to play a lot of hu sngs and even in those around lvl 3 and 4 you have to start pushing. It's not pretty but it's unexploitable and to stray from it gives your opponent a big edge.

If you watch the nbc hu championship this year the commentators don't get why players like huck or ted push allin on the button with mediocre hands. It's because there's no room to play poker postflop as they're already pretty much pot committed. You can't sit around and wait for hands. I liked when gabe was commentating because he really understands the game.

This last weekend Matusow told Bloch that he was gonna push in the dark with any 2 once his stack was down to 10x the BB. You get to a point where there is a correct strategy for both players preflop. It doesn't give block any useful information to tell him that you're gonna push with any 2 at this point as both players already know this.