[Doc]

In our weekly casual 10 man tournament game, I made it to the final two, where I was a 2 to 1 chip underdog. In the last 20 hands, my best hand was a J7 unsuited. I never had any pairs, any connectors (suited or not), or any paint (other than that Jack) and found myself getting blinded to death (my opponent told me he had an ace or paint in 15 of the last 20 hands). Finally, out of desparation, I played a 10-2h (literally the second best hand I had), since I was out of chips to make the next blind, and lost. So, what do you do when you have a horrible streak of cards like this in the end-game? At some point, you have to gamble, but had I bluffed, he said he would have called every time, since he was getting great cards. Help! Doc

[coyote]

Heads-up, you need to make a move before you have less than 2x the big blind. You need to be able to make a big enough raise that he's willing to lay down his hand.

In this instance, if what he said is true, you weren't going to be able to get him to lay a hand down and buy the blinds. But that's poker.

Were you limping at all to try to hit any flops??

[CaptLego]

The short answer is: it sucks to be you. You're probably gonna lose in that situation.

But there are a couple of things that might help:
1. Heads-up, you really have to play the person, not the cards.
2. By then, the blinds are huge. You have to put pressure on them and steal every blind you can. If they come back over on you, then you'll have a decision to make (and hopefully an opportunity to double up). Otherwise, force them to make the decision.
3. Suited and connected cards are of less value heads-up than they are in multi-way pots. Big cards rule. A single A or K is a monster. How did you play your J?

[Doc]

Coyote:

He did to me exactly what I would have done to him, had the tables been turned. I couldn't limp in because he raised me every single hand pre-flop, and when I am sitting there with 8-3u, its hard to call a raise the even the size of the big blind, let alone 3-5 times the BB. He pushed me around, and I was unable to do anything about it.

In our second game, I had slightly better cards, but did the pushing around with my stack, and easily won. But still, I couldn't get out of trouble in that first game. Maybe its just poker...

[VARoadstter]

Heads up:

Chipstack matters, but not as much as you might think. After all, if you are outchipped 3-1 and then double up on a hand you're even. A lead can vanish in an instant.

The one most important MUST DO activity when head's up is to be aggressive. In your post it sounds like you were going to lose anyway. If you never catch any cards then you are sunk because you must eventually have a hand to win.

In heads up play it is almost always correct to raise when you are first to act. You will have position on every other round and it forces your opponent to actually make a decision. I am notorious for raising 100% of the time when I'm the dealer heads up. If my opponent never plays back at me I'll run him over in short order. If he can play back, then I can make a decision to continue or let a hand go. Even if he plays back at me, I'm still coming at him next time around.

That's basically it. Be aggressive. Force your opponent to make decisions. Be ready to take a hand all the way if you have something on the flop.

[jojobinks]

Originally Posted by Doc

Coyote:

He did to me exactly what I would have done to him, had the tables been turned. I couldn't limp in because he raised me every single hand pre-flop, and when I am sitting there with 8-3u, its hard to call a raise the even the size of the big blind, let alone 3-5 times the BB. He pushed me around, and I was unable to do anything about it.

In our second game, I had slightly better cards, but did the pushing around with my stack, and easily won. But still, I couldn't get out of trouble in that first game. Maybe its just poker...

you let him take the lead on every single hand? you need to take the lead in heads-up action. that includes raising on the button with most hands you'll play. was he re-raising you? you say he raised every hand; i assume that means you were limping with bad cards, which told him "go ahead and take this one away from me."

if your cards were truly that bad then you were kinda screwed. that stuff happens, though, and your responsibility is to mix it up an ddo your best to win your share until your cards turn around.

[Doc]

Well said, and true. Usually, I am very aggressive, but this time, I was off, and found myself worrying way to much about what I perceived to be poor cards, and didn't play the situation. I got what I deserved. It was a lesson well learned, that's for sure.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by jojobinks

you let him take the lead on every single hand? you need to take the lead in heads-up action. that includes raising on the button with most hands you'll play. was he re-raising you? you say he raised every hand; i assume that means you were limping with bad cards, which told him "go ahead and take this one away from me."

if your cards were truly that bad then you were kinda screwed. that stuff happens, though, and your responsibility is to mix it up an ddo your best to win your share until your cards turn around.

You are right: I basically told him to take my money, and he did. I surrendered the lead, when I shouldn't have. The good news is that I learned the lesson, and dominated the second game by getting back to my usual style. Sometimes it takes a good kick in the ass to not get sloppy or forget fundamentals of the game.

[Captn_All_In]

Do you remeber watching Doyle and the guy with the shaved head on the WPT a few weeks ago. They were both raising on the button and it didn't matter what they had.

My theory, raise first...ask questions later. I can't change those two cards I was dealt with.

[Bhudio]

I agree with VARoadsstr on the size of you chip stack heads-up. You can't wait until he eats your blinds and the small size of your stack won't justify an all-in. Either the all-in is too small for him not to call, or, when you do double up it's not for a signifigant amount of money. It sucks, but sometimes I'll throw caution to the wind with K high and get lucky. It's heads-up.........