Heads Up: Raise/Call or Raise/Fold

[jae686]

Dan Harrington and Chris Ferguson have each made seemingly reasonable arguments about no limit tournament style heads up play where the small blind has the button. Harrington advocates never folding from the button, while Ferguson advocates never calling. Here are some of the pros and cons of each strategy:

Raise or Call (Harrington)
PROS:
-You ALWAYS have position and proper pot odds to call a random hand.
-You can attack small pots against a player who consistently check/folds without a pair or draw.
CONS:
-An observant openent will start raising most of the time you limp in.
-You may become reduced to limping in with premium pairs to disguise them, forcing you to play a much smaller pot with them.

Raise or Fold (Ferguson)
PROS:
-You can disguise your great hands by mixing them with marginal hands and even some weak hands.
-You can build the pot while in position, needing better cards to play the same sized pots out of position.
-If you raise enough of the time, your opponent may grow annoyed and call with terrible hands out of position.
CONS:
-You are sacrifing MANY hands in position and will usually end up playing most of your hands out of position.
-You reduce the opportunity to play a weak opponent post-flop.

Is one of these strategies superior? Do you call against a passive opponent and fold against an aggressive one? Do you call when stacks are deep and fold when stacks are shallow? Do you mix it up for other reasons? Discuss.

[ger664]

Oh this brings back memories of my first post. [img]/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

HU in regular 9/10 seaters SNGS are you are normally in Push/Fold mode and mostly you will push a lot from the SB.

If its a HU tourney then it is really about what type of player you are which determines what style best suits you. I would think that if you switched between each style at random times during one of these tournies would probably be best.

[DevinLake]

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I would think that if you switched between each style at random times during one of these tournies would probably be best.

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Agreed...although it wouldn't be a random. I like to feel out my opponents. See how they respond to me limping/min-raising, etc. and then go from there. Even your weakest players adjust a little to your style, so it has to be dynamic.