anything wrong with just checking the bb virtually always? NLTRN

[chh]

I've been playing a few SNGs and HU tournaments lately, but not more than maybe 20 matches. However since many people are obviously abysmal I feel like I have quite the edge against most people just by abusing position and knowing hand values.

Now the thing is that against people how play very passively preflop and like to fold their BB a lot, I'm often raising like 80% when I'm in the SB (if he picks up a pattern of raising when I only complete, I will obviously limp more with good hands to counter that etc) while mostly only checking in the BB (while villain will often surrender his SB)

Consequences are:

I'm often taking his BB without a fight, while he has to win mine first
I'm playing small pots oop and bigger pots IP so the pots I win will generally be twice as big as the pots he wins.

When I get a "premium" hand like KJ or something like that I will still raise to 4-5 BB oop, expecting to mostly take it down preflop or if not at least have a decent edge.

If villain would always complete I would ofc throw in a few more raises to discourage it, but if he's giving up like 20% anyway, should I still be raising more than 10% or is my way of playing it fine?

[Collin Moshman]

Hi chh,

I agree that you usually need a pretty compelling reason to build the pot OOP, namely having a strong hand. But it also depends on how Villain responds to your OOP pre-flop raises. If he is straightforward, usually folding to a standard c-bet after the flop or simply giving it up PF, then you can certainly increase the frequency of these raises.

Also, I don't think 10% pfr OOP is super-low ... 5% and you are almost certainly playing too passive. This is also assuming the stacks are relatively deep; in late-stage HU SNG play, if Villain is limping a lot, you would certainly want to exploit that by shoving pre-flop more. But in moderate-deep play (which I assume you're talking about), I think 10% is just fine.

I would be curious to hear from players who raise their option more frequently as a default.

Best Regards,
Collin

[arch_angel]

i'm fairly new so take this with a grain of salt, but as long as you're raising with solid hands to punish the opponent's limping then there shouldn't be a problem. i always check the bb if i'm not confident i can play the cards i'm holding post flop without connecting. so i think if you're protecting a weakness in your play then it's great but if you think raising is likely to win the pot against the limp then go ahead as it should be +EV. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[jay_shark]

A limp can mean one of two things :

1)It is either good enough for a raise but he opted to limp instead .

2)It is a weak hand and in all likelihood should be folded .

What percentage of the time does he do 1 vs 2 ?

Lets say it's 50/50 .

There are 2 units of bb's after the button limps . If you raise an additional 2 units , then you're risking 2 units to win 2 units . If he folds 50% of the time to your raises then it's neutral EV .

The whole point of all this is to keep track at how often this opponent folds to your raises oop . Moreover , you should keep track at how often he limps re-raises , limps-folds , limps-calls etc .

Also , if you're really confident with your postflop abilities then there is more incentive to raise oop .

As a general guideline , if your hand is better than average oop and your opponent limps on the button , then throw in a raise to see how he responds . If it's close to average and perhaps even slightly better than average , then there is nothing wrong with just checking .

[chh]

yeah up to now I've been playing non-speed so stacks are really deep.

mostly it feels like gambling it up when I raise to 120 with stacks 1500 and BB 30 since it makes this one pot so important.. and I really feel uncomfortable doing this oop since I will have a somewhat lower chance of taking it down uncontestedly.
I prefer to keep these important pots to when I have position.

But I'm very open to explanation as to why I might be wrong

[PeeTang]

I'm no expert and have read very little on heads up poker, but I feel like it's the one type of poker you may find great success at without reading up a ton on. It's just SO different from other poker games and SO different based on opponent. There just isn't a correct answer or proper way as far as I can tell. You could check everytime and have great success, you could even minraise EVERY hand and have great success against certain opponents. I just feel my way through each opponent, and seem to do very well.

Things I consider:

-as stated before, pay very close attention to your opponents reactions to bets of all different sizes and positions. pay special attention to his fold habits to bets on the flop, turn, and river.

-be aggressive (raise often preflop in all positions) unless observations lead you to do otherwise. (he limp shoves often, etc.)

-Test the waters. you'll need to get over the idea that 120 out of 1500 is a lot to gamble. you're HU game should be MUCH looser than others in my opinion. I test the waters by bluffing the flop, or re-raising when it's relatively cheap. It's easily worth 120 chips to expose a major weakness in an opponent.

There are just SO many little things to pay attention to because this game is much less about a default technique and more about clever reactions.

With the use of those tidbits, I do very well against most players. The maniacs are easily the hardest for me to beat as consistently as others.

maybe someone can offer some advice on playing against maniacs who shove constantly?... I'm not happy with a coin toss.

-tang