HU plo8 sng's

[neverforgetlol]

I tried a couple of these, the second guy wasn't even supposed to be in it, he thought it was holdem but he still beat me of course. anyone have any strategy for these? There seem to be some people like tatta on stars that are completely owning them and I have no idea how.

[Rootabager]

What stakes you talking about?

[neverforgetlol]

20-50, that's usually all that's running

[redmarion]

As in any H2H competition, you have to learn how the opponent plays while the blinds are low.
(a) Will he fold to a raise FTA.
(b) Will he fold to re-raise
(c) Will he call a bet if you bet a flop and you are holding the "key" outs for lows, str8's & flushes.
(d) How does the opponent react to mini-bet, 1/4 pot bet, 1/2 pot bet, or PSB.
(e) If you can call to see some of his hands, what types of hands does he play.
(f) Does he auto-bet when you check (is he subject to getting trapped).

Can you control the action?
What is your image in relation to the questions/characteristics I show above. What image do you project?

Other than that, get your money in good, and let the cards work.

[Mr_Donktastic]

I haven't played much on Stars but used to play alot of these on AP, mostly 20s. The above includes 6 matches vs tatta, and the majority of the other matches are vs regs as far as I can tell (all winners in Sharkscope).

All of the info the above poster outlined is gold. You have to play the players, get reads on their betting patterns, etc...basic HU stuff.

What I would add is that:
1) At 50 and above there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of traffic. You occassionally get the random drunk or NLHE player who gets there on accident or because he is on tilt.

2) Most of the regs are beatable from what I can tell. I'm even with tatta and would say he is the only person I know of that you should avoid.

3) Most of the regs play very tight. My gameplan is to control the action as much as they will let me, but not committ alot of chip that I can't back up. In other words I prefer to play small ball with them. Pick up a lot of pots on the flop - or if I sense they are drawing and the river bricks, pick of a lot of pots there.

4) when you flop really good hands try to build pots on hte flop and turn so that you can fire a pot bet on the river. So many pots in HU PLO8 with a low WOULD be chops if you let them see a showdown - its great to hit the nut low and get them to fold top two on the river after commiting chips on earlier streets, know what I mean?

5) Make sure you know what hands play well all in prelfop in case the blinds get big.

6) Good luck!

[wiseheart]

Mr_Donk,

The thing is, Tatta is about the only one who
plays the $55s HU SnGs on Stars. Bigtimeboo
also plays occasionally and also the $100s
with him, but Tatta doesn't seem to want to
play Bigtimeboo (they will sign up for the same
price HU SnGs but on different tables) so I
figure if Tatta won't play him then I shouldn't either.

That said, yeah every once in a while someone will sit
at the 100s that are easy money.

[Mr_Donktastic]

If I didn't make it clear in my post I would say that it would be generally a bad idea to try to play these for a living.

I've played tatta, bigtimeboo, ronpraha, playwmynutz, jfeez, sir airborne, etc....all good players. You are right that bigtimeboo is one of the better ones - I forgot aobut him. I played him once and lost, and made a note not to play him again because our his style conflicts with mine. In fact I'd rather play tatta than him.

Anyway I decided that it would be a waste of time to try to focus on these. There aren't many games running and most of the regs are good. I'm sure after a while they would adjust to me and it would become breakeven or a marginal winner at best. I mean with my sample size I may just have gotten lucky, or they may just have not been trying hard enough cuz they thought I was a fish, idk...

[PLO8FaceKilla]

[ QUOTE ]
I tried a couple of these, the second guy wasn't even supposed to be in it, he thought it was holdem but he still beat me of course.

[/ QUOTE ]
I play mostly HU PLO8 since the new year. It's a great game and i've been building my bankroll from the 5's, to the 10's, and now on the 20's hopefully going to 30s shortly.

Only a complete moron admits to joining on accident but i would say about 1/10 or 2/10 games i play are against someone who joined on accident.

Sometimes they admit it and sometimes Sharkscope can pretty much confirm it along with their horrendous play.

If you can control the betting you are in good shape in these.

[gergery]

i think best strategy would be to not play them, roi's are ~12% for the 50's even for better players. that's ~$15/hr or equivalent to maybe $1-2 cash games. most of the regulars in those are not terrible (tho none are great imho) and so blind escalation will mean edge isn't huge. only reason would be lower variance on smaller bankroll.

[wiseheart]

I agree with Greg. I'll usually cut back to HU SnGs
when I have taken a hit to the bankroll. Not a very
good return on time. They are really good for when you
need a poker fix right away though, as they provide a
lot of immediate action.