(NLCASH) Phil Ivey vs Durrr

[doc43]

Yesterday I watched Phil Ivey play a guy called Durrr HU 200-400 NLHE on FullTilt. Over the course of about the 90 hands I watched, when Ivey was in the SB, he either folded or raised 3xBB. He never called the BB. During this period of time, Ivey had Durrr out-chipped 1.5-1 to 4-1. This stratagy of Ivey's was significantly different than the one chronicled in HoH II where he never folded the SB (presumably because of the pot odds) and this SB raises were 2-2.5xBB.

Granted, I may not have seen enough of their play, but Durrr didn't seem like the type to automatically raise from the BB.

I'm curious on thoughts about his play in HoH vs that described above.

[cwar]

Tournaments are different than HU cash, Ivey limps a lot HU in tournies not in cash games.

[Vinetou]

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Tournaments are different than HU cash, Ivey limps a lot HU in tournies not in cash games.

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Is limping in cash games not a good idea? I imagine that you have to play your position more in tournaments because blinds increase at some point so you can't fold so much. You are in a hurry. You have to play every hand in a position because of the future blind increase. In cash games, blinds does not represent such a portion of your stack so there is not a lot dangerous of being blinded out. Is there any other reason? I don't play cash HU games, but when I make a deposit on tilt, I will.

Does Harrington suggest limping with trash just because of pot odds? Because I find that from some players I can easily steal a lot of small limped pots because they won't defend it as much as big pots (so I can limp and steal then) because they are so small, while with others is vice versa(they don't understand odds, so they think "it is just 20 chips to call). So it depends on the players also.

Am I thinking in the right direction or is there any other reason for Ivey vs Harrington strategy?

[doc43]

It seems to me that when the tourney is down to the final two, the play is very similar to cash play, except for the increasing blinds.

Harrington from HoH II page 372-73: "...the small blind/button player always has the pot odds needed to at least call pre-flop...you can literally call with any two cards..." He goes on to say that you would not stand up to a raise with trash, "but that is a different issue."

[ChicagoRy]

In HOH his example of a player limping any hand at the end of the tourney is illustrated by a HH with Phil Ivey. If anybody out there has not read it yet I would suggest buying this book for the HU literature in it. Unless you've gotten to higher stakes already, I think there is something in there for everyone, or at least a book form (more clearly written) type explanation about some of the things you see in this forum that sometimes aren't explained as well.

Also, I'd imagine that at the higher levels limping in HU cash is not the best strategy. I'm sure at the levels that most people start at in cash you can limp almost any hand profitably.

In HUSNG/HUTRN I often limp any hand from the sb. Most people either defend way too little or way too much. If they defend too much I generally will limp a big PP when I get one and limp/raise pretty high and the frequency of my opponent calling and me being in position in a big pot is pretty high. I'd imagine this doesn't work quite so well at the higher levels, but I see a ton of limped pots in a lot of higher buyins (the 200+15 Sunday on Stars for example).

What it comes down to I think is what can you hope to accomplish with limping and what is it going to cost you. Against weak/tight players that don't give you action enough you are probably better off raising almost every hand on the button. Against a player that doesn't defend preflop, you should probably limp any hand. There are of course exceptions and if I were playing somebody I felt had a good advantage over me I would not limp as many hands, as postflop your advantage will be worse. The opposite is true, however, and I think most people on this forum have some advantage over opponents at their buyin, so limping is usually good.