Knowing your opponent in Heads Up cash

[seanfaz]

Seen as I have posted on a lot of other people's threads and somewhat controversially, i thought it was about time i made my first thread to explain my thought processes a little. This is a hand i played about 3 weeks ago, and is a great example to show how knowing your opponent is key to aggressive heads up cash poker...... The blinds were £0.25/£0.50 and we had been playing for about an hour. I had roughly £180, and he had about £95 (he kept rebuying back in for £50). I was dealt 8c 6c in the big blind, and called his standard pre-flop raise to £1.50 (a fairly loose call). The flop comes 3h Ks Kh. I check, he bets £2 and i check raise to £6 because it is very unlikely he has caught a piece of this flop with the paired board. He quickly re-raises to £14 and this strikes me as a bluff straight away. He acted very fast - if he had a king or 3's full, he would have at least pondered his options. He would probably have called, hoping i bluff off on the turn, because it is very unlikely that we both have a king and i will bet and call for value. But here is where knowing your opponent counts. I remembered on several occasions where he had bet/raised/re-raised on paired boards, and this helped me make up my mind. I re-re raised to £28, quite a small raise which shows strength, and he folded. I gain alot of momentum and he proceeds to tilt off the rest of his cash. So that is where knowing your opponents can make marginal decisions easier when playing an aggressive heads up game.