The Heads Up Cash Game Discussion Thread

[deadlydaveLDN]

There doesn't seem to be much discussion of HU cash games around here, so I think we can keep a lot of it to one thread for now. I'll write a few short key things for beginners to know, and hopefully other people can contribute too. Table Selection Absolutely crucial in HU Cash. The golden rule is to open your own table. Any table with someone already sitting there is likely to be a regular waiting for a fish to sit with him. All a fish wants to do is play, so he's basically never going to open his own table (as long as there's traffic on the site - and if there isn't he'll probably just go and play another form of poker). A reg is basically never going to sit at an already occupied table, since he knows that he's unlikely to find a fish waiting. On the rare occassion you end up playing a reg (it should take 25-30 hands to discover this based on his play, even if you've never seen him before) you should leave. There are an unbelievable number of fish around HU tables at busy times of the day, that there's really no excuse for trading blinds with regs, and paying rake to the poker site. When you do decide to leave the table (this should normally only be once the fish has gone, but occassionally you'll run out of time/run into a reg), always leave the hand after posting the SB. Only a minor thing, but you might as well play the extra hand in position rather than out of position. My own preference is also to only play against players who buy-in with 100BB stacks, but if traffic is quiet I will play 70BB+ stacks.

[Villagio]

Re: The Heads Up Cash Game Discussion Thread I lurve HU cash, apart from the swings. Good advice about opening your own table(s) and letting the fish come to you. Although plenty of regs at Stars are average to pretty bad. Just a shame the tables are only open at 50NL and above. My strategy against an unknown is to raise about 95% of my buttons, play pretty tight out of position (but not too tight, any pair/2 big cards deserve a 3bet), and just bet, bet, bet. If villain lets me walk over him I'll just keep doing it, but all the fun of HU is adapting to villain's counter-strategies (if they have any), sensing when they're adjusting, and re-adjusting my strategy to compensate. It's obviously a lot easier to get a handle on one opponent's play rather than 5 (or 9) so I do a lot of note taking at the start of a match. Simple stuff like "folds too much", "Aggro" or "trappy". I'd recommend doubling your bankroll requirements compared to 6max though, so play a level lower than usual. You can lose (and win) very fast. The two biggest things to help your winrate, in my opinion, are tilt control (variance sucks HU), and quitting when you're against a better player. If I'd quit when I knew I was outclassed instead of playing on to get even, I'd have done much better when I played HU cash.