WPR101 Blog

Lately I've been 10 tabling full ring and playing 1 heads up table at the same time for variety.  I usually play 2/4-5/10 cash or the $230/$335 turbo on Stars.  The sng and the cash games play a lot different and they both have their pros and cons.

With the SNG you are locked in for a buyin basically and the match will take no longer than 30 minutes.  It's critical to pratice table selection for these.  If you see a regular already sitting, do not sit!  It is not worth the trouble and the edge you might have will be minimal.  The nice thing is if you are against a good player it will be over soon and you are unlikely to be a dog.  The bad part is if you get a total fish you only have him for this short period... atleast he can't get up 20 big blinds and sit out though. 

On the first level (10/20, 1500 starting stacks) I make it 3xbb raise pre.  However, one the blinds get to 15/30 I prefer to minraise pre.  The minraise enables more postflop play because you are not committing as much preflop.  I like pick away at my opponents.  This means raising about half the hands and making small continuation bets.  Opponents often get frustrated by this approach and make moves at the wrong times. 

Another nice thing is opponents often don't understand fundamental sit and go principles when a player has less than 10 big blinds.  If you play this small ball approach the whole game and then start open pushing hands bad players will often give you way too much credit for a big hand.  No regular or decent player would fall for this. 

In general I think the heads up cash games are more profitable to play.  However, sometimes it's hard to attract bad players.  One thing I like to do is sit with an odd amount.  Say it is a 3/6 game.  I will sit with say $286.70 rather than $600.  It looks much less intimidating.  Often players who sit with that amount are really bad and are playing with a large portion of their bankroll... I want to appear to be one of those players.  After someone sits for 10 or so hands I will reload to the full $600. 

I try and practice leaving a cash table after 25 hands if a player appears to do nothing fishy.  You will notice right away usually.  Bad play is indicated by calling out of position preflop often, minraises, or open limping.  Good play is indicated by a few well timed 3-bets, folding out of position, and open raising 35%+ of the time. 

Cash game play is more frustrating to me.  In the past two days I have found some horrible opponents at 5/10 and 3/6 nl heads up.  Interesting enough they both had a similar tendency of being aggressive and not folding.  Maybe ever 4th hand I would raise I would get min 3-bet or face a very small 3-bet.  Normally this is great; I can call in position or 4-bet if my hand is strong enough.  The problem was I was calling but never hitting a flop!  It's tough when your opponent does this 10 times and you literally never hit a flop.  Then the couple times you decide to 4-bet bluff he shoves.  Adding to the frustration was when I got dealt premiums of JJ+/AK I was always getting folds.  Nothing was going right but in both cases I played until the villain sat out.  Despite being down a few buyins the game was still incredibly profitable over the long run.

You have to know when to quit at heads up cash.  Sometimes the momentum doesn't swing in your favor and you get totally steam rolled against a player who you should be crushing.  As long as your aren't tilting it's best to stay in the game assuming your bankroll can handle it.  However, you need to be honest with yourself because tilt comes in different forms.  For example against one of those opponents mentioned above I made a few tilty 4-bet bluffs just because I was getting extremely annoyed by the min 3-bets.  On balance I should have picked my spots more carefully.  The bluffs were necessarily bad, but if I was thinking more rationally I would not have made a few of them.

Personally I find the sngs to be more fun but the cash games are probably more profitable.  I get less frustrated with the sngs.  The sngs will inevitably come down to more luck because you are forced to show down.  But it's in those first 2 levels where you can really get a leg up on your opponents with superior postflop play.  For right now I'm switching back and forth between the two formats of heads up play depending on my mood.  Heads up play has helped me develop my reads better and it also makes me calmer when in full ring or 6 max situations.  Anyways, these are just some random thoughts I had lately about heads up play.  Feel free to comment.