I was playing in a 10 person sit and go at Full Tilt Poker today and played well enough to make it to heads up play. When heads up play began, I was a 3-1 underdog. I maintained a stable chip chip count through a few minutes of heads up play, until I deduced the playing pattern of my opponent. In fact, once I had found out his playing pattern, my opponent’s utter predictability turned out to be his doom.
My opponent did everything the exact same way when we were playing against each other. If he had a good hand, he would raise preflop. If he had a decent hand, he would call, and if he had a bad hand he would fold.
After the flop, if he improved he would bet and if not, he would check. I picked out all these facts during the first few minutes of heads up play, and picking up these facts made me armed and dangerous.
My most profitable strategy playing against this type of opponent was to raise when I was on the button. I raised every single hand I was on the button from the moment I saw that my opponent’s play was set in stone. My cards may as well have been blades of grass, since they did not matter at all. My cards did not matter because I knew that they were never going to be shown. Most of the time when I raised from the button, my opponent would defend his big blind with a call. The only time anything different happened was when my opponent was holding hands he couldn’t wait to fold.
After the flop in these situations, I had position, so my opponent’s first action determined the hand. If he bet out on the flop, I knew that he had hit something on the flop, so I would fold, knowing that any other action would land me in trouble. Whenever he checked, I would take advantage of his weakness and bet, knowing he would immediately fold.
Tactics changed only slightly when I was on the big blind. I would fold to any raises, unless I had a premium hand, and I would check after any calls. If the flop was unremarkable, I would bet out, knowing that my opponent would fold unless he had hit the flop. If he called or raised, I knew I had lost the hand so I would get out at the earliest opportunity.
Slowly, but surely, I began to chip away at my opponent’s lead until I had finally overtaken him, all the while winning nothing but small pots. I continued climbing until I had a 2 to 1 chip lead. It was at this point that my opponent’s frustration with my smothering play finally showed.
I had QJ and had hit top pair on the flop with a pair of queens. My opponent bet out, showing that he had hit on the flop. However, I knew I had the best hand from his actions, as he would have bet stronger if he had made a good hand. I raised enough to force him all-in, hoping that he would believe I was simply trying to take another pot away from him. He took the bait and pushed all his chips in with Q3. No help for him on the turn or river, and the tournament was mine.
The Lesson
There are a many lessons to be learned from this poker article. You could learn about the importance of aggressiveness in heads up play or about how to frustrate your opponent until they make a mistake. The most important lesson here though, in my opinion, is that when playing poker online, a lot of players fall into a rut, especially in heads up play. Circumstances change too much to spot specific patterns at a full table most of the time, which makes short-handed and heads up games the best spots to see the patterns.
I always like my chances in heads up, no matter how many chips I go in with. It is because of situations such as the one above that I believe that I always have the advantage in heads up play, able to take down a victory as long as luck doesn’t intervene.
Hone your heads up play, learn to unleash your aggressiveness, and know your opponent. If you do these things, victory shall be yours, just like it was mine today.
