Fala galera!
O pessoal do PxF adquiriu outra escola de poker, a PokerFox.net, e com isso acho q vao dar um up na parte de cash do site q eh bem pobrezinha.
Nao sou jogador de cash e mto menos HU, mas eles acabaram de colocar um artigo no training center q to trazendo pra vcs. Nao li ainda entao nao sei se eh bom, mas os kras parecem ser bons uma vez q tao fazendo muita propaganda com a nova aquisicao.
Assim q forem trazendo mais artigos vou postando nas suas respectivas secoes.
Abracos
Nakama
Article 1: Heads-up Play
The focus of this article is on heads-up SNGs, but the information is applicable to any heads-up situation. In sit and go tournaments, where the difference between first and second is so large, solid play once you get down to two players is crucial for a good win rate, and in multi-table tournaments the payout difference is also very large. Even out chipped, once you are heads-up, you have an excellent shot at winning if you play well, because your opponents usually won’t. And when a ring game winds down, it won't be you walking away because the table's become short-handed, you’ll be rubbing your palms together and getting ready to make a killing.
Heads up play can be very dangerous for the beginner, start small with these ideas and work your way up so that you don’t end up playing over your head. First, you’ll need good grasp of basic poker theory to be able to recognize your opponent's mistakes. I highly recommend becoming at least somewhat familiar with playing no limit, and with tournament strategy, before playing heads up SNG's.
The key to heads-up play is analyzing your opponent and capitalizing on his mistakes. With only two of you in, starting hand requirements are incredibly low, and you’ll both be playing more hands than you typically would. In order to determine how many hands you should be playing, you’ll need to watch your opponent carefully, but we can start with a few basic rules.
Starting Hand Values –
1. When the blinds are very low during the first few rounds, you should be more interested in playing speculative hands and seeing flops. Calling a small raise with 79s or 55 is not unreasonable at all and can pay off when you flop a monster and your opponent can’t get away from his top pair.
2. Be careful of getting roped into big pots. If you raise with 67o and your opponent makes a reraise more than the minimum, you should probably let the hand go before you end up committed to the pot on the flop.
3. Reraise with your big hands. The top five hands all deserve a large reraise if your opponent ahs raised because you don’t want to give him a chance to out flop you when you may have to pay him off.
4. Feel free to fold, the blinds are small. Even if your opponent is folding too much, give him a walk when you look down at J2o. He’ll stay tight that way, remembering that you aren’t raising every hand, and you’ll stay out of trouble.
Once the blinds get higher you’ll need to be stealing often, and restealing with bigger hands depending on how often your opponent is raising. Above the 50/100 level you should learn to use the SAGE system until you are playing very well, and an ICM calculator will be helpful as well. Here’s a link to a SAGE calculator that runs as an AHK script. Sage isn’t perfect, and you should learn to play better than SAGE at some point, but while you are learning it will be a big help.
The second key is watching how the other guy plays, and finding ways to make him pay for his mistakes. If he calls too much, you can value bet your marginal holdings aggressively; if he folds too much, you run right over him; if bets the value of his hand, you use the information he gives you to bluff him off hands, or fold your own good but not great hands.
And exploiting your opponent's mistakes is so much easier in heads-up play, for the simple reason that there is nobody else there. In most other poker situations, if you try something fancy to take advantage of another player's weakness, there is always the chance that a player yet to be act is going to wake up with a hand and snap you off. This doesn't happen heads-up. It's just you and him. And while he plays the way he always has, you don’t have a style, you just play whatever style is best for beating him.
A few common mistakes you may spot in your opponents -
Being overly predictable. If a guy bets a certain amount with certain types of hands, or only raises with a very strong hand you have to take the information he is offering you and use it. Figure out what each play means and then start to abuse them.
Folding to small bets too often. Many players will fold to a minimum or very small bet on the flop far too often. When you are getting 5 to 1 on your minimum bet and your opponent folds 2/3 of the time, it's an obviously profitable situation. You won't want to make the small bet every flop or they might wise up, but you will want to do it often if they will fold to it.
Paying off top pair or other medium strength hands by calling medium size bets every round. I find that many players will call all the way with middle or even bottom pair, even though you bet half the pot every time. A raise on the flop with their medium to low strength hand would save them a lot of trouble by helping them to know where they are at, instead of paying off bets all the way. If you bet half the pot each round, your opponent is giving you more chips than they would be if they called a bet of twice the pot on the flop. When you find one of these players, and the board stays fairly safe all the way, milk them for all that you can.
A quick story from Hatfield on paying off:
"I found a player on Bodog who would pay off seemingly any amount of money if he had any piece of the flop. Any piece. I lost a few bluffs to him because of this, but eventually value bet my way to a victory. I waited till he sat at a new table (a higher limit one I was happy to see), and I quickly sat down again. On the third hand, with the blinds still at 5-10, I picked up Kings. He minimum raised and I smooth-called. The flop came 9-3-2 rainbow and he minimum bet, telling me he had caught a piece of the pot. Now, normally anyone would raise a small amount and try to fish him in, or call and try to raise him on the turn, or any number of tricky plays to try to extract the maximum from the hand. Not me. Knowing what I knew about him, I moved in, and he called without hesitation. My kings beat his A9 and the tourney was over in three hands. Nice hourly rate."
Making huge over bets and all-in moves frequently. You will see this often, especially at the lower levels, and by watching the frequency of these bets you will be able to get an idea of the range of hands that your opponent is making them with. I've called big all-in over bets preflop with AT or similar hands once I see my opponent making this type of bet too often. If your opponent is making these plays often on the flop, then start seeing flops and as soon as you hit a big one you’ll have a good shot at ending the tournament.
Going all-in only in certain situations. A subset of being overly predictable, this is common at the low limits. There are certain players who will only go all-in when they have the nuts or close to it, There are also those who will only go all-in on a bluff. Finding the difference between these two players can be expensive, obviously, but once you find out which it is, you can abuse them horribly. Watch for a player who sells his good hands cheaply, chances are when he moves in, he is bluffing. On the other hand, watch for someone who seems to bet the relative value of their hand (my favorite type of opponent btw), chances are if they move in they are holding something huge.
Bluffing every time they are checked to on the river. Some players will bluff every time you check on the river, so you can make a ton of money just checking and calling on the river with your middle pair hands. You avoid paying off big hands when you get raised, and you still get paid off on your medium strength hands. Some people just can't stand to check down a hand.
Betting weak hands on the river. You should only be betting hands that figure to win if you get called, or hands that are totally hopeless. You can bet your totally hopeless hands if it is the only way you will win the pot and the bluff is a profitable one, but betting bottom pair is just throwing money away. I can't tell you the number of times I have called small bets on the river to find that my opponent has bottom pair or an ace high. They will only get a call from me if I can beat them, and hands that they could beat on a showdown I will fold to a bet. This play cannot win money; it can only lose. Go ahead and check and call with that middle or third pair on the river unless you are very certain that you are ahead. You will induce a bluff or you'll avoid a raise, either way you make a profitable play.
The Muskie Reaction. Another example of being too predictable is what I call the Muskie reaction. Here in Minnesota many people like to fish for Muskie. The Muskie is a large, territorial, predatory fish, and the way to catch them is to either make them think the lure is food, or just make them angry. Either way they respond in an aggressive way. As long as you figure out what triggers their wrath, you can hook a big fish.
You will find many players are like this as well. They will see certain bet sizes or betting patterns as a bluff and will raise or reraise with almost anything. If you can identify just which lure sets them off while the blinds are still small, you can toss that lure out later in a much bigger pot, and take a mountain of chips from them.
To discover what mistakes your opponent makes and capitalize them, you must watch every thing he does. You can beat a 2/4 limit game while you play Nintendo and talk on the phone, but beating anyone but the very weakest opponent will be very tough heads up unless you are paying close attention. Watch closely and discover betting patterns/styles. Use the first 2 or 3 blind levels to get a feel for your opponent. Don't be impatient, there's no need to pile up chips right away unless you have a big hand. By the end of the third level, if not before that, you should have a good idea where your opponent's weaknesses are, and what their style is. Remember, it's okay to fold to a raise over and over, as long as you are getting information and you will break your opponent with that information later.
I'm presenting mistakes as things to look for in your opponent, rather than in your own game, so that you will stay with the aggressive attitude. If any of these are holes in your game then by all means eliminate them, but watching for them in your opponent is much more important. Always keep your focus on your opponent, and stay a step ahead of them.
Bobby Baldwin says to switch speeds rapidly, and I agree. Don't slow down or speed up--change speeds like flipping a switch. You've raised the last 5 pots and can feel your opponent getting ready to play back? Don't wait for him to do it, fold pre-flop. Save yourself a bet or two and frustrate him. As soon as he thinks he has you figured out, switch gears again. Part of reading your opponent, is knowing what he thinks of you. Present an image and get him to believe it and you can make him do whatever you want him to. Toward the end of a tournament I (Hatfield) can often bluff an opponent out with a very small bet, because I've been selling my good hands cheap and bluffing big.
You must be much looser and more aggressive than you would be with a larger number of opponents. Seems obvious, but you would be surprised at how often you can run over your opponent simply because they don't understand this concept. You must pay attention to the size of the stacks. Also seems obvious, but paying close attention to the stack sizes will help a great deal. It's also very important to remember to play small pots with small hands and big pots with big hands.
While you are being loose and aggressive, remember to get your foot from the gas to the brakes in a hurry. If you are running over an opponent who suddenly plays back at you, just fold your hand and start pushing him around again the next hand. It doesn’t do you any good to steal his blind 10 times and then give those blinds back when he has a real hand and pushes back. If a wimp is ready to fight, you can be certain that he knows he’s going to win.
The more general poker knowledge you have the easier it will be to become a great heads up player. Learning about the logic problems involved, and where to find positive EV situations, will help your heads up game. I highly recommend The Theory of Poker, Tournament Poker for Advanced Players, and Harrington on Hold Em Vol. 2 as required reading. I also recommend finding the best heads up players on the Sharkscope leader boards and watching them play for a day or two, you’ll learn volumes watching the best in the world. You can usually find them sitting alone waiting for an opponent. Like a spider waiting for a fly. These guys are nasty, don't make the mistake of sitting down to play them, just watch and learn.
I think the key to my (Fox) winning record in heads up matches is my attitude. I used to be terrified of short handed play, and for the first few years that I played poker seriously I played almost exclusively ten handed SNG's and ten handed ring games. Once I was forced to play short handed while I was propping, I became more comfortable with it, and after a little education I began beating the heads up SNG's. As I began to view myself as the predator instead of the prey, I started to win consistently.
Aggression is key. Being the aggressor isn't just about raising more often than your opponent, it's about watching for their weaknesses, paying more attention to their game than they do, and abusing them. Sometimes you will shut it down, folding your blinds and letting your opponent buy pots, because you know they will double you up when you get a playable hand. You're still the aggressor; you're just waiting for the right time to spring your trap. Other times you will buy pots with small bets and slowly wear your opponent down, or steal blinds. No matter what you are doing you will be the predator, because you are finding the cracks in your opponents armor and abusing them.
Seep into those cracks like the cold getting inside a knight’s shining armor. He can polish that armor and try to plug holes all day; you'll still work your way in and get to him. People will discuss heads up strategy all day in places like the 2+2 forums, debating which hands you should steal with, what your EV is in various situations, and lots of other poker geek stuff. I say bring em on. While these people are working to plug holes in their game, they are ignoring my style, and I'm finding the holes in their game that they don't even know are there yet. Formulas don’t work as well as being adaptable, predatory, and watchful.
To summarize - Pay close attention, don't be impatient, and never fear your opponent. You are the aggressor, even if it means lying in the weeds like a jaguar, ready to spring. Think about the profitability of all your possible decisions, choose wisely, and try to keep the pot size reasonable compared to the strength of your hand. And don’t get trapped, think ahead, in every hand, about how big you want the pot to be.
Chris "PokerFox" Wallace
Adam "hatfield13" Stemple
AVISO: TÓPICO ANTIGO
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