Dave Colclough & the World Heads Up

Here's another article by Dave destined for the Home Page & then Articles. But with the serrver problems we have this weekend, I decided to post it here for now.

"......World Heads Up Barcelona May 2005

So here I was in Barcelona again. The early World Heads Up Championships had been held in Vienna before being switched to Barcelona last year. Although Vienna may be a truly beautiful city, Barcelona has proved a greater draw for Europes top players. Maybe it was the spectacle of the spires of Gaudis Temple Expiatiori de la Sagrada Familia., but it was more likely the appeal of the sun, beach and nightlife. Whichever reason, the event was fully sold at 132 players, with many of the young guns from Scandinavia shut out.
The black cloud of Late Nite Poker has ensured that I have become famous for losing heads up matches. The Bridesmaid still grates against my ego. However, I have always had a reasonable, but not great, heads up record. My policy of not doing final table deals, means that I have more experience than most opponents have of playing heads up at the end of a tournament. Usually for big money, and therefore usually under big pressure. The experience of playing under pressure has given me an advantage over the years, but nether the less, I still have a success rate in heads up matches lower than 60%.
I also hold the record for the quickest loss in the World Heads Up Championship history. Last years second round defeat to Rob Hollink lasted exactly one hand! Both of our 10,000 chip stacks were in the middle after the turn: with my 2 pair and a flush draw a big dog to Robs trips. I didnt improve and Rob sailed through. I therefore, approached this years competition without my usual confidence and expectation.
Nether the less, I did approach the competition with the usual preparation and had a strategy. Its not rocket science, and is probably the standard accepted strategy amongst poker professionals You just dont get enough quality hands dealt to you in a heads up match, so you have to win pots by stealing, or playing all your draws very aggressively. My policy was to raise as often as possible on my button, as opponents dont like to play out of position. Follow this up with the occasional steal from the Big Blind, and hopefully there would be just enough edge to swing things in my favour. Obviously, the better opponents will spot this strategy after a short time. So, I would then switch to a more defensive strategy. Hopefully by then, sitting on a good chip lead.
Having said this, strategy was completely irrelevant in my first match. In a strange quirk of poker gods fate, Jon Sullivan from the University Poker League was playing last years winner Angel Blanco Puras. After an hour or so, all the chips were in the middle, with Jon holding a pair of tens, versus Angels big slick. The Spaniard got lucky hitting an ace and Jon was eliminated. Similarly, I was drawn against last years losing finalist, Mark Banin. Likewise, on only the second hand of the match, Mark raised all-in with AK. Having watched the previous years video footage, I was 90% certain I was winning with my pair of tens. So I called.
I had been hoping Mark was holding a lower pair, and I would have his hand dominated. Unfortunately, I was only a 54% favourite. Nevertheless, I was probably less than an 8% favourite at the start of the match (if I was a favourite at all!). So it wasnt the worst coin flip in the world to get involved in. Anyway, my Tens stood up, and I progressed through.
Bluesq.com had my next opponent, the young Noah Boeken, an 8-11 favourite to win our second round match. However, the strategy got me off to a good start, and when Noah eventually started to call my bets I was fortunate enough to hit a few flops. Apparently Noah had been in the sea front bars until 10 a.m. the night/morning before. Perhaps that was the biggest factor in this confrontation.
My third and fourth round matches went exactly to plan. Neither of my Spanish opponents spotted the strategy and I gradually bled both foes to death. Stealing lots of small pots and keeping confrontations to a minimum. The crowd were not happy with me removing the last remaining Spanish interest, but I was through to the televised Quarter Finals.
The dark atmospheric television room was in a private corner of the Grand Casino. The pressure of the watching crowd had been replaced with the intimidating TV cameras. My opponent, Andreas Hagan, did not appear intimidated though, and was certainly not going to be bullied. Again and again, Andreas called my raises and steals. So I quickly switched from stealing to value betting, i.e. making bets with lesser hands like bottom pair. The logic being, if my opponent is going to call me with Ace high because he thinks I am stealing, then he will call me with Ace high when I have him beat with a lower pair.
Eventually though, I just hit more flops than Andreas. I wore down half his stack, and then we had a coin flip for the remaining half. I held 6,5 one club on a flop of 2,4,6 with two clubs. Andreas held 10,Q both clubs, giving him 14 cards to outdraw me. We were very close to even money, but Andreas did not improve. I was through to the semi-final.
Having turned up for my first five matches in top form, I unfortunately had an off day in the semi-final. Having researched my opponent, the information I received was that he was generally too tight. The truth was in fact, that he was very good at disguising his game. Peter Gunnarson called and raised all my early bets. By the time I realised that the classification was totally wrong I had lost half of my stack. I should have spotted it earlier, there is no doubt.
Peter was actually playing like a high limit, short handed limit hold em player. He loved to check and call, always giving his opponent opportunity to bluff. The perfect strategy to foil my strategy. I spotted it too late and had to toil with a short stack for over a hour. Eventually, I was unfortunate to lose with a K9 against Peters K5, but the damage had been done in many hands before. My opponent out-thought and out-played me. The following day he defeated Burnleys Simon Nowab in the final. Peter Gunnarson from Sweden was a worthy winner. My only consolation was that my third place took me back to the top of the 2005 European Rankings.
Now on to Vegas."