Learning about Heads Up and Short Handed play

[TightEnd]

Standard question first: which books/articles/internet resources contain the best sections on heads up and short handed play?

Next question: which online sites provide the best facilities for playing heads up/short handed as cost effectively as possible?

Finally: what are the best pieces of advice you can offer for heads up/short handed play?


The context: I have made the heads up stage of my last six shootout tournaments, but have only reached the final table once. In addition I feel out of my comfort zone when I am playing a table four handed or less

There's nothing wrong with my full table game, but I would be a better player if I had more confidence short handed. Hence the need to read up, learn and practice


Thanks

[yt]

I quite like the Pokerstars heads up games, lots of different levels. They have 4 player heads up shoot outs as well. They do 6 handed sit n goes now too. all good but it's my site of choice so i would say that.

[AndrewT]

Harrington on Holdem Vol 2 has an outstanding section on heads-up tournament play.

Essentially, heads-up tournament play is all about confidence, and having a good handle on what your opponent will do in certain situations. How often does he raise pre-flop? How often does he give up his blind? Does he bet at flops often enough to signify that he's doing it even when he misses? How does he respond to your bets at the flop?

In a high-blind structure, it's all about who can grab most blinds. Do this more often than your opponent and you'll win. With lower blinds, you can afford to leave your stealing until the flop. Oddly enough, opponents will pick up on your stealing here less often that they will pre-flop. Pre-flop, even the dumbest of opponents will eventually cotton on to the fact that, when you raise their big blind every hand, you're probably not just doing it with decent hands. Whereas on the flop, he's going to miss twice as often as he hits, and it can be quite feasible that you've hit it in some way. This will allow you to pick up a lot of pots and gradually increase your stack.

[Sheriff Fatman]

There's very little in print on heads up play specifically, other than Harrington Vol II and the short-handed section of Sklanksy/Malmuth's Hold'em Poker For Advanced Players.  The Harrington chapter is about as good as its ever likely to get (it runs through a head's up encounter between Ivey and D'Agostino and comments on each play).  The Sklansky section is a more mathematical approach, relying heavily on game theory.

This type of poker is very dependent on the actions of your opponent and the structure so its difficult to give general advice (e.g. you can't really go into depth on starting hands, etc).  Its really one that you learn by practice and experience, which is often difficult to get unless you go looking for it.  Seek out low buy-in freezeouts or short-handed games and practice as much as you can.  Try not to worry about the short-term results as long as you can justify your decisions when you look back over them.

Losing 5 out of 6 heads-up situations may not actually be an indication that you did anything wrong, especially if you were the shorter stack to begin with.  Short-term luck has a huge part to play and in most situations you'll find yourself in (particularly SnG's) the structure and chip position will do much to dictate your play (e.g. you'll often find yourself in 'push or fold' situations because you have few chips/ huge blinds).

I'd recommend reading the two sections highlighted above if you have them available, but this is one area where you'll get relatively little from books and everything from practice (and coming from a bookworm such as me, that's saying something!)

Sheriff

[TightEnd]

Thank you for the replies so far, I have Harrington II, and agree it is outstanding. As Sheriff implies though, there is a paucity of other information available

As an aside, I would welcome any advice you might have about how much to bet post flop heads up if one is seeking to extract the maximum from a strong holding

several times I have turned a straight or hit trips and not, in my opinion extracted the most from the situation

when to bet, how much, what signals do betting certain amounts send....specifically for heads up.

Thanks again

[AndrewT]

There are essentially 4 different scenarios in heads-up play.

1 You have a hand, he doesn't.
2 He has a hand, you don't.
3 You both have a hand.
4 Neither of you has much of a hand.

In 1, there's no perfect betting pattern which will get money out of your opponent, unless he is an out-and-out aggressor/bluffer. If your opponent doesn't have a hand, you're probably not going to get any chips out of him. Accept what's in the pot and move on.

With 2, it's best to just let these go. Face facts that he's going to pick up cards once in a while - learn to recognise this and get out of the way.

3 - These are ultimately the hands which end heads-up contests. In order to be knocked out and lose, you have to a) have the worst hand (sometimes the luck of the turn and river can do nothing to prevent this) and b) you have to have fewer chips than the other guy. It's this second requisite that is the key to winning heads-up contests.

4 - These are the situations where you should be getting a steady stream of chips from the other guy to ensure that you don't become short-stacked. Having more chips than your opponent prevents defeat. The free chips on offer when neither player has a hand are often the difference between the two players.

A couple of weeks ago I got to the last two in an STT. We started off about level in chips. During the battle, my opponent went all-in 3 times, I called and lost each hand. However, I still won because, in between these all-ins, I was picking up lots of blinds and betting at flops he hadn't hit. He waited around for a good hand to get all his chips in with, but he waited too long. I eventually got him on the 4th all-in - it was the only big pot of note I won in the contest.

I agree with the Sherrif though, heads-up is all about your opponent, not the cards - you just have to develop a feel for how much the other guy can be pushed around.