14/01/2012 PKR Taking the lead in heads-up cash 1/5 www.pkr.com/en/raise-your-game/ring-game-strategy/ringgame33/ 469 Articles Se ach aie ogame Search Raise Yor Game Raie ogame / Ring game aeg/ T ak ing he lead in head-p ca... Taking the lead in heads-up cash Yo'll need o plaoof poiion a loin head-p cah, o i'impoano make ome ell-imed hee-beBRoJaion Fida21 Ma2010 10:00 Paof he f olloin g eie: Head-p maecla13Recommend Your e at a huge disa dvan tage playing ou t of position in head s-up cash games, but a simple tight -aggressive strategy can see y ou turn the heat back onto your oppone nts In head-p cah gamepoiion io impoanhaalmoall he pofiomake ill come fom handoplaon he bon. If ocan beak een on he ha ndoplaoof poiion oill be a big inn e. Wih onlo plae, oae f oce d o plaa mch eak eange of ha ndhead-p han in a i-ma of ll- in g c ah game. Aha nd e ngh goe
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down, the importance of position goes up. So, while its great to have the
button heads-up, the reality is that you will be dealt 50% of your hands from
the worst position at the table, and too many players make elementary
mistakes from this spot that cost them lots of money. So, lets look at some of
the best ways to combat your positional disadvantage both preflop and
postflop.
Preflop pla
A competent heads-up opponent is going to be raising 80-90% of their hands
on the button. While its tempting to call and see a flop with a lot of hands, the
harsh reality is that you should really just be folding much of the time from the
big blind. Calling too often preflop is the chief reason why players lose so
much money from the big blind. You want to adopt a tight but very aggressivestrategy. Hands that are good to call and see a flop with are the likes of K-T,
K-J, A-9 and A-T. While these are strong hands and merit a three-bet on hand
strength alone, it is actually better just to call as you will keep your opponents
dominated Ace and King-high hands in the pot. That way if the flop comes
Ace-high you may well be able to win a large pot, whereas if you reraise
preflop with A-9 your opponent will most likely just fold smaller Aces such as
A-3 and only call with the Aces that dominate you.
Generally, if you are going to play a hand out of position its better to think
about three-betting because aggression really pays dividends heads-up.
Three-betting puts you in a great spot to either win the pot preflop or take it
down on many flops with an inflated continuation bet. Remember that all of this
advice assumes that you are maintaining a balanced range of hands to three-
bet with, both for value and as semi-bluffs.
Obviously, you need to have a very good reason not to three-bet all of your big
pairs. With these hands you simply want to get as much money in the pot aspossible and, against all but the tightest of opponents, getting it all-in preflop
with T-T+ is going to show a positive expectation. Other hands that you want to
be three-betting are A-K, A-Q and, depending on how loose and aggressive
the game is playing, some weaker hands like K-Q suited and medium pairs.
Its important to mix it up so that your three-betting range is not always heavily
weighted towards premium hands. If you call with 50% and three-bet the other
50% of your suited connectors and suited one-gappers, it will quickly let your opponent know that your reraises could mean a wide range of hands, making
you far more difficult to play against. The other advantage of these hands is
that they play very well postflop if you do get called.
If you can maintain this aggressive, unpredictable style, most opponents will
be forced onto the back foot. They will become much more wary of raising
and will be often be left guessing where they are in the hand, allowing you to
take the initiative. Dont get carried away though. Theres no point three-betting
complete trash hands like J-5 or 7-3, as these are just complete bluffs and are
almost never going to flop well if called.
Postflop pla
On the flop you have two options – to lead out or to check. Often you are
going to be checking to the preflop raiser, both when you hit the flop and when
you dont. Lets say you have K-T and the flop is K-2-5 rainbow. You check,
your opponent bets and now its up to you. While you have a strong hand
theres actually little reason to raise here on such a dry board, as youll rarelyget called by worse (unless you believe your opponent will make a big bluff).
Just calling and giving your opponent a chance to bluff the turn/river is the best
line to take.
On the other hand, lets say its the same flop but this time you hold 8-9 suited.
Here, a check-raise is the best line. Your opponent is only really going to be
able to continue in the hand with a King or a set, both of which are a tiny part of
his range.
Leading out is less widely used in heads-up play, but there are specific boards
where it works really well, such as when you flop a straight or flush draw. If you
check the flop and your opponent checks behind, you lose a ton of equity in
the hand if your draw doesnt come in on the turn, so leading out and winning
the pot there and then is often the best line.
Playing a solid game postflop out of position comes with experience, but
recognising simple spots to bluff-check-raise and less obvious ways tosqueeze out value will be a great start. The real key to being solid heads-up
from the big blind though is having great preflop fundamentals. A measured
and aggressive game plan like the one described above will help alleviate
some of the disadvantages of playing out of position.