PKR _ Taking the Lead in Heads-up Cash

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Taking the lead in heads-up cash

Yo'll need o pla o of poiion a lo in head-p cah, o i' impoan o

make ome ell-imed hee-be

B Ro Jai on Fida 21 Ma 2010 10:00

Pa of he folloing eie: Head-p maecla

13Recommend

Youre at a huge disadvantage playing out of position in heads-up

cash games, but a simple tight-aggressive strategy can see you turn

the heat back onto your opponents

In head-p cah game poiion i o impoan ha almo all he pofi o

make ill come fom hand o pla on he bon. If o can beak een on

he hand o pla o of poiion o ill be a big inne.

Wih onl o plae, o ae foced o pla a mch eake ange of hand

head-p han in a i-ma o fll-ing cah game. A hand engh goe

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/#uX1Z3Q













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.







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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.

13Recommend







Commen

Ve good aicle. Thank

Commen b VinHan - 21/07/11 (Repo)

Nice ead, ome good aeg in hee. Thank

Commen b BoabWan - 21/05/10 (Repo)

Leae a commen

Yo m be logged in o po a commen.

Regie

2 commen

Shae

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