Heads Up Sit and Goes: Balance
Marcus Bateman
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Marcus Bateman /
11 March 2009 /
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If you can balance your range of hands and become comfortable taking advantage of your opponents mistakes in balancing their actions you will win many more than 50% of your heads up SNGs.
After positional mistakes, talked about by Sorel Mizzi , the most common mistakes players make in this format is either calling or folding too much.
Both these player types actually feed off each other for the most part, as overly tight players take advantage of overly loose players, and then vice versa if the tight player cannot hit a hand before they get blinded away. As a result, both of these player types firmly believe that their particular style is correct (as it frequently works in their favour), when in reality neither player is balancing their range of hands and actions enough to be a winning player over the long run.
The reality of heads up poker is that so much of it is dependent on the flow of the game and previous hand histories that no one playing style is ever going to be correct. Sometimes you will have to make hero calls against very tight players, due to feeling that they are tilting after one or more suck outs, or make big lay downs against very loose players, simply because you feel that they are slowing down due to a few big call downs you have already made in the match.
Taking advantage of other player's lack of balance is only half the battle though. You have to be able to balance your own range of actions throughout a match to stop your opponent from finding weaknesses in your predictable behavior.
Particular areas to focus on balancing your behavior are:
- Varying your flop continuation bet frequency after raising pre flop - if you constantly fire at the flop your opponent will easily be able to start check raise bluffing you;
- Varying your three bet range when your opponent raises pre flop - if you start to do this too often your opponent will simply be making too much from you when they have a good enough hand to four bet all in; too little and you are missing many good opportunities to re-steal from them;
- Balancing your range when playing out of position - you should be regularly check raising and floating overly loose aggressive opponents to take advantage of their overly loose aggressive style; or by putting tight players under pressure by leading into them frequently.
If you can balance your range of hands and become comfortable taking advantage of your opponents mistakes in balancing their actions you will win many more than 50% of your heads up sit and goes. By keeping your game varied and adaptive you will not only put your opponent off guard, but will also give yourself the best possible chance to take advantage of their own weaknesses.
Related Entries
Heads Up SNGs - Position - Sorel Mizzi
Heads Up Sit and Go - The Nature of the Beast - Marcus Bateman
Balancing Your Ranges - Marcus Bateman
Balancing Your Game - Marcus Bateman
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