Weirdest HU Plays Ever --Advice?

I've been playing hyper turbo sngs and normally a standard, correct play people make is min raising their button every hand they open/play.

Well I ran into this dude who would limp his button with every hand he played (and he folded in between too). Including like super strong hands like 99, AK, etc. and raggy crap you'd think he should have folded like 84o, 93o, etc.

Every time I raised him to try to seize control of the betting since I'm out of position and that's tough enough, he'd 3bet me to leverage me for my entire stack if I 4bet. And put too much out to allow me to just peel a flop... like every time with every hand. And when I have shoved, he ALWAYS has a hand (at least 30 times), it's like wtf, how? And it's almost like he times it such that he knows when I will raise long before I do.

Sharkscope calls him a big winner, I don't understand his play, nor how to counter it. It's just bizarre. So clearly he is doing something right.

Should I let him just see flops cheap? I hate that. It's no fun and damn near impossible to play against a limitless range postflop without position or the betting lead.

I tried mixing up my raise size when I raised over his limp to see how'd he react, but he seemed to be one step ahead of me.

If I could, I'd just avoid this guy altogether because he is leveling me extremely well or some shit, but like he keeps sitting down at my games and I can't like block him or anything.

Uhh advice?

I had a gane like that whorebot and i were playing hu and he was doing the same thing. His strategy was to mess with my head and not play vwith any logic. He messed with my head even more when he payed me for losing lol

being i used to play heads up games on ftp on razz i had close to 15k profit and believe me your going to get into reg wars.. only thing you can do is keep your composure , play against weaker competition than go back and play versus this player again.. pickup timing tells, bet sizing patterns, and see how he reacts to different streets postplay... check-raising,continuation bets, 3 betting etc.. yes some players can get the best of you, but you have to adapt..

I can only say this in terms of my experience (I play a lot of omaha heads up) - if you think your flop play is superior, just being consistent preflop is key. I play a lot of "textbook" players all of the time who raise / cbet on the flop - I might call them with 9 2 because when they check on the flop they are out of moves to make.

just catch him.. sounds like maybe u need to work on post flop play... if ur having a hard time being out of position post flop ..
its not as u say "damn near impossible to play against a limitless range postflop without position or the betting lead."

Just stay on your game and you will take that crap out. good luck my friend.

I'm just playing micro hu sng with some decent success. I have a different style than you, but I find I do better when I go with the other person's flow the first few hands and pick my spots. If I start out really aggressive just to be aggressive, it backfires and the other player tends to play back fairly aggressively. If I play somewhat passive and then slowly turn up the aggression I get more respect with my raises.

For this specific guy I would just check when you are out of position. You are out of position so you will tend to lose money from this spot anyways, and it's not worth putting in extra money unless you have a hand you are value betting with. Then, if you connect with the board at all, bet it. Keep playing the button strongly and make that the spot you make most of your chips from. I think the flop only connects with any 2 cards about 1/3 of the time, so you still have a good chance of taking the pot down by waiting til the flop, or even the turn or river to bet. If I'm oop though, I like to have something I can fall back on if I bet and get called. It can be anything from a pair, overcards, gutshot, basically anything that gives my hand an edge.

generally the HUSNG strategy isnt to open min every hand, its open min with anything Q3+ and fold others... Its also not incorrect fto smooth call depending on your opponent's stats, and im sure he had an HUD open on you

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Originally Posted by walterb1991

generally the HUSNG strategy isnt to open min every hand, its open min with anything Q3+ and fold others... Its also not incorrect fto smooth call depending on your opponent's stats, and im sure he had an HUD open on you

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I said min raise every hand I opened, not min raise every hand.

Just check it. Is that so hard? No need to aggro and shit out of position.

Look in all seriousness, the math doesn't pick favorites. He wont have a hand every time. Just figure out his range and get the money in when you think you have a better hand. Just keep doing what your doing and remember that he wont always have a hand. It sounds like your on tilt, you need work on that.

Ok Jason here is the deal.... it sounds like you are emulating what you have seen, and perhaps not thinking exploitatively. For the most part, limping the button is suboptimal. Having said that, if you balance your limping range with some limp/raises, it can be an effective strategy. You first need to define his range based on his VPIP from the button. If he is limping his button with a 70% frequency, the you should be raising a decent % of his limps. Example: 30-60 lvl early, he limps and you have A8. Your hand is well ahead of his limping range. I would raise to 210, leaving him with 150 to call, and 270 in the middle. Anything that he flats, you can assume you are beating. He most likely will not flat unless he is bad. He is/will be getting less than 2:1 on his money, and even with implied equity should fold given that he has reverse implied odds. When he limps and you raise and he re-raises, he is forced to commit a decent potion of his stack. If you make it 210, even if he 3bets to 390, that is a large chunk of his 1500 starting stack. I would cram hands like A2 suited + A5 off + j10 suited + K10. This will force him to adjust. HU poker is all about adjustments. He is playing sub-optimally bu allowing you to see 100% of flops from the BB, and additionally by folding some of his SB's outright. Play your Button well, and capitalize on his Button limps. He will be forced to make adjustments, or you will completely exploit him by following this game plan. If he starts folding more buttons, then you should tighten your raising range. Having said that... if he is limp/3betting a ton, your raising range will be to 100% jam. There is no point in bluffing with a raise, if he is 100% re-raising. Once he starts to limp/fold to your raises, then you can obviously mix in a small % of bluffs. If/when he is forced to change back to a more conventional style, you will obviously be back in more familiar territory. However, if he doesn't adjust, I would say. " Yum Yum".

in general i'd stop 3betting him light and just flat him OOP, shove over his limps with hands that have equity even if u get called or fold.

You must understand your player before ever HUing them. A very good way to make money is to stalk youre future opponent for a couple (or more) games and then play them once you have already figured them out. I have once lost 7 straight games of HU only to win the next 23 (not in a row ofc)

sickread has good points same with Daredeviljo and others

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Originally Posted by Daredeviljo

You must understand your player before ever HUing them. A very good way to make money is to stalk youre future opponent for a couple (or more) games and then play them once you have already figured them out. I have once lost 7 straight games of HU only to win the next 23 (not in a row ofc)

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haha that is awesome advice actually

Great advice by sickread. You really need to open your range when people are are doing things like this. Especially if he is reraising all of your raises. You just can't be afraid to get it all in in those spots.

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Originally Posted by sickread23

Ok Jason here is the deal.... it sounds like you are emulating what you have seen, and perhaps not thinking exploitatively. For the most part, limping the button is suboptimal. Having said that, if you balance your limping range with some limp/raises, it can be an effective strategy. You first need to define his range based on his VPIP from the button. If he is limping his button with a 70% frequency, the you should be raising a decent % of his limps. Example: 30-60 lvl early, he limps and you have A8. Your hand is well ahead of his limping range. I would raise to 210, leaving him with 150 to call, and 270 in the middle. Anything that he flats, you can assume you are beating. He most likely will not flat unless he is bad. He is/will be getting less than 2:1 on his money, and even with implied equity should fold given that he has reverse implied odds. When he limps and you raise and he re-raises, he is forced to commit a decent potion of his stack. If you make it 210, even if he 3bets to 390, that is a large chunk of his 1500 starting stack. I would cram hands like A2 suited + A5 off + j10 suited + K10. This will force him to adjust. HU poker is all about adjustments. He is playing sub-optimally bu allowing you to see 100% of flops from the BB, and additionally by folding some of his SB's outright. Play your Button well, and capitalize on his Button limps. He will be forced to make adjustments, or you will completely exploit him by following this game plan. If he starts folding more buttons, then you should tighten your raising range. Having said that... if he is limp/3betting a ton, your raising range will be to 100% jam. There is no point in bluffing with a raise, if he is 100% re-raising. Once he starts to limp/fold to your raises, then you can obviously mix in a small % of bluffs. If/when he is forced to change back to a more conventional style, you will obviously be back in more familiar territory. However, if he doesn't adjust, I would say. " Yum Yum".

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He is adjusting to me faster than I can adjust to him. He is a psychological genius or something. I've watched him with other players and he varies based on who he is playing. Also, all my HU games have 1 observer. I think he is just like watching people play and looking for every way to exploit it well before he sits down. He has like a 30% roi in hyper turbo HU. That's just ridiculous. I'm just going to whatever I can to avoid him.

No reason to try to adapt to someone like him.

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Originally Posted by jasonv12

He is adjusting to me faster than I can adjust to him. He is a psychological genius or something. I've watched him with other players and he varies based on who he is playing. Also, all my HU games have 1 observer. I think he is just like watching people play and looking for every way to exploit it well before he sits down. He has like a 30% roi in hyper turbo HU. That's just ridiculous. I'm just going to whatever I can to avoid him.

No reason to try to adapt to someone like him.

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Well, you can't avoid him. He will sit your tables if he thinks he has an edge on you. I would implement a higher variance style against him. It will diminish a large portion of the edge that he has against you, and will probably discourage him from sitting your games. I am wondering what this players SN is fwiw.

theirs always a ego, and a sense of owning the range of players playing at a certain stakes among regs at hu sng's.. honestly all you can do is play at a different time when hes not online, or join other games cause he will sit down with you no matter what if this player feels they have the best of you.

If you really think he is that much better than you then use this.

Poker Math: Heads Up Against Two Random Cards Winning Percentage

It will tell you the percentages of your hand beating a random hand. I would call an all in with .60 hands. Shove all in with .50 hands.

If he is as pro as you say then he will know what you are doing and adjust, to counter this you should at random times make a small raise with top ten hands (AA-TT, AK, AQ, AJ, KQ, KJ) half the time or the other half with absolute rags. This will keep him guessing and hopefully he wont know how to play the flop or turn. On the river he will have you pinned down on a range depending on whether on not you check or bet, so try to end it before that by being aggressive and betting, and double barreling often.

This is not an optimal strategy against a weaker or equally skilled player, but against a psychological genius.

One more thing, try to waste time in the early blind levels, and try to stick with the best hands. The most skilled player hates rising blinds.

ill tell ya what hes doing right: he has luck. PERIOD. ive seen many of this typos online(most of them are russians and ukranians) and their main goal is to get u crazy and tired till u shove any shit just to ship them the rest of ur stack....only tip i could eventually give ya is: try at max show u are RATIONAL and INTELIGENT, thats the only things they will in some level respect at the end (ohh, and always show thankfulness when you win a pot by saying: "Thank you, you very kind.") ...... ;)

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Originally Posted by sickread23

Well, you can't avoid him. He will sit your tables if he thinks he has an edge on you. I would implement a higher variance style against him. It will diminish a large portion of the edge that he has against you, and will probably discourage him from sitting your games. I am wondering what this players SN is fwiw.

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OkkO10, but his stats are deceptive. You have to do an advanced search to HU only to capture his real stats.

The worst opponents are those, who go all in with any 2 cards :-). You will face them one time

I agree with IoInterista! The worst thing is, that when you finally decide to call so wild bets, opponents shows you monster hand like AA, KK and you wonder from where he dig it ... or shows you 27o and if Russian, he made quads or so :)

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Originally Posted by MadAdo

I agree with IoInterista! The worst thing is, that when you finally decide to call so wild bets, opponents shows you monster hand like AA, KK and you wonder from where he dig it ... or shows you 27o and if Russian, he made quads or so :)

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or you could win the fu--- hand with your premiums...which is the most likely outcome when playing maniacs.

Why do people always act like the fish always suck out? It just encourages bad play when you think the donk always gets lucky.