Joe The Pro: Heads up is still my game

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Heads up is still my game

I'm really enjoying heads up. Unfortunately, for some reason, Vietnam does not like FTP and I've been getting disconnected quite a bit (once per game minimum). Not only does it make me lose hands and sometimes all-in games, but it throws off my timing tell reads. I've had to ditch the rakeback (not very big, probably 150 a month) and switched over to PS.

The good thing about PS is that the rake is a little bit smaller which makes up for my RB lost. Instead of 20+1, its 22+1. I've been doing quite well and I hope to find the courage to move up to the 57 dollar games sometime. I am intentionally skipping the 33 dollar ones b/c I believe that recreational players would join 20 or 50 and not choose some random 30 something sized one.

I have much refined my HU strategy than when I was playing on FTP. The two biggest differences are my early game strategy and my fish playing stategy.

In the early game I have more of a probing style and have toned down my aggression. For example I may fold to 3 bets until I get a better idea of their 3 betting range whereas I would defend in the old days if it was done early. I feel that although the games take a bit longer, by knowing their range better before adjusting aggression helps me win bigger.

The second thing I've changed is my mid and late game strategy vs fish. I will now tend to min raise instead of 2.5 times raise calling station type fish b/c I do not want to inflate the pot too large preflop and thereby rewarding their calling station nature postflop.

Below are my updated graphs as of today. I had a downswing on FTP which then triggered me changing my style to hyper aggressive, which was really bad. I had to play very focused to get myself out of that hump (since I tilted playing 50s, and won it back playing 20s).