A heads-up tournament
I sat down tonight at about 9.55, ready and willing to play in the $55 @10:00. Unfortunately I failed to notice that whilst I had the lobby open I hadn't actually registered, so the start time came and went and it took my a minute or so to work out why.
That left me at a loose end. I could have watched telly (I watch virtually none these days) played a bit of backgammon (against the pooter - its quite an interesting game) or find some other tourny to play in. Discounting a Stars Multi-SNG, I signed up for a heads-up tourny at 10:10. I've never played in one of these, and I've been quite proud of my heads-up poker for a while, so I though I'd test it out.
It was a fantastic experience, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Playing mano-a-mano has been described as the purist form of poker, and I can see why. It was immensely enjoyable, and the constant action was oddly appealing.
My first round opponent was fairly weak and predictable, and it was reasonably easy to dispose of him. My second round opponent was a bit better, and hit some good cards and busted me. I'm not really able to gage my level in these things yet, but I'll give them another few goes. Embarrassingly, having been playing $100 tourneys - this was only a $5 affair, but its a start I guess.
Two hands stick in my mind, both in the second game. Firstly, I held 87o on a flop of 976. 2 diamonds. I was feeling confident about my straight-draw, and I had a pair. I had position on my opponent who check-called bets on the flop and turn. The turn and river were both diamonds - so there were 4 on board, and we both checked the river. He turned over 85 for a flopped straight. The 4th diamond saved me from busting.
In my last hand I held AQ. He completed from the SB, and I checked. Jack-high flop, where he calls my bet. We both check the turn, I push the river - he has 2 pair (J5)and I'm toast.
The lesson I picked up from this tournament is
1) Position is even more important than I realized. I got into all sorts of problems with this.
2) I should be defending my BB more. If he's completing I don't really want to be playing OOP. If I've got junk, or a medium strength hand I may just check and see to keep the pot small, but if I've got any kind of hand (say 22-TT,AT+,KJ+,QT+) I think I'm gonna raise it up to try and win it there and then. The downside of course is then playing a larger pot OOP. Hmmm.
This is an interesting game - the first time I've played deep-stack HU, and one I'll certainly play again.
That left me at a loose end. I could have watched telly (I watch virtually none these days) played a bit of backgammon (against the pooter - its quite an interesting game) or find some other tourny to play in. Discounting a Stars Multi-SNG, I signed up for a heads-up tourny at 10:10. I've never played in one of these, and I've been quite proud of my heads-up poker for a while, so I though I'd test it out.
It was a fantastic experience, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected. Playing mano-a-mano has been described as the purist form of poker, and I can see why. It was immensely enjoyable, and the constant action was oddly appealing.
My first round opponent was fairly weak and predictable, and it was reasonably easy to dispose of him. My second round opponent was a bit better, and hit some good cards and busted me. I'm not really able to gage my level in these things yet, but I'll give them another few goes. Embarrassingly, having been playing $100 tourneys - this was only a $5 affair, but its a start I guess.
Two hands stick in my mind, both in the second game. Firstly, I held 87o on a flop of 976. 2 diamonds. I was feeling confident about my straight-draw, and I had a pair. I had position on my opponent who check-called bets on the flop and turn. The turn and river were both diamonds - so there were 4 on board, and we both checked the river. He turned over 85 for a flopped straight. The 4th diamond saved me from busting.
In my last hand I held AQ. He completed from the SB, and I checked. Jack-high flop, where he calls my bet. We both check the turn, I push the river - he has 2 pair (J5)and I'm toast.
The lesson I picked up from this tournament is
1) Position is even more important than I realized. I got into all sorts of problems with this.
2) I should be defending my BB more. If he's completing I don't really want to be playing OOP. If I've got junk, or a medium strength hand I may just check and see to keep the pot small, but if I've got any kind of hand (say 22-TT,AT+,KJ+,QT+) I think I'm gonna raise it up to try and win it there and then. The downside of course is then playing a larger pot OOP. Hmmm.
This is an interesting game - the first time I've played deep-stack HU, and one I'll certainly play again.
posted by PP at 11:09 PM
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