Contrasting of Styles in Heads-Up Poker

Well I DID have a video of me playing heads up on PokerStars to show you.  (I swear it only took one take for me to win.)  Unfortunately, the video will neither upload directly to this blog or to YouTube so you won’t get to see my dominating table presence at work.

In the match I recorded, I dominated a very passive style over several hands before hitting QUAD 9s to win a cool $6.  My opponent was extremely dead with almost no pushback in his or her game.  I bet at pots and I would say I took every one down outside of one where they had top pair or better (folded every time they bet).  I believe they only took 3-4 hands out of the entire 6 minutes we played.  The strange thing was they started being hyper aggressive at the end (a polar opposite) and ended up losing everything after I called a $180 raise preflop with 89 suited.  The flop came A99.  I checked.  They went all-in and that was curtains.

Heads up is so interesting because you come across so many different playing styles, from the ultra passive and slightly bi-polar to the hyper aggressive.  I’ve played against players so pressing I could barely breathe.  Every other hand, I was being put to decisions for some large fraction of my chip stack.  Then of course, there’s everywhere in between and the anamolies within those games.  For example, those conservative that turn into grinders because they need to leave.

This is why you must stay malleable at the poker table.  In the beginning of a game, I’m usually just trying to gather information about my opponent.  After about 7-10 hands, I’m ready to start playing.

sxc.hu