One Glaring Weakness In My Game (advice Please)

[HenduzRevenge 0]

I am decent, profitable overall player. There is one part of my game I have the most difficulty with. It is when I find myself in a heads up situation when there are only two people left in a tournament. This goes for STT and MTT both in casinos and online. Specifically, I find it nearly impossible to defeat opponents who are ultra aggressive, basically raising and reraising every hand. I realize that increased aggression is a basic tactic when you are heads up. But I am talking about players who are ULTRA aggressive in a heads up situation. My playing style is usually very loose/aggressive myself, and this usually brings me success 9 handed all the way down to 3 handed. What am I doing wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Biff Goods 0]

It is when I find myself in a heads up situation when there are only two people left in a tournament.

I find myself in heads up situations when there are only two people left all the time....that's crazy

[HenduzRevenge 0]

I find myself in heads up situations when there are only two people left all the time....that's crazy

The reason why I phrased it that way is that I wanted to be clear that I was talking about a heads up situation in a LENGTHY MULTI PLAYER TOURNAMENT, not one-on-one heads up game like you might find on pokerstars. When you read it that way, it's not as poorly worded as you are trying to make it seem. I was honestly asking for advice. Does picking apart my word choice make you feel better about yourself?

[Biff Goods 0]

A: my joke was light compared to everyone else on here.....don't get your panties in a bunchB: Maybe your eagerness to tilt when someone shows some aggressive nature towards you has something to do with your poor play heads up against aggressive opponents.

[kkot 0]

What am I doing wrong?

how are you adjusting to these players?

A: my joke was light compared to everyone else on here.....don't get your panties in a bunch

It wasn't much of a joke at all.

[Biff Goods 0]

It wasn't much of a joke at all.

See no reason to get all pissy

[craiger 0]

I am decent, profitable overall player. There is one part of my game I have the most difficulty with. It is when I find myself in a heads up situation when there are only two people left in a tournament. This goes for STT and MTT both in casinos and online. Specifically, I find it nearly impossible to defeat opponents who are ultra aggressive, basically raising and reraising every hand. I realize that increased aggression is a basic tactic when you are heads up. But I am talking about players who are ULTRA aggressive in a heads up situation. My playing style is usually very loose/aggressive myself, and this usually brings me success 9 handed all the way down to 3 handed. What am I doing wrong? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Let him bury himself. I ****ing love playing HU against these types of players. His crazy play will work every time but once right? Smooth call with big hands and let him do the betting, and push back every once in a while to keep him in line. The trick is to put the difficult decisions back on him.

[craiger 0]

whoops

[HenduzRevenge 0]

B: Maybe your eagerness to tilt when someone shows some aggressive nature towards you has something to do with your poor play heads up against aggressive opponents.

Let him bury himself. I ****ing love playing HU against these types of players. His crazy play will work every time but once right? Smooth call with big hands and let him do the betting, and push back every once in a while to keep him in line. The trick is to put the difficult decisions back on him.

Thanks guys. I am pretty sure that these things are the two root of causes of my problem. I do have a tendency to tilt against a more aggressive player. This problem is probably more harmful heads up. Additionally, smooth calling is not my usual style of play, but it makes a ton of sense in this situation. So simple, but I guess I just needed someone to point it out.

[ABigMotivation 0]

just slow play your monsters (sometimes may even be just a pair) and trap his ass....simple

[jmbreslin 0]

Might be some good tidbits in here for you:my heads-up problem

[Flushgarden 0]

Adjust to his hand ranges, open up and get it in lighter. If he's willing to stack off with K2 sooted then please oblige him.Obviously how much you open up depends on the blinds but in sngs and even most mtts there isn't a lot of play heads up.

[whatgreatis 0]

Adjust to his hand ranges, open up and get it in lighter.

I was going to make a really detailed post about this. The conventional wisdom seems to be "He's playing loose so I'm going to play tight and trap him." While that's one way to adjust, it's not the optimal adjustment. The optimal adjustment is to be able to 3bet him lighter and open up. This style of play is really hard to do well for people just starting out.If I'm not lazy I might add to this post more.Edit: Not sure if I'm going to add more because this is a MTT/SNG question and I don't really play those.

[ROACHBABY 0]

I agree with Craiger. With these types of players it is important to be patient and just wait for them to hang themselves. Also I'd reraise/shove lighter vs such opponents b/c they have such open ranges. Play a lot of heads-up SNGs and your play will drastically increase and you will see yourself winning more SNGs and MTTs instead of just settling for 2nd. Remember that the pay difference between 1st and 2nd is huge, often double. This can make a huge difference in your long term ROI.

[MovingIn 0]

Anyone here a fan of Tysen Streib's and Lee Nelson's advice on HU play in Kill Everyone? I found that section of the book really opened up my HU play and helped me adjust to different styles.

[ROBBBIGG 0]

get even more aggro, just start open shoving. don't let anyone be more insane than you

[LincolnK 1]

position is a big one. don't insist on play every hand where you are out of position. apply pressure when you have position.