Heads-up With A5 Vs. Aggro Villain

[jmbreslin 0]

End of a STT micro SNG. Villain was an aggressive player - not a maniac by any means, but a solid aggressive player. When we got to heads-up he took the lead and raised quite a bit. I fought back from a deep chip deficit by doubling up a couple of times.PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t200 (2 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: FlopTurnRiver)Hero (t6385)Button (t7115)Preflop: Hero is BB with 5, A. Button raises to t600, Hero ???Reraise, given that he has been pretty actively raising heads-up? If so, how much? Or throw it away and wait for a better opportunity?

[rogerwilco 0]

Hm, a decently sized reraise to 2000 or whatever would more or less commit you to the pot. A5 is an ok hand heads up, he could be raising with a lot less. Letting yourself get pushed around is expensive heads-up, so I like to shove here sometimes because playing that out of position is tricky and it's a nice opportunity to get chips. From your description Villain probably won't call without a pair or a good ace.

[jmbreslin 0]

From your description Villain probably won't call without a pair or a good ace.

Not so sure about this. He wasn't overly LAG but he did show a willingness to call big raises and/or pushes with these kinds of hands. I had also tried raising him off a pot preflop earlier and he threw a reraise right back at me. Very tough player to take pots from preflop.

[timwakefield 68]

I think it's very tough to analyze a single hand from a HU match, because figuring out what to do is all about knowing the 'flow' of the match, and how your opponent is playing (and how he might think that you're playing). If he's opening literally every pot to 3x from the button, then you're way ahead. You definitely don't want to fold here, and I think arguments could be made for just calling or for shoving. I don't really love a reraise less than all-in, because are you gonna fold there if he shoves over you? He could have KQ, 22, etc and come back over the top of you.

[jmbreslin 0]

Normally I would hate calling here but I actually wonder if that might be a good way of responding to the aggression of players like this. Folding gives them exactly what they want, but he has also shown a tendency to respond to aggression with more aggression. I wonder if the way to beat this type of player heads-up might be to call down more often and then try to outplay him postflop. I have position on him in the BB so maybe I'm better off trying to use it to my advantage postflop...

[timwakefield 68]

I have position on him in the BB so maybe I'm better off trying to use it to my advantage postflop...

Only preflop. After the flop you have to act first.

[jmbreslin 0]

Crap, you're right. In that case what about a stop-n-go type of move, ie, call his PF raise and then lead with a nice large bet on the flop?