Heads Up and Down

When you dance and you have to take the lead or you're lost.

I have been playing mostly Heads Up Tourneys and it has been great, meaning in lessons of how to play just ok in the profit range. I like concentrating on just one player and their tendencies and try to exploit it. Right now I am playing between $2 and $10 over on FullTilt and have a small profit to show for it. I start off good playing O/8 then hit a bad batch over the weekend but I earned it all back playing Hold'em. I have been mixing it up with No Limit and Pot Limit. I am kind of getting fond of pot limit for these heads up matches I like the fact that it takes time to build the pot and you just don't have to be a push monkey. The one thing that I have notice, and maybe it's because it low limit, but most of the players don't raise enough on the button and really play hands that are a bit to predictable. Pocket pairs, Ace anything and two paint suited or not just don't happen enough and you must open up your range of hands that you are willing to play. Looking over my PokerTracker stats I noticed that I haven't gotten to many playable hands but I have won more then I have lost and that means I am doing something right.

O/8 is a different story. I have found limping in and only raising with the best hands have worked well. The only reason I have not done any better over this weekend is that I second guessed my gut. I was almost always right with my first impression each time win or lose. I have to remember that the goal of O/8 is to scoop and if I can't be drawing to the nuts one way or the other then I have to give it up to pressure. I just have to go with my gut in this game and remember it's a Omaha High or split is a game of redraws and just because you flop the nuts doesn't always mean you are the favorite.

Another thing about these HU matches is that you can win or lose in one hand and I did just that on two occasions. The one I lost I was the clear favorite when the chips went in but I died at the river and the one I won I couldn't find any reason that he called other he really had to go to the bathroom and for got to buy the Depends so he could just soil himself. It's the yin and yang that is my reality.