Heads Up Sit And Go Strategy
Heads Up Sit and Go Strategy Heads up sit and gos have risen dramatically in popularity. These games would have been considered a small niche just a few years ago, but are now among the most popular in online poker. Heads up cash players, too, often switch over to the heads up sit and go games when a few bigger games are running. The 6 Keys to Winning Heads-Up Sit ‘n Go Play Introduction. In this article we will discuss the most important skills for successful heads-up play. Play an Aggressive, Positional Game. In many poker formats you can be a solid winner through tight play. Construct a Postflop Game. Heads Up Strategy – This article describes how you should play when you get to the heads up stage of a super turbo SnG. Early Game Strategy – This piece focus on the early game strategies you should be utilizing in any turbo you play online. Check out a three-point list of why (in my opinion) heads-up hyper turbo sit & go is the best form of poker. Hand Ranges One thing that makes full-ring games boring to me is the fact that most of the people are playing somewhat static “optimal” opening ranges. Heads Up Strategy When you make the heads up stage of a super turbo SnG the blinds will usually be around 50/100 or higher. Since there are only 2700 chips in the tournament this means that at least one player will likely be under the 10 big blind limit for the majority of heads up play.
Now you’ve navigated the field, and it’s down to two. You’ve earned a prize of at least three times your buy in (more in a multi table SNG). The rest is all-or-nothing. You will either pick up an extra two buy ins, or nothing. Playing well heads up usually means a little bit of aggression and a little bit of luck. If you take the aggressive approach, you will find your long term heads up results looking pretty good.
Heads up play in the final scene of an SNG is somewhat alien to many players. Players that usually play cash games rarely play heads up, and even the average sit and go player will only get heads up 20% of the time. If you practice these general rules, you can master heads up play, especially against opponents who rarely get there.
Button (Small Blind Play)
When the tournament is down to two, the button player posts the small blind and acts first preflop (last on other streets).
Now that the tournament is heads up, it actually becomes correct to simply call more often preflop, or raise less than all in. Although the blinds are usually high at this point, the average of the two players is also high since everyone else is out of the way.
When on the button, there are two compelling reasons to call the big blind with most starting hands. First is the 3-1 pot odds (slightly higher with antes), and second is the positional advantage of being able to act last after the flop.
Very few hands should be folded from the button. In fact, it is correct to call with any two cards, but if you have been very active, it is sometimes acceptable to fold a very bad starting hand (maybe 9-4 offsuit or worse) to give the impression that you are being selective.
If you have some kind of big hand, it is best to stick in a raise of three times the big blind. Don’t give them a chance to hit bottom pair with a poor starting hand. Also, don’t raise the minimum. You are then giving your opponent 3-1 odds to call.
If you call the big blind, and that player checks preflop, you can be fairly sure they don’t have a good hand. Then, when they check to you on the flop, a minimum bet can often take it down. A thinking big blind player can turn that around on you and check-raise the flop, but the stacks aren’t really deep enough for any kind of fancy plays, so if they pull that, you can be relatively sure they have a good hand like top pair or better.
Big Blind Play
It is right to play more cautiously from the big blind, since you will be out of position for the rest of the hand. If you do have a very good (but not great) starting hand, you usually want to raise (or reraise) all in (if it’s not too much of an overbet) to offset your positional disadvantage postflop.
If you get a monster starting hand, slow playing it, even before the flop, can be correct. You are trying to induce a bet or two from your opponent, and if you get outflopped, so be it. The flop will miss your opponent far more often than it will give them two pairs or better, so this play can pay off in the long run.
Stack Sizes
Stack sizes are an important consideration. If one player has more than a 3-1 advantage, they should be absolutely ruthless with preflop raises, and most of those raises should be enough to put the short stack all in. The pressure tends to be enormous, and usually the big stack’s advantage goes from 3-1 to something like 5-1 in just a few hands. Now the short stack is forced to call all in with almost anything.
If the stacks are relatively even (neither player has more than a 2-1 advantage), play your normal game until that situation changes, for better or worse, then adjust accordingly.
Your prime objective in Heads Up is to be aggressive and put your opponent under massive pressure but also to play in position and in consideration of stack sizes.
When you make the heads up stage of a super turbo SnG the blinds will usually be around 50/100 or higher. Since there are only 2700 chips in the tournament this means that at least one player will likely be under the 10 big blind limit for the majority of heads up play. This means that the heads up stage will be pretty much all push/fold poker. At this stage of the tournament you should play aggressive and push more often than you fold.
What is the optimal percentage of hands to push?
Heads Up Sit And Go Strategy Template
In fact the optimal game theory says to push about 67% of your hands if you or your opponent have exactly 10 times the big blind in chips. This percentage increases to 78% when one of you has exactly five times the big blind in chips and this number hits 100% pushes when one of you have only 1.4 big blinds in chips.
What is the optimal percentage of hands to call?
The percentage of hands that you should call a push with is of course less than the number of hands you should push with. If the effective stack size (the lowest of yours or your opponents) is exactly 10 big blinds then you should be calling pushes with 41% of hands. This amount increases to 66% of hands when the effective stack size is 5 big blinds and 95% when the effective stack size is 3 big blinds.
Are these percentages optimal against all opponents?
No. These percentages are optimal against other players who are also using the optimal strategy. If your opponents are not using optimal push/fold strategy then you can adjust your strategy to exploit this and gain a better edge.
For example, if your opponent is playing very tight then you should increase the percentage of hands you push with and decrease the percentage of hands you call with. On the other hand if your opponent is playing looser than optimal you should decrease the number of hands you push with and increase the number of hands you call with.
Too aggressive is better than too tight
The heads up stage of a super turbo SnG is all about pushing and folding as best you can to gain as much of an edge on your opponent as possible. Being aggressive is the name of the game at this point in the tournament as you can tell by the high percentage of hands you should push.
If you play too tight during the heads up stage you are basically just asking to lose. You will not be able to win any chips because you will continually fold your blinds away and when you do move in your opponent will know you have a strong hand and will fold. At least if you are too loose you are still giving yourself a chance to win.
Heads Up Strategy
So the moral of this article is it is better to be too aggressive than too tight in the heads up stage of a super turbo sng. That being said it is of course best to play a perfect push/fold game taking into account the style of your opponent to give yourself as big an edge as possible.
Heads Up Sit And Go Strategy Assessment
Just using optimal push/fold strategy will make it so it’s impossible for your opponent to gain an edge on you, but it may not give you as big an edge as if you were adapting your strategy towards your opponent.