Help on beating my friend in no limit heads up - HELP |
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Posted Tue Jul 11, 2006 6:49 pm GMT by inopethflames
i was looking for any advice on the best way to play my friend in heads up poker, heres how my friend plays -
my friend - chases any flush draw whether i go allin or make a small bet, he is very hard to bluff, he is basically a calling station, and he never ever ever bets preflop. this makes it hard to have any idea what he has, because he never raises with an ace, he never raises with a pair, he never raises preflop period. plus since he doesnt hardly ever fold, if i raise with either a good hand preflop, or a bad hand just trying to win the blind preflop, he will call. so if i dont hit something on the flop, im in bad shape because if i bet post flop he will call anyway. there is hardly any successful bluffing against him.
so what i figure is the best strategy and what ive done the past few times is play very tight and only really bet if i have a hand or hit something on the flop. the problem with that is my friend is apparently very lucky and usually it is hard for me to hit anything on the flop in heads up against him. i would say his level of play is just above beginner, and he is lucky. one of the first times we played, in about 15-20 games he beat me with a flush 6 times, and only maybe one time was he justified in calling an allin with his flush draw. i had the best hand every time and he sucked out every time. i get sick of going allin with at least a 65-35 advantage and get sucked out on 95% of the time.
so basically im wondering what you guys think would be some type of strategy to use besides just playing tight and hoping i hit some good flops. what i have found and is fairly obvious is that if someone is willing to stick around to the river calling bets, they will make some type of hand by the river most of the time. usually in a normal game online if id bet preflop id follow it up with a raise postflop, and usually this wins the hand. this hardly every works against my friend because he will not fold. he seems to think all i do is bluff. this is why i have played tighter and tighter against him and have tried to show him i am only playing good hands, but this does not seem to work.
if anyone has any kind of advice other than to say that the main way to beat a player like this is play tight and try and get as much from him when i actually have a hand as possible, id love to hear it. thanks!
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Posted Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:04 pm GMT by TxShadow
First of all, get the "My friend is so lucky" thing out of your head. He is not any luckier than you or anyone else. He may have sessions when he gets better cards than you (which especially sucks heads up), but you'll have just as many when you are getting the cards.
One thing you didn't mention is what he does if, instead of betting on every street, you check it down. If he will check behind you often, use that to your advantage when you think you might be behind, but your hand has some showdown value or when you are on a weak draw. If he likes to throw out a bet out whenever you try to check it down (regardless of what he has), call him down with marginal holdings. He may only do this on the turn or the river, thinking a bet will take down the pot. By doing this, you will induce him to bluff and you'll find that you'll take down a lot of pots with things like middle or top pair.
Eliminate bluffs from your arsenal when playing against him. Not worth it, don't even try it. Avoid shoving your chips in when you think you're just a slight favorite. This guy likes to call you down. Value bet all the way down and bleed his chips away (while not giving him correct odds to chase a flush/straight draw). When you do have the nuts, it seems like you won't have much of a problem getting a large chunk, if not all of his chips in the middle.
Cliffnotes:
Never bluff.
Value bet, value bet, value bet.
Most importantly, don't try to get tricky vs. this guy. Play straightforward poker. Don't try to get reads on him, don't try to confuse him, don't make plays. Just keep on making him make mistakes and you should have no problems beating him.
Posted Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:24 pm GMT by inopethflames
TxShadow - thanks for ur reply, i havent played with my friend in a lil while but hes coming home this weekend thats why i wrote this thread now.
id say usually my friend will do a lot of checking postflop, sometimes he will bet, usually its a lot of checking though, especially right after the flop i think, maybe sometimes on the turn he will make a bet if he has something or thinks i have nothing.
i think that just the main problem with someone like my friend who is a calling station, is that it forces u to get hands and heads up that is not always easy, especially when even if you get a decent middle pair with good kicker, u dont wanna keep calling bets from him when he may at least have 2 over cards and gets 2 draws at them since if he bet, and i had middle pair and reraised all in or a big bet, he would probably call so you cant get him to lay the hand down.
one thing i am going to do this time though is adjust the blinds so that we are playing at the lowest level we play at for a lot longer. before we have been playing the blinds increase every few hands, basically because it makes it go faster that way, but obviously that brings more luck into the equation and helps worse players. so i think by keeping blinds lower i will hopefully have more time to outplay him, and can lay more hands down if i miss the flop
TxShadow - dont even bring up pot odds or whatever for my friend to calculate into chasing a flush draw, because i dont even think my friend knows what that is. if he has 4 to the flush he will call all in with it no matter what. i think possibly part of the problem too is that we play low stakes so he figures he can gamble and doesnt care that much if he loses a game or 2. but i dont want to play for a lot higher stakes when my friend has beaten me overall basically everytime we play through sheer suckouts so far. yes i would be a pretty good favorite in a longer term, but right now i cant afford to play higher stakes since i dont have a job and he does 
and the last time or two we've played i have basically not bluffed at all, it just gets depressing when someone simply wont fold 98% of the time
the other thing is that we have played maybe 60-80 short headsup games the past few times hes been home, and i really dont remember hardly ever having the nuts against him. i do remember one time i had pocket aces, flopped a set, we go all in, he makes a flush to beat me. that kind of thing happens continuously.
thanks for ur help!
Posted Tue Jul 11, 2006 7:40 pm GMT by TxShadow
| inopethflames wrote: | | TxShadow - dont even bring up pot odds or whatever for my friend to calculate into chasing a flush draw, because i dont even think my friend knows what that is. |
He doesn't have to. In fact, it's better that he doesn't. You can make him make mistakes by calling pot sized bets with his flush and straight draws. Yeah he'll hit them sometimes, but most of the time he won't. Just pay attention to the cards that come and you should be able to take advantage when he doesn't get them and get away when he does. The fact that he doesn't know that he's making mistakes is irrelavent.
And seriously, don't be scared of someone who plays a ton of hands, never raises preflop, and calls down 98% of the hands he gets involved in. Just stay patient, you can definately beat him if he plays like you are saying he does.
Posted Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:13 pm GMT by ninetensuited
from the characterristics that you say this guy has, you should murder him!
Posted Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:01 am GMT by inopethflames
9-10: yeah i should murder him! and i probably would do very well in a longer term! the problem is we've only had short term results so far and he's murdered me! like i said a couple times ago in 15-20 total games one time he beat me with 6 suckout flushes. when people hit garbage like that against u time after time after time - not a good sign for me!
one of the main problems that ive had to think about after playing my friend for i dunno like 4-5 sessions which i think i lost everytime in total, is am i playing good or bad, or is he just getting lucky. now especially after some adjustments i made after the first couple times, ive determined i am playing well against him, just getting very unlucky. i mean it may sound from my question/description that i am complaining about him getting extremely lucky against me repeatedly, but that really is what has happened so far. could i have played better sometimes? yes; but for the most part i played well and he got lucky. well hopefully this weekend i can have some good results and keep the suckouts to a minimum
Posted Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:14 am GMT by Jernej Zorec
well he is not any more lucky than u are , remmeber he misses the flop 2/3 of the time so u can easily value bet whenever u have a hand, just dont make too big bets with weak hands
Posted Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:32 am GMT by MrDarling
I just recently learned to love players who are a calling stations...
I'm not an expert HU player, but take a good look at your starting hands, don't limp each hand simply because he doesn't raise. Raise every hand you have a good hand. If its a monster hand raise a lot , as long as he doesn't lay cards down preflop.
I remember I used to prey people wont call my pocket A , or AK because I might get out drawn, now I want them to call, because I know odds are on my side and in the long run it will pay me a lot.
See if you can film the game, and look at it afterwards. Are you really playing such a good game? Don't let your ego run your betting / calling hand. against him, show weakness, let him think he can bully you around and get his chips when he least expect it.
good luck.
p.s make sure you are not playing out of your BR - if this game is too expensive for you, and the money you lose really hurt you - don't play. Keep it fun!
Posted Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:25 am GMT by tame_deuces
I have on word to say to you:
Positon!
The button is everything HU vs bad players, cards are almost secondary.
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