SwingSwingSwing's Heads Up Poker Journey

A quick state-of-play post to wind up 2010.

I did splash out on Samuel Smith's heads up poker course and for $40 it was a bargain. It's a bit of work-in-progress as Sam hasn't got all the content finalised. But it's only $40. I would fully expect the price to go up once it's complete.

The first lesson details a very simple method for playing heads up sit'n'gos. Basically, tight out of position, loose aggressive in position. Not rocket science I know, but one thing I had noticed about my game since following Brokerstar's course was a definite decrease in aggression. This is not a slight on Brokerstar's teachings but more of a failing of my style of play. My natural style, I think, is a passive style and while this should be a good fit for Brokerstar's course, I had taken things too far and had become ultra-passive and was missing obvious opportunities for taking down pots. So Sam's first lesson has helped me reintroduce controlled aggression back into my game.

And results have been going well. My win rate in December in the $1s and $2s has been 59% which translates to 8% ROI for $1s and 9.8% for the $2s. Not exceptional but OK.

I'm still running at a loss overall in the $2s but it's slowly improving. ROI is -2.6%. In fact, looking at my all-in EV, if I had had average luck over the last month I would be back at even.

So that's me signing off for 2010. See you all in 2011.

Samuel Smith, founder of the excellent 'Risk Oriented' heads up poker website, has just launched a heads-up poker course for the ridiculous price of only $40.

He's a 7% winner at heads-up SNGs with over 10,000 games under his belt which means he's over $48,000 in profit so this guy knows what he's talking about.  

Click Here! for the details.

The recovery is still on track :-)

I'm now running at 6.8% ROI at the $1 heads up SNGs which is a win rate of 58.8%. Not bad.

At the $2s, I'm still running at loss but it has improved to -3% ROI, 52% ITM. And even better, I'm back in profit overall. Woo Hoo! I am a winning heads up SNG player again.

If I just look at results since I called in the cavalry (9th September), I'm now running at 22% ROI (67% ITM) at the $1s, which is very nice indeed.

It would be an understatement to say that things have improved since my last post. Then, my ROI at the $1 and $2 heads up SNGs at Full Tilt Poker was -8%. And just looking at the $1s, my ROI was a shocking -11.2%.

But now, I'm back in profit at the $1s, still slightly negative at the $2s. My ROI since 9th September is 16.4% after 112 games with an ITM percentage of 64.3%. Much, much better.

So what's changed?

1. Lesson
I've had one lesson with Brokerstar. Even though that one lesson only covered the loose passive/calling station opponent, it's opened my eyes and got me thinking a whole lot more about my opponents, their tendencies and how to adapt to them. Even simple things like situations where you can get a bit of value with bottom pair when out of position has really improved my play.

2. Patience
Looking back over some earlier games it was clear I was trying to force the action when it just wasn't required. I'm not playing turbos, I'm playing regular speeds. There is plenty of time. Even when your opponent has a 2-1 chip lead, there is still time to get a big hand and/or for your opponent to make a mistake. Be patient.

3. Thinking
One leak I've found is that I'm not taking the time to think when suddenly faced with a large bet or raise - particularily on the river. For most opponents it's not going to be bluff, it's going to be a big hand. Like when your opponent has check-called your bets on the flop and turn and throws out a pot sized bet on the river when a possible gutshot has filled. Your top pair is probably not good here so fold it. Far too often, a quick "I've-got-top-pair-fuck-it" thought flits through my mind and I press the call button. I don't think. I don't go "Oh-oh, that doesn't look right" and reflect on the way the hand played out. Nope, it's "I've-got-top-pair-fuck-it" and I call. And usually lose a big chunk of my stack.

I've still got some work to do on the "Thinking". There were a couple of matches last night where I fell back into the immediate-call habit. But I'm improving.

Dear oh-dear oh-dear. It's all went pear-shaped, completely Pete Tong.

I am playing terribly just now. I'm running at -10% ROI at the $1 HU SNGs on Full Tiilt. That's right, the $1s.

Sio I'm calling in the cavalry and doing Brokerstar from tagpoker.co.uk's "Complete HU SNG Course".

A quiet couple of weeks on the poker front due to the trip to Canada that I mentioned a few posts ago. MrsSwingSwingSwing and I are now officially Permanent Residents of Canada. Woo Hoo!

Had a great ten days in Halifax (with the exception of the nine hour stay at the Emergency Room but that's another story). We got lots done and still had some time to do some touristy things. Now that we're back in the UK, it's all systems go on the house front. The garden is being weeded, old "stuff" is being binned or placed in the car boot sale pile and expenditure is being lowered. So, it's goodbye to Which magazine, Private Eye and PC Pro and it's goodbye to Sky Movies and Sky Sports. Although I may have to relent on Sky Sports especially as they are going to be showing live UK Ice Hockey this season.

On the poker front, I'm back to playing micro stakes heads up sit'n'gos on Full Tilt with my tiny bankroll. And I'm still running like a drunk and blind three-legged dog, -5% ROI and 51.5% ITM. Urgh.

If any readers want to get into heads up sit'n'goes I've found a cracking free training site. Head over to TagPoker.co.uk. There are tonnes of free heads up SNGs training videos. It's an excellent resource.

My god, it was worth playing this just for the experience of registration. The Pokerstars Lamborghini Freerolls have a maximum of ten thousand entrants. They were filling up in under a minute when I was trying last night. That's right, ten thousand people signed up in under sixty seconds. Unbelievable. I missed out on my first attempt but these freerolls run every hour and I got in to the one an hour later.

And I did pretty well, finishing 75th out of 10000. Unfortunately, that got me absolutely bugger all as only the top 18 qualified for the weekly final.

Meanwhile, back on Full Tilt, I managed to extend my win streak in the $2 heads up SNGs to 12 before some random donk broke it. Still a losing player but my ROI has now increased to -2%

From last night's PokerStars £2000 Freeroll.

Ace King short under the gun
Push. Two callers both Ace Nine
Nine On flop

OK, it's not really a haiku but I liked it.

I'm now only a small loser at the $2 heads up SNGs on Full Tilt. A run of eleven consecutive victories brought me back into respectability.

Meanwhile on Stars, I've been playing freerolls and crap like that. I've managed to qualify the for Turbo Takedown next week and on Sunday night I final-table-bubbled the UK £2000 guaranteed freeroll rebuy, finishing 10th out of 4500ish.

This is a strange wee tournament. It's a free to enter rebuy. So you get in for free and you can rebuy and get 1000 chips for ten pence. The great thing is that very few of the participants know anything about playing rebuys. Only one or two of your initial table will rebuy at the start and not that many take the addon either. This means it is an easy tournament to cash in. Just rebuy at the start and take the addon and you're almost there. I've played most of them this week and cashed in them all, finished 10th on Sunday night and had a top 200 finish as well. As it's essentially a freeroll, it also means there's a fair bit of overlay. Sunday night's total of rebuys and addons was only about £250 meaning there was £1750 added by PokerStars. And PokerStars even give you a micro stakes SNG ticket if you cash having rebought at some point. 

Easy money. OK, easy micro money but easy money none-the-less.