Heads Up against a tight-aggressive player

[Golden Holden]

Any advice? Seems like a tough game to crack to me.

[Guest]

why try? there are other games. or is this an ego trip? then there are reasons.

[Golden Holden]

Nah, its not an ego trip... basically, its for tourney play....

The last few single table tourneys I play, I've ended up heads up against the only solid player who sat down. Taking 1st vs. taking 2nd is quite a difference in $$$, so I'm looking for some advice. :D

I guess its quite a broad topic and I should have shaved it down a bit.

[weequahic]

If you made it this far you know also that this player is good. But so are you. What about adeal? But if you must play just PLAY your normal game. What got you here wil get you over the top, if not this tourney then you will learn and succeed in the next.

[Nytecaster]

Assuming a headsup game and not a full ring table....

To defeat a tight-aggressive player you have to know what he is trying to gain by doing it and use it against them. Playing headsup is just as much about mixing your play as well as it is knowing your opponent. The fact that you know he is tight and aggressive is a HUGE advantage and it's something you should be able to use against him. However, good headsup players never use the same tactics for very long and are often changing strategies, but for now let's assume he's constantly tight/aggressive.

By playing tight he is minimizing losses when he doesn't have a good starting hand and most likely pushing those hands when he feels he has the best of it, gaining a bit of information on the later rounds. I would start off by raising almost every hand if he's folding as much as 40% or more (depending on the blind sizes of course). You are going to give a bit of deception here since he will not really know what you are starting with, but you will have a good idea he is staying with something.

Now the key is not to give in on your small pairs (or anytime you believe you may have higher starting cards than them) when you feel he is on a draw and is betting to hopefully make you fold. I tend to consider which pair I am on when making a determination on where to bet or raise. Small pairs I will bet or raise on the flop, middle pair I would bet and/or raise on the flop and turn and high pair I would bet/raise all the way to the river.

I lean toward betting drawing hands if the opposition folds alot to my bets and even consider check-raising them if they would fold their bluff early in the hand. Add that to check-raising your monsters and you have a good system to combat the tight-aggressive player, IMO.

Are you going to lose alot of hands doing this, yes it is headsup and people get lucky...are you going to win alot when they are pushing their draws aggressively, definately alot more than you lose.

Don't let the lucky draws that constantly seem to appear deter you from playing this way since in the end you will become a winner by your consistent play...luck can sometimes favor even the tightest of players and give them a bit more confidence in their game than they really deserve.

Try this on a play money table with someone who is willing to play tight-aggressive consistently and see just how aggressively pushing a draw is devastating when facing even a small pair, especially when the turn and river cards are smaller than the pair you have starting out with.

[Fooge]

I say the best advice for u is to play me heads up on bielfeld. I can teach u a lot hig.

[General Sal]

Pretty key stuff he layed out there.... lol. Psychologically, you have to let go of winning with monster hands sometimes. You're both probably good players at the end.

If you feel he's a better opponent though, one nice trick is to try to hang in there until the blinds get big enough so that it is more of a gamble. With a big enough blind, two hands in a row can determine a winner.

But, if you wanna go for the gusto, keep in mind that many of the hands that win will be pairs, and a really savvy opponent will know when you're afraid of monster flops, and take advantage of you by playing as if he might complete that monster hand. Basically, if he normally slow plays monster hands in order to trap you, and he bets out as if he might have it, then it may not be bad idea to call his bluff, or better yet raise back.

But, do you see how if we let go of that desire to win 1st place how we put ourselves in a better seat? If we're sitting there worried about monster hands destroying (monster hands which are not necessary to win a hand in heads up hold em), then a good opponent will smell the fear like bees and play us. (I still get shaky too at the end!)

[Poker_Vendetta]

I would think a tight player, who has been playing tight ALL game would try and shift gears. I can't entirely remember on the WPT episode where Paul Darden and Chris Bigler (the tighest player in the game) were heads up. I can't remember if Bigler changed his style, but if he DIDN'T he would have been harrassed. And I know in all of the tournaments I've been In I've tried to stay tight until It got down to 3-2 players then I'd start raising big time with junk. Of course I am still lousy but It worked pretty well heads-up. I got the chip lead then got TOO crazy and lost it all, but I still made a profit.

EDIT: Bigler got beat in the end. But Darden had a HUGE chip lead at the begginning of heads up play. And Bigler got the chip totals close with fair play. But he made a bad call and lost it on a bottom pair I believe.

[wb]

If you haven't already, I *highly* recommend reading Sklansky's Advanced Hold'em book. It has a pretty large section on heads-up and short-handed play, and I found it extremely useful.

[Poker_Vendetta]

IMO, recently I have rationalized that you must switch into a high-gear when playing heads-up, you must gamble a little. You can only fold IMO preflop if your opponent raises you big, and if you are holding a good hand in that situation, push it all in. I think playing heads-up is incredibly fun. Playing against tight players is VERY easy, except it's hard to get any big money out of them. But playing against other aggressive players can be tricky, so if you have a big hand play deceptively, and play virtually every hand and you can win almost every time IMO.

[John MacEnroe]

8)

Isnt it obvious????

A shift in gears now and then (strategically) is the real mark of a real player............keep him guessing and you'll find a tight player won't be holding his chips as you sell him the nuts.

It's hard to get it at first - early on, my main move was to move ALL my chips in when I found a hand (BEFORE THE FLOP).Live and learn - it's a people game, we are all people and we all have kinks - look out for them.

Then you'll win the games and get the rushes - that's what it's all about isn't it???

[JohnnyCache]

Get wild on 4th and 5th street with a couple of decent but not monster hands . . . 3 of a kind, 2 p, that kind of thing . . . get a rep as a sloppy bettor, and then nail him hard on a good flop . . . that works sometimes. Play real cheap and ride out a few hands to see what he bets . . . it's hard to say, because a guy who knows his math but gets nuts once in a while is the worst, imhop, cause he grinds out enough over time to get nutty once in a while with a low risk from his POV. Otherwise, just play the game that I'm sure you play from talking to you . . .

edit: Also, what setting are you in? Is this a guy you can crack on the basis of his endurance, his bladder, his day job, any of that kind of stuff?

[GeneralGau]

I am a tight aggressive player who plays single table tourneys almost exclusively. I have a lot of success when it gets down to the final 3 players.

I try to get all my chips in when I think that I have the best starting hand. I almost always raise when I think that this is the case. However, this happens on average only about once every 4 hands or so. If I lost the remaining 3 hands I would not do very well. But usually the other player will give me at least one of those 3 hands which make us even and then I count on him making a mistake on some big hands.

The players who beat me in heads up competition usually don't give me any of my off hands, they do this by:

Always betting after the flop.
Always raising when I just call.
Folding when I go all in until I am very low on chips.

These players grind me down until I am low on chips and have to go all in with less than desireable cards.

[nicthestick]

When I get Heads Up, I feel like I am able to "close the deal" far more often than not. More often than not I have to come from behind to do this. like everyone else, I like to mix it up, raise with almost any two cards, and never give the other guy a freebee. If he is going to call the BB, he is going to call a pot sized reraise, at least once or twice. I want to keep him guessing as much as possible.

[RATTZ]

The key is definetaly to play in a loose-aggressive style, assuming he keeps playing the same. As the blinds get bigger, stealing them from him will be more and more important. You want him to lay down more hands than he should. I'd go ahead and bet on about 90% of the flops after pf raising if he's been folding more than not. If you get called, proceed with caution. You may even want to smooth call a monster hand to add more confusion. Keep in mind, I only play lower buy in tournys