Heads Up Play
Heads Up Play by Dave Colclough
Hi,
Well after six weeks in Las Vegas, I needed 2 weeks off to acclimatise
to the real world again. Eventually I dragged myself back onto the
European Tour again, and flew down to Barcelona. (It is such a hard
life.) The major competition of the week was the Worlds Heads Up
Championship, with a first prize of 100,000 euro. Not bad for a
week’s work, but it wasn’t to be.
Heads Up poker is completely different to 9 handed or even 6 handed
poker. If you fancy a change, try it on the bet365poker 1 v
1 tables.
My first round opponent was Daniel Holm, one of the young Scandinavians
that are changing the way poker is played in Europe. Generally they
play considerably more aggressively, raising considerably more starting
hands than I would. If they suspect any weakness after the flop
they will fire away trying to pick up the pot. There have been players
like this in the past, but certainly not the same number.
Personally I dislike playing against this type of player, because
I much prefer to be the aggressor myself. I prefer to be the one
who dictates when I want to play a big pot (preferably when I have
position and good cards). I am not quite so keen on playing bit
pots every third or fourth hand. But this is inevitable against
some opponents.
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My strategy for playing against this opponent is to rarely raise
myself but to call with big hands and marginals such as suited connectors
or say K7. (King high is much stronger heads up than you may think.
The average starting hand for heads up play being only Jack high).
I would then tend to do a lot of check calling until my opponent
realises that he can’t steal too many pots from me.
The first round match went very much along these lines. I took
an early chip lead when I called a raise with A10. I flopped an
Ace, checked to my opponent and called his bet (which turned out
to be a bluff). After about 30 mins., I flopped top pair against
his flush draw and the rest of his chips went in. Fortunately for
me, he missed his flush and I progressed to the next round to face
the intimidating Rob Hollink.
In my opinion, Rob Hollink from Holland is one of the top ten all-round
players in Europe. He plays live cash games and competition poker
equally well. He is a prolific winner on the internet, and is also
one of a very few players who repeatedly win Omaha competitions
(myself and the great Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot being the
only others who spring to mind). He won last years online WCOOP
Heads Up Tournament. So I knew I was in for a Battle Royale….
Wrongggg. Rob raised the very first hand. The blinds were 100/200
and he raised 300 more. I looked down at Kd4d and called the 300,
as there was already 700 in the middle. The pot odds were good and
the hand was average. The flop came down 10h4h3d. I had second pair
so thought I was probably in the lead. There was 1000 in the pot.
I checked and called Rob’s bet of 700. Making a pot of 2400.
(I don’t think either of us wished to be playing a pot this
big on the very first hand). The turn card was 10d, so I now had
10s and 4s with a King kicker. Surely I was in front? So I trap
checked, as I had also picked up the flush draw. Rob bet 1700 and
I quickly raised all in. I nearly fell off my chair when he called.
He had 10J and my only out was a diamond. It didn’t arrive,
and now I am the proud owner of another record : the only player
eliminated from a WHU match on the first hand.
Well the only moral I can pass on this week, is that Heads Up is
tough, Very tough. But try it. It is fun.
Dave
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