I don't play too well when I play more than two tables so I am going to cut that out and focus on just two tables for a while. Looking back I think my decision to 3 (and then 4) table was definitely a bad one. The only time I should ever consider 4 tables is against 4 short stacks that I can really just auto-pilot against. And the only time I should consider 3 tables is when its all against one player and I am confident I am significantly better than him/her.

Recently I have been playing a lot of $100 NL Heads up, and my adventure to date looks something like the graph depicted below.



Note that this is wrong. I am actually only down $65 and am up $130 in rakeback. So I am slightly ahead after rakeback but basically break even over all so far.

They tell me variance is greater in heads up play, and I shouldn't be results oriented, but I just can't help myself and feel quite frustrated. 14,000 hands heads up with a graph like the one above makes me feel like I'm playing a break even game. When winning I feel untouchable and when losing I feel so depressed. Losing at heads up is so much worse than losing 6 handed.

Something I must stop doing is playing against so many regulars. I always challenge regulars and I always sit with them and try to beat them. I have a very ambitious ego and that is not a good thing - especially heads up. You can't have grudges, you can't get angry/mad or let any emotions creep into the game and fog your mind. This is true in all forms of poker and heads up is certainly no exception. If a regular catches you on tilt he will not hesitate to take note and continue to play you until you lose a few buy ins and steam close the program. This has happened to me while playing a particular opponent on 3 tables (this happened actually, vs 3 separate regulars in the last week).

Anyway just thought I'd give you a quick update on my mediocre results. I play with the name "Tickner" on FTP and there's a good chance that someone reading my blog will sit down with me in the next few days. I will be two tabling and I will own you.

Let's hope the rest of March goes better!!

A Beginning: My Heads Up Adventure
I decided I am going to take on a new adventure and come up through the ranks of Heads Up No-Limit and destroy the poker world.

Okay that sounds pretty cliche and optimistic but nonetheless that is my goal. Will I get there? With hard work I hope to give it a good shot.

I have dabbled in HU in the past by playing some random games on FTP. I used to sit on a few tables vs. short stacks (you know, the $20 or $40 buy in hit and runner type players) and stack them within 20-30 minutes each (unless they doubled up and quit me). I never really gave it a serious shot though as I've been playing 6-Max for the better part of 18 months now and I never really had any motivation to learn a "new" game.

I've been watching a lot of the heads up poker videos here on Leggo lately and they have given me a game plan for the small stakes games. I used to play very weak-tight in a heads up match - I'd try to play it tight, similar to a 6-max game. Turns out this strategy is pretty bad against most players simply because most of the time nobody has anything. I was getting bluffed and giving up way too often, especially OOP. I have revamped my whole approach to the heads up games and have opened up a bit in position, am bluffing a lot more (on multiple streets), and value betting thinner in general. I don't give people credit for top pair all the time and I try not to let my opponent run me over. When I am playing heads up - I want to be the one in control.

An Interesting Session Tonight
Tonight was an interesting session. It started out with me playing two tables ($100 NL Heads Up) on Full Tilt. This will be my "normal" game until I feel like I am one of the best at this level and can profitably move up. I expect this to take 2-3 months or so but the time invested should pay dividends later and hopefully make me some decent money to start. Anyway, back to my session tonight. I started out 2 tabling against one $60 stack and a $100 stack. The full stack had an Iron Man icon so I assumed he was going to be a decent player and I wanted to get some experience vs some regulars while also playing the short stacked fish to keep a good mix. The short stack took about $140 off me in two river beats with most of the money in on the turn, and the big stack lost about $50 to me. Pretty standard hands here and not too interesting.

Soon after I was 3 tabling and one of the guys was VERY aggro preflop and postflop. He got all in with KQs vs my AQ after a few 3bet battles and he won with a K on the river and called me a fish. It was on. I did a quick search and he was 8 tabling (yes, EIGHT TABLING) heads up games at $100 NL. I amped up my aggression since there's no way he would notice anyway and I ended up stealing about $40 from him in small pots. I closed out my other 2 tables and opened up 2 of his other tables which were empty and started 3 tabling him. I took about 2 stacks off him before he realized what I was doing and started chatting at me. I did another search and he was now only on our 3 tables.

We played for probably 2 hours on 3 tables. It was overall a VERY aggressive up and down variance filled session in which I was up or down a few buyins at pretty much any given time. Game flow was something I really learned as there were stretches where we played pretty tight/passive and then other spurts where we were both very loose and aggressive. I think I did a pretty good job at noticing when the flow was changing and I think I adjusted pretty well to him. The end result was me up 2.5 buy ins and him quitting while saying "Ok I am done, dude you are good, GL." I can't help but say I felt pretty proud of winning. Heads up has a weird sense of personal emotions and you just want to win win win every match. This post is getting too long already so that's all I will say about it. I am sure I will have lots of stories like this coming up in the future which I can make more interesting.

Future Posts
None of the content in my blog will be revolutionary. If you are already well versed in heads up NL then most of the things I talk about won't be too interesting. That said I plan on talking a lot about heads up NL as I grow and learn more about it. I will post results and stories of my adventure once in a while and use this blog to keep a journal that I can look back on.