Satellite Rides, part 2 - Heads Up

Who plays heads up poker?

Let me restate that. What I actually mean is, who practices playing heads up?

Tournaments, cash games, home games. All feature similar scenarios, the most common being that you're playing against a table full of players. You're playing pot odds, you're preying on weak opponents, you're playing position. Even if you're down to three handed, you can muck garbage in the face of a raise and call, you can pick a better spot, you can play your opponents' fears of the third player against them.

Heads up, however, there's no one else to scrap with, no one to juice up a pot out of position, no time off from the blinds and antes. I liken it to playing blackjack against the dealer in a six-deck shoe. Any card is possible at any given time. You can't figure that the raise you're staring at is not made by an oppenent holding eight high. It doesn't take a genius to figure the pot odds and most pots will end after the flop if not earlier. But still, after weeding through a table or a tournament of players, selectively picking spots to make moves, heads up forces you to mix it up, no matter your style of play. You're in every hand. Loose is not even the proper word for it. It's the blackjack dealer firing you five straight ten-deuces while the house shows an ace each time. How are you going to play?

Back to me.

After flopping a boat and subsequently whittling the table to two, I had a slight chip lead, perhaps 25k to 20k. Blinds were at 300/600 and my opponent was a good one. Last year he had won both my super-satellite table and the following "winners" table of all the super-satellite winners to punch his ticket into the WSOP Main Event. Last year, he fought back from an improbable chip deficit to whip me heads up.
And so we began.

Things started well for me. We quickly established the standard pre-flop raise and I took down a few pots, incrementally increasing my advantage. A potentially disastrous hand for me was salvaged in the following way. I held 10,5 off and the flop came J,10,x, with no flush draw. I bet and he called. Turn brought an A. I checked and he checked behind me. River brought me a 5 and I made a 3K value bet. He made a reluctant call telling me that my bet was the perfect amount and he had to see the ace that I held. He turned over J,x and went green as he realized he was ahead until the river and his check had allowed me to hang around long enough to win on fifth street. He started muttering about how poorly he had played the hand. I just smiled and went all in the next three hands, which he mucked. Now he was shifting back and forth and telling the guys we had busted that he was getting leaned on. And he was. I put the pressure on even more, hoping to lure him into shipping it on my terms, and not allowing him to wait for a hand. Somewhat questionably, I pushed all in with A,J off preflop hoping he would wake up to a smaller ace or perhaps something like J,10. He didn't and folded. All the while, however, I was keenly aware that a single double up would shift our spots and give him the chip lead.

A,K. In a normal situation, it's longed for, overbet, cursed and cherished. Heads up, it's a monster. I drew it for the first time all day and raised on the button (small blind) up to 3k (blinds now 400/800) and got a call. Flop was all rags and my opponent pushed all in. My thoughts were as follows: He called my 2200 raise. He's making a stand. But did he hit the flop? Did he need to hit the flop? It was a perfect flop for a small wired hand. I thought about it for a minute or so and tossed it. A double up at that point puts me down. I didn't need to make the play, right there, right then. He showed bottom pair. A,K is, after all, only ace high.

Back and forth we went, trading pots, grinding each other. And then the momentum swung. I had another Q,10 off. I raised, he called. Flop came 10 high. He checked. I decided to get tricky. He had been pushing in whenever he sensed weakness and I wanted to give him some. I checked behind him. Ace came on the turn and I got what I wanted as he pushed all in. The only problem now was the ace. Did he check a low flop with ace high? I thought about it and called. He flipped over A,Q. I could only smile at my misstep. The river brought a Q, giving us both two pair, his higher.

Now he had the chip lead. He began leaning on me, grinding me down. Seemingly any raise he pushed in. The cards that I was raising with and betting post-flop kept coming but now they looked different, weaker. Did I really want to risk everything with them? After a few lost pots in a row and my stack shrinking, I knew that I would have to or exactly what I had hoped to do to my opponent would happen to me: being forced to move in on his terms.

So I battled back with the best weapon at my disposal, the all-in. Four of five hands I went in pre or post flop, three of them with total junk. Not wanting to relinquish his advantage, he folded.

And on we went, firing away at one another. An hour had passed and only two hands had made it to the river when I looked down on the button and saw 8s,10s. I raised the 800BB to 2400. He re-raised to 6000. I counted out my stack and found it at about 11,600. His raise was unusual and enough to elicit suspicion. He wanted me to push. Perhaps I should have laid it down and I don't think I was getting the right odds to call (2.3 to 1) but I did. The flop brought me some help: K,J,9 with one spade. And here is where heads up play is unique. My first thought upon seeing the flop was "All in." Unfortunately, he was first to act. His thought: "All-in." I could only smile. With 20k in the pot and 8k in front of me I was getting 2.5 to 1. I figured my 8 and 10 were live. If all my straight draws were live, I would have 14 outs, roughly 31% to win IF he didn't already have an over pair to my 8 or 10. More importantly, I only had 8k left. I fold and his 37k stack is going to put me in every hand. I went for it.

He looked at me, dismayed, and said something I wanted to hear "You got me." I looked at him and said "Not just yet." We flipped and he showed A,3 off. My 14 outs were all live, all I could hope for.

Turn came Ks, giving me the flush draw. I now had 20 cards to win against his 24.

But it was not to be. The board paired again with a red nine, making Ks and 9s with his ace playing.

And again, he got the better of me heads up.

Could I have won?

Sure.

Did I play well?

Mostly.

Am I comfortable heads up?

Definitely not.

After all, who practices heads up?