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HU Strategy - How to Punish a Station
Smitalos
Member Posts: 539
Hi there guys, was just wondering if any of you could give me your views on how to play differing types of players when playing HU, and even though i have a generally good feel for my opponents and can adjust fairly quickly, i'd love everyone elses opinions just to see if i could tweak it slightly.
So for example, let's say we're playing a total station, who flats in the BB to a 3x raise 75% of the time. Let's also say that he never folds to a decent sized 3bet (3x-4x), and plays pretty fit or fold poker on the flop, calling 1 street with A highs and underpairs, 2 streets with flush and straight draws, medium 2nd, or 3rd pairs, and calls all 3 streets with good second pairs and up.
Now, what obviously springs to mind first, is that we should ideally try to make hands, and punish them. But what if the deck isn't being so favourable, is there any way we can still see him as a +EV spot?
I think so, but have a few reservations on whether it's ideal or not.
1) Upping your raise size. Taking good game theory into consideration, the more we raise it OTB pre, the bigger or the mistake the villian will be making if he continues to flat with a super wide range. Hence, you can pretty much raise every button, fire 1 barrel on the flop, and then shut down there-after if you get any resistance.
On the flip side, people could say that this just bloats pots, means your cbets have to be bigger, and means the stacks effectively are a lot shallower which increases the amount of luck in a HU game.
2) Visa Versa, Decrease your raise size. Positives would be that you keep pots small, and find out all the information you need to know in the hand for a very low cost. It makes cbets smaller, and generally decreases variance in the game, which i like to think is always a good thing.
However, it does mean that the money edge will be smaller, and chopping down your opponent may take a while. As well as the big rake in HU, it's even pheasable that you both could be -EV playing against each other, which is never good. This also means big hands are less likely to see the stacks go in when you can beat just his lonely 1 pair type hands.
That is just one strategy you could use for example, and just wondering what strategies people use when playing a Station HU, or anything else people would like to contribute to this threads topic, i'd love to hear it.
Other things could include, for example;
- 3betting for value lighter
- Making thin value bets post flop
- Rarely (if ever) semi-bluffing, or bluffing at a pot
- Never slow-playing hands, pushing spots where you're likely to be +EV
- Running like God.
Positives and negatives to all of those, obviously, plus, the thing about even the worst stations is that if you adapt to them, they'll most likely try and take advantage of your new tendancies, which createsa whole different ball game entirely.
Hope this was a good read, feel free to leave any comments below guys,
Cheers,
Carlos Smitalos
So for example, let's say we're playing a total station, who flats in the BB to a 3x raise 75% of the time. Let's also say that he never folds to a decent sized 3bet (3x-4x), and plays pretty fit or fold poker on the flop, calling 1 street with A highs and underpairs, 2 streets with flush and straight draws, medium 2nd, or 3rd pairs, and calls all 3 streets with good second pairs and up.
Now, what obviously springs to mind first, is that we should ideally try to make hands, and punish them. But what if the deck isn't being so favourable, is there any way we can still see him as a +EV spot?
I think so, but have a few reservations on whether it's ideal or not.
1) Upping your raise size. Taking good game theory into consideration, the more we raise it OTB pre, the bigger or the mistake the villian will be making if he continues to flat with a super wide range. Hence, you can pretty much raise every button, fire 1 barrel on the flop, and then shut down there-after if you get any resistance.
On the flip side, people could say that this just bloats pots, means your cbets have to be bigger, and means the stacks effectively are a lot shallower which increases the amount of luck in a HU game.
2) Visa Versa, Decrease your raise size. Positives would be that you keep pots small, and find out all the information you need to know in the hand for a very low cost. It makes cbets smaller, and generally decreases variance in the game, which i like to think is always a good thing.
However, it does mean that the money edge will be smaller, and chopping down your opponent may take a while. As well as the big rake in HU, it's even pheasable that you both could be -EV playing against each other, which is never good. This also means big hands are less likely to see the stacks go in when you can beat just his lonely 1 pair type hands.
That is just one strategy you could use for example, and just wondering what strategies people use when playing a Station HU, or anything else people would like to contribute to this threads topic, i'd love to hear it.
Other things could include, for example;
- 3betting for value lighter
- Making thin value bets post flop
- Rarely (if ever) semi-bluffing, or bluffing at a pot
- Never slow-playing hands, pushing spots where you're likely to be +EV
- Running like God.
Positives and negatives to all of those, obviously, plus, the thing about even the worst stations is that if you adapt to them, they'll most likely try and take advantage of your new tendancies, which createsa whole different ball game entirely.
Hope this was a good read, feel free to leave any comments below guys,
Cheers,
Carlos Smitalos
Comments
play very little hu cash, bu8t I would think limping some of the mediocre hands on btn would be fine against this guy if he wont raise much. Then just play fit or fold