Heads Up Challenge 2: Electric Boogaloo

First off, thanks to Jordan over at High On Poker for setting this up, again.

I drew Aussie Dave in the first round. I hadn't read his blog before finding out I was his opponent, and had no knowledge of how he liked to play. Somewhere along the way, he mentioned that he hadn't much experience in heads-up.

Many, many moons ago, heads-up play was a gaping hole in my game. My tourney results at the now-defunct Buena Park game were indicative, with roughly three times as many 2nd places and wins. I read what I could find about heads-up, and realized that I needed to open up my game a little as it got to 4- and 3-handed. At the BP game, I wasn't involved enough, so invariably the chipleader would bust the guy in 3rd, and have more than a 3:1 chiplead on me for heads-up. Without a clue, I stood little chance of climbing out of that hole.

Am I a mano-a-mano badass now? Ha. I've been dominated on a couple different occasions, but I tend to give more thrashings than I receive. Then again, I'm usually playing players who aren't very good. And even then, sometimes I can feel very good about how I handled heads-up in a losing effort.

Match #1 with Aussie Dave was nothing special. The pots contested were very small, until he and I got into a raising war preflop. I made the third raise, committing about half of my chips with pocket eights, and Dave folded. I showed, and added the chips to my virtual stack. With a 1800/1200 advantage, I bullied a little, and tried to keep the pressure on.

I made what I consider a tough call, holding two pair with 76-suited in my hand. The board had an ace, three to a flush, and four to a straight on it when Dave bet into me on the river. I sacked up, and my call was rewarded when Dave showed only a pair of eights.

After I whittled him down a little more, I reraised Dave all-in preflop. He called with KJo, and my A5-suited flopped a five and turned an ace for the victory.

Match #2 wasn't my brightest moment. It could easily be said that the cards tried to give me the victory, and I tried my best to double Dave up whenever possible. On four consecutive buttons, I raised each time, holding AQ, AK, A9-suited, and A6. For a while, the cards loved me.

I jumped out to an early lead, Dave pulled close, then I took the lead again. Just when I thought I was a lock, I had a "wtf was I thinking" moment.

I limped on the button with 92-off, and Dave made a small raise. "Uhhh... but I'm soooo close to busting him and ending this. I wanna call." Oh brilliant. The flop completely missed me, Q-J-3 rainbow or something like that. And that's when he pushed all-in. For 175, into a 1K pot. Duuuuuh. How did I not see this coming? No pair, no draw, great odds? Umm, call. Dave had pocket kings, and boy did I look like a genius in front of Veneno and some of the guys from my homegame that also play on UB. A few hands after that, Dave and I were back to the original chipcounts.

Play lasted more than 110 hands. I think I had him outchipped more than 3:1 when we had another preflop all-in confrontation, my A6-off against his pocket tens. The ace on the flop held up, and I was on to the 2nd round to face the rock-like, predictable SirFWALGMan. Clearly this first round victory should show the other Heads-Up competitors that I'm a force to be reckoned with.

/sarcasm off

Uh... my play scares nobody, and I'm expecting a quick and bloody matchup with SirF. My helmet has a chinstrap.

Aussie Dave played well, and just needs some more experience in heads-up. The fundamentals are there for him.