1, 2, 3 Hands Your Out

I played in the Heads-up Challenge 3 last night, and made a quick exit after only three hands. Having said that, I don't really think I played that badly. See the recap below, it is pretty brief.

I draw smokkee for my first match. I have played with smokkee many times before. He loves to impress me with his over-aggression. We have also discussed heads-up strategy before, so I actually was not too worried about the match-up and figured I would have a decent shot. I figured he would be applying relentless pressure raising and reraising me preflop on every hand, and trying to push me off hands after the flop. This is a pretty predictable way of playing, so it is fairly easy to counter.

First hand, I get 54s the SB and raise 3x (60). Smokkee reraises to 160 and I go in the tank. I was hoping for just a call, as this hand will not hold up without improvement. I decide to fold. Next hand I get 84o in the BB, and smokkee raises 3x into me and I fold. I am certain that smokkee will raise or reraise with 100% of his holdings preflop now. I am going to need to find a hand I can take a stand with, and play back at him big time to get him to slow down. I like pushing-in early in heads-up just to show that you are capable of the move.

Third hand is ducks (22) in the SB. I limp knowing that smokkee will raise. Raise he does. With this small of a pair, I will not have many options post flop. Its about 16-1 that smokkee has a pocket pair that would dominate me, and his raise means nothing. He will have a coinflip with any other holdings. If I push all-in I will get some folding equity, prove that I am willing to play back at him big time, and if I am called I figure I have the good side of a coinflip for the match right here. I push all-in over the top. smokkee calls immediately with 33. WTF. Wow, he did have a pocket pair which was a longshot. Not really sure how he makes that call. I just limp raised him all-in. He has to figure I have a pocket pair or at least two overs. For pocket pairs (other than ducks), he is dominated. For overs he is looking at a coinflip for the match. I would have put me on 50% higher pp, 50% overs witch makes this a horrible call. He made the call though, and the 33 held up. Nice job smokkee.