First Impression’s Part One “Viewing the opposition”

First Impression’s Part One “Viewing the opposition”

Two common expressions jump to mind that emphasis the importance of first impressions, 1.) You never get a second chance to make a first impression 2.) First impressions last. I thought it might be useful to evaluate how we form our impression of an opponent and how they form opinions of us in the first 10 or 20 hands as these are likely to be the cornerstone for decision making for the remainder of the match.

How am I interpreting the information?

When playing full ring you will be involved in roughly 30% of hands, and most hands will be 2 or 3 handed so it’s going to take on average a good few orbits for you to be involved with someone in twenty or so hands, whilst in a heads up match your going to get a lot more information on your opponent a lot quicker but most of its going to be skewed and understanding this can help your HUP game.

Full ring most good players won’t be waiting to get involved in a hand with an opponent to start evaluating there play, they will be watching them in hands with other players and this will give them a good feel for how and what they play, this is a luxury you won’t have playing heads-up. There are notable differences between evaluating other’s play through observation of a hand and the impression left by actually playing a hand with them, how often have you seen someone oblivious to what was obvious to you, so often I’ve thought to myself “How can you not see he was on the flush draw!” but yet I get caught out myself.

I think the reason it’s easier to put people on hand you observing as opposed to participating in is three fold, 1.) You have double the information as an observer, because you have two players actions and patterns to watch. 2.) The quality of information received as a neutral observer is actually much better because you have no emotional involvement in the hand. 3.) You are not strategically involved in the hand so there are no influences to dilute you’re read of opponents actions. These misrepresentations are true in all forms of poker but are particularly magnified early in a heads up match as the information comes in thick and fast.

There are things we can do to improve the quality of information we receive,

1.) Try harder to view our own actions as a neutral and as an opponent might view them, when bluffing what hand can I credibly represent and do my actions fit? When value betting what can my opponent put me on that he can beat? Can he put me on a bluff? Where there draws that missed? How much can I make him call with a credible hand, this hand is a really obvious bluff because which hand could they confidently continue to bet when two successive over cards fall following a wet flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?3368787

2.) Try hard to remove emotion from our decision making process, try not to put someone on a hand because that’s what we want them to have rather than the evidence of the pattern of there bets. Respect the bets until our opponent gives us reason not to then evaluate the pattern and use to our advantage.

3.) Try not to overvalue misrepresentation of my hand and our own ability to deceive, most players are aware that you might be trapping so although the third bet might be devalued by flat calling with a strong starting hand its still needs to be given some credence and not totally dismissed and believe me the fourth bet is so very often trouble.
How do they start?

This is incredibly important because it very much represents the view they want you to have of them as a player, what do I mean by this? Well think about it, if I came out raising the first five hands I want you to be intimidated, I want to take the lead and be the dominant more aggressive player and most importantly I don’t care that you know about it. It’s quite arrogant isn’t it? Maybe, or possibly there just steaming, no real way of telling but the best technique for handling either type of player is probable going to be the same, counter punch.

Now by counter punch I don’t just mean wait for big hands, counter punching can mean waiting for them to run out of steam as well, picking your spots to bluff very carefully and take them all the way for value, when they realise what you are doing take the lead more and become much more aggressive.

Slow and steady players who raise little and often, will be trying to play position and small ball poker because they obviously think they can play post flop better than you and if this proves to be the case then take them out of there comfort zone by pumping up pots in position and playing commit poker pre-flop when you have a strong hand. If they just think there good post flop and aren’t then just play them at there own game. A good player will be very hard to tell his trying to play position, a bad player quite obvious. Raising every time you’re on the button is prescribed by a lot of players but is also quite an exploitable stratagem, just increase your re- raise range and you make small ball impossible.

Just calls a lot in position, be careful because this is often misinterpreted and confused as weak play but is often far from the case, the play is similar to slow and steady. This type of player is often very capable and tricky to play. They will be trying to play position a lot and attacking patterns they recognise but it takes a while longer to realise they are playing position because they vary there game well and you won’t know if they are rushing or pushing. I’ll cover this style more in part two but handling involves showing them patterns early and then reversing them latter to exploit them.

Call’s a lot of raise’s out of position, usually just shocking. Don’t gamble with them and keep pots small. Be mind full of flop call’s on one high card boards followed by check all in re-raises on the turn as this is crappy two pair territory. As I said don’t gamble with them, control pots and take them to the river for value, if you find the pot getting out of control then excuse yourself, this is not about gambling. Be careful though, just calling out of position can be the best line for strong players to use with middling strength hands so be wary.

Maniac shove monsters, don’t give a flying what you think about them. Pretty straight forward just sit and wait for a half decent hand and then take your chances, you can’t play poker with someone who won’t let you.

Hand Selection

Evaluating our opponent from the hands they play again is difficult in HUP play because it’s not that wrong to call with any two cards in position, you tend to want to look for either one massive clue or lots of little hints. By this I mean if you put in a standard raise in position and your opponent calls out of positions with 7-2 off and checks down to the river then your probable up against loose passive but of course something this obvious is rare. More reliable are a number of little clues, if you start to notice your opponent calling a number of out of position bets and then check/calling to the river with lots of bad-ish hands like suited picture cards you have a reasonable picture of the hands they play and off course suited boards should put you on high alert and making top pair can be worth three streets of value.

Be mind full of how they play certain hands, how do they play them in position? How do they play them out of position? How do they play them to a raise? I mentally group them like this and am careful to make notes on how they play each group so I can narrow there range on the flop,
1) Small Pairs 2-6
2) Medium pairs 7-10.
3) Big pairs.
4) Big aces.
5) Middling and Weak aces.
6) Big Kings
7) Two broadways.
8 ) Suited/Connecting cards.
9) Crap Pictures (K2)
10) Suited crap
11) Crap

This help’s me form a correct strategy to maximize my holdings when ahead and minimise when behind. My plan is quite simple, get as much information about my opponent whilst giving out as little. Then keeping all pot’s under control until I want them to go bananas. I also have predefined strategy to call all-ins early in a game, the idea being that if I call enough shoves with a higher range than my opponents are likely to shove with then I will make money in the long run with little effort (doesn’t mean they won’t have aces though!).

I used to think I had heads-up cracked, I had great results in the $55 on full tilt and thought I was a master. The more I concentrate the more I see how bad I am and how much I can improve on. This and part two are just some early thoughts as I proceed with my goal to become a great heads-up player. I’m sure one day I will look back and laugh at these ideas!