Heads Up Tilt Control

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Babygrand United States. Feb 02 2008 04:15. Posts 142

Anyone who knows poker knows that HU is truly the purest form of poker. The person who can combine all of the arts of poker (grinding, value betting, bluffing, aggression, acting weak) is the most dangerous person, every single hand. There are some very fierce HU competitors on Pokerstars. I consider myself among the top, but there are still those that I won't play. Not because they are profitable, but because they are fierce. A lot of the players I play are profitable players. I don't mind that. I am not looking for an opponent I can run over or that I can get paid by every time I hit a monster. There are not very many of those players (although when they are available I sit in a hurry). I am looking for opponents that can get set off on bad beats or big hands. It is hard to make big money against opponents who do not get rattled. I agree, almost everyone gets rattled. However, fierce opponents use this "rattled" state of mind to their advantage, adding another element to their game and making it almost impossible to go on runs against.

Playing a rattled opponent is the biggest edge in all of poker. Value bets become huge, sometimes even well over the size of the pot. Today I value bet an entire buy-in with the nut straight and got called by high card king. The pot should have been around 25 big bets, but because my opponent was rattled it cost him over 150 big bets. A pot of over 300 big bets.

I have played thousands of players HU, but there are only a few rock solid players that rattle only lightly. In recent memory I only remember being rattled three times. I got rattled by gp333, who hooked up nuts a ridiculous amount of times on the flop. Just prior I got rattled by t0mson, who kept coolering me on the river and c/ring all in, which i made deepstacked folds to, until about the 4th time. I also got rattled by WhinniePie, but that was probably 4 months ago. These guys each cleaned me out for over 4-6 buy-ins.

I learned from these mistakes I made. I confronted my flaws. It is not easy to stay calm and collected. I, in fact, still do hardly that. I get extremely pissed and energetic during a match. But I can control myself. I know when to push a hand hard because I look rattled. I know when to lay hands down because the opponent knows I am rattled. I am not saying I am a model player and know exactly what to do nor am I bragging about my skeeelz. I am saying that I am learning how to control these emotions that tie into the game. Tilt is an awful awful part of the game. But it can be used to your advantage. If your opponent thinks you are rattled, he thinks he can VB the garbage out of you and make ridiculous pot sized calls with marginal hands.

I spend a lot of time watching matches. Finding out which regulars tilt and which do not. I remember in my mind who can be rattled, who cannot, and what players tend to do after losing big pots. Right now there are about 10 players that come to mind that I won't play. There is no reason. I can find other matches. I can rattle other players.

The more big pots I lose, the easier the next one becomes. If you ask me which player would be better in a heads up multi-table match, I would bet on the one who has taken the most bad beats.

0 votes

If he showed me a bigger full house, I would still go all in.

NemoInDeniaL United States. Feb 02 2008 06:20. Posts 29

WOW, this literally shed light on my heads up game, great blog post.

EvilSky

Czech Republic. Feb 02 2008 07:01. Posts 8918

On February 02 2008 05:20 NemoInDeniaL wrote:
WOW, this literally shed light on my heads up game, great blog post.

Hey be nice, its his blog :o

ChoboPokeR_r Germany. Feb 02 2008 08:12. Posts 4598

--- Nuked ---

Have you ever wondered which hurts the most: saying something and wishing you had not, or saying nothing, and wishing you had?

Babygrand United States. Feb 02 2008 09:25. Posts 142

Ya forums are definitely not my expertise. Still learning about what goes where. Just got a lot in my mind and I want to share it with the LP community.

If he showed me a bigger full house, I would still go all in.

NemoInDeniaL United States. Feb 02 2008 17:43. Posts 29

I wasnt being sarcastic btw baby grand.

Babygrand United States. Feb 02 2008 19:43. Posts 142

I really didn't think you were.

If he showed me a bigger full house, I would still go all in.