Head's Up Tournament Win Re-cap

Last night I played in a $30 buy-in Head's Up tournament and took it down for $210. Well, technically I chopped the final match because Doug had to go "dancing" and we would have had a re-match. We're still not quite sure what he meant be that, but I hope he had fun.

It was a $30 buy-in with 16 people. The format was really fun, where 4 people were seperated into 4 pools and you played everyone in your pool first. The top 2 from each pool advanced into a single elimination 8 man bracket.

What were the keys to my success? I think it stemmed from three things:

1. Strategy - I took a little time a couple days before to understand the blind structure and figure out an optimal strategy for changing gears in relation to the blinds. This was pretty big, as I think most people didn't recognize the need for a strategic shift and played too tight when the blinds started rising.

2. Confidence - I came in focused and poised, knowing that I was probably the best head's up player there. I kept that focus with each match and the concept of losing never entered my mind.

3. Praying on Weakness - While I allowed the other person to take down a few pots (when I either felt like they had a strong hand or just wanted to keep my image relatively solid), I picked up all the pots they didn't want. I think I only checked it down a couple times. I also picked really good spots for long-ball bluffs in the first two blinds levels when I had the stack to do it. This may have been check-raising on a draw or representing a hand all the way through.

Here are a couple of examples:

1. Blinds at 100/200. SB raises to 400 and I call in the BB with T9. Flop is 683, I check/call a small bet. Was I chasing a gut shot? Kinda...but it was just one of my outs. My plan was to see how he played the turn and react accordingly. I felt like he would fold to a bet on the turn if he was just continuation betting, depending on the card. The turn was a 6, so this was a great card for me to represent trips. I bet and he called. Okay, now I know he has something. Probably an overpair. River is an 8. A timid player, who is only playing his cards would most likely check here and give up. I decided that if I was going to represent either the 6 or the 8, then I needed to keep going. If anything, I would get called and be pegged as a bluffer and I could use that in later hands.

So I bet. But one thing I've improved on recently is betting enough to make them fold, while still representing my hand. I can't remember how much I bet, but I got him to lay down KK face up.

2. In my semi-finals match, a good player (but one that I know can make a laydown and knows that I play solid), raised pre-flop and I called with 89. The flop was 6Q7 and I checked, with the intention of check-raising if something about his bet seemed weak. He bet about 2/3 of the pot, which was a little more than his normal continuation bets, but I felt that with my image, a check-raise would represent a very strong hand. I could either get a laydown here or earn a free card on the turn. Again, I can't remember the size of the pot at the time, but I raised him about 3.5 - 4x his original bet. He took a while before folding and it was more than acting, so again I got someone to lay down the best hand.

Of course, I didn't bluff the entire time. I felt like I extracted the most of out my good hands as well and played on the emotions of the other players in order to induce the action that I wanted.