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Ultimate-Bet Poker - Poker Tournament Strategy
Match Play for Fun and Profit - Part 2: Patience
by John Vorhaus
You have been challenged.
The gauntlet is down.
I have confronted you with the question, "Just how good do you think you are?" If you think you're smarter, more disciplined, better informed, better looking than your average online foe, then you have, it seems to me, a moral obligation to engage him in one-on-one combat and take his cash.
The game we're talking about is heads-up no-limit Texas hold'em, tournament style, as played on this site for buy-ins from $5 up to $1000.
Our area of interest right now is the mindset you'll need to win this very specialized clash.
We start by contemplating the phenomenon of heads-up play.
Were it not for online poker, you'd be terribly hard pressed to find an opportunity to match wits with another player in single combat. Most brick and mortar players abhor even short-handed play, and wouldn't play heads-up to save their lives. On the internet, though, the idea really appeals.
Why? Because many internet players are, fundamentally, action junkies, and even though the pace of play is accelerated to warp speed online, countless players still find a full ring game to be too slow for their ADD-addled brains. They want a hand and they want it now! With heads-up action, they're either in the hand or about to be in the hand, a situation they find deeply satisfying.
So know this about your heads-up foe: He wants action. Patience is a problem for him.
Why, you may be wondering, may the same not be said for you?
Know what? Maybe it can.
Maybe your need to be involved in each and every hand is what drew you to this surprising profit opportunity in the first place. That doesn't make it any less an opportunity - just one that suits your nature.
But I need you to recognize that there are several different types of impatience in poker. Some types will hurt your cause severely in no-limit heads-up hold'em.
Other types... not so much.
It's a form of impatience, for example, to want to play a wide range of hands. For reasons we'll discuss, there's really nothing wrong with playing a wide range of hands heads-up. Most hands, in fact, present you with some kind of opportunity to win (or steal or adopt) the pot regardless of the cards you hold.
It's a different sort of impatience, however, to be in a hurry to win. Your impatience to defeat your foe may cause you to put yourself in coin-flip (or worse!) situations for all the marbles. As you'll see in this series, there's only infrequently a sound strategic reason for pushing in your whole stack. It's usually raw impatience that makes us make that move.
A third type of impatience is the impatience to hit a hand. You might, for example, persuade yourself to take a slim draw against your single opponent just to scratch the itch to win a hand. This type of impatience is particularly toxic in heads-up play. It's well known that draws are death in no-limit; for reasons we'll explore at length, they're double-death heads up.
Impatience, then, need not be a problem for you when you play heads-up, so long as you know what sort of impatience you're dealing with, and how to deal with it effectively:
- Impatience to be involved can be served.
- Impatience to win should be tempered.
- Impatience to hit your hand must be avoided at all cost.
And what combats impatience?
Goals.
A clear sense of your purpose in playing.
- You're not there to have fun.
- You're not there to kill time.
- You're not there to be tricky.
- You're not there to get lucky.
- You're not there to prove how clever you are.
You're there to win the match, and you will do whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes, to achieve that goal, without a single shred of self-indulgence.
That's the mindset I'm talking about, and if that's a mindset you're prepared to embrace, then you're ready to move on.
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| Ultimate-Bet Poker tournament Strategy - Articles | |
|---|---|
| Match Play for Fun and Profit - Part 1: Luck Sucks | by John Vorhaus |
| Match Play for Fun and Profit - Part 2: Patience | by John Vorhaus |
| Match Play for Fun and Profit - Part 3: The Risk/Reward Ratio | by John Vorhaus |
| Match Play for Fun and Profit - Part 4: Three Playing Zones | by John Vorhaus |