HU14: No Worries

Video watched: Spaceman in a Cowboy Hat ep. 2

I always have to laugh at myself when I complain about losing one day, and then I feel like a balla the next. It's irrational and results oriented to think that way -- especially when the only thing that's changed is a couple of lucky hands -- but even so, I feel like things are starting to click.

A few broad ideas that are making sense to me:

_ Because I'm playing so many more small and mid-sized pots heads-up, it's important that I win more of those hands rather than go for big all-ins all the time. This is true in full ring and 6-max as well, but it's especially true heads-up. The swings are greater HU, but they seem more incremental, rather than winning or losing one big hand per 100 (or whatever).

_ When I started to make good money in full ring and 6-max games, I realized just how important position was and I became supertight out of position. After thousands and thousands of hands, folding out of position was routine. But heads-up, playing so nitty out of position doesn't fly. I'm coming to appreciate that I can't simply refuse to play out of position, and there are many spots where I can aggro my way into gaining the initiative. Instead of fearing being out of position, I can embrace it when the situation is right.

_ It's more important to play my range against my opponent's range, rather than worry about pot control. Previously, I was routinely checking behind dry flops for pot control, with the logic that I could extract value on later streets when I had the best hand and perhaps hit on the turn when I didn't. Now I realize that if my Ax hand on a 722 flop crushes my opponent's range, many times I'm going to want to bet.