Tuesday, January 06, 2009

HU22: Winnah!

I wasn't sure whether I had crossed the boundary from the red to the black in career heads-up play, so I ran the numbers.

I was happy to find that I'm a winning heads-up player, which beats break-even any day:

$10/20 ($5,303.75)
$5/10 $19,594.14
$3/6 ($1,180.85)
$2/4 ($11,314.50)
$1/2 ($423.20)


Total $1,371.84

My winnings at $5/10 surprised me, but they make sense. Although my first real downswing after I seriously tried to learn heads-up was at $5/10, I dropped down to $2/4 pretty quickly. In addition, I run very hot when 6-handed $5/10 tables get down to heads-up.

Many of my $2/4 failings came from before I made a concerted effort to improve my heads-up game. I vaguely remember tilting off what was left of my Full Tilt roll more than a year ago at $2/4. Fortunately, my Full Tilt account is healthy again.

In retrospect, I wish I had been smarter from the start.

I should have tried to beat heads-up at lower limits before trying to play $2/4 and up. At the time, I was too proud to play lower than my regular $5/10 level, which was stupid.

I also should have realized how much I had to learn sooner. I could have studied first, rather than getting pwned first.

But I learn the hard way, which often is the only effective way.

2 comments:

SirFWALGMan said...

"I was happy to find that I'm a winning heads-up player, which beats break-even any day"

I resent that remark!

Greylocks said...

I see a winning strategy here.

Sit down at a 5/10 6-pack, and just sit out. This will eventually get people pissed off enough to start leaving the table. Then when it gets down to one or two opponents, sit in and start playing.

Game selection is everything.