4:44am: Everyone can agree that there’s a specific course of events in poker that would cause them to “tilt”. For each person, that course of events and the threshold for tilting are different but the lowest common denominator is that we all tilt in some, way shape or form. Let’s be honest, we’d all be winning players if we could learn to control our emotions and not tilt, right? It’s a good thing I don’t have to answer that question because tilt will always exist for a couple of reasons (a) losing money never feels good, and (b) there is so much injustice in poker.

“How on earth can I stop from tilting?” That’s the magic question to which we’d all like a magic bullet. What is the secret to not getting angry after a bad beat? How can one reasonably be expected to control his/her emotions after a runner runner disaster for a large chunk of their bankroll?

If I could answer that question with 100% confidence, I wouldn’t need to play poker because I’d set up shop in a nice little office and play counselor all day long. My client list would be nearly infinite, as you could imagine. But seriously, I will do the best I can to put it into perspective for you and help you avoid the downward spiral, mind consuming seige that is tilt.

First off, in order to answer the questions above, we need to establish a concrete definition of tilt. For all intents and purposes, we will define tilt as “a state of mental confusion or frustration in which a player adopts a less than optimal strategy.” In fact, it almost helps if you define tilt as a temporary illness. Much the same way doctors diagnose a disease, we must diagnose the symptoms of tilt. The key here, however, is to diagnose these symptoms in the early stages so that these feelings don’t permeate into your game. This involves you being brutally honest with yourself and identify when you’re in a state of tilt. If you find yourself checking just three of these ten symptoms, then you’re probably tilting:

- An immense feeling of frustration and anger towards both the player and the game itself
- Strong desire to exact revenge or spite your opponent
- Complete loss of patience in the game you’re playing
- Trying too hard to win each hand dealt
- Second guessing every single decision made
- The concepts of table image and logic have gone totally out the door
- Chasing draws without proper odds
- Sudden bursts of unexplained and illogical aggression
- Overvaluing marginal hands
- The inability to press the fold button

All of these things can be detrimental to your game, or even worse: destroy your bankroll, or even — depending on the situation — ruin lives.

So let’s put a stop to it already, or at least try. Here are five simple suggestions from me to you that will help you stay off tilt:

1. Always, always think long term. Poker isn’t about winning the battle. It’s about winning the war. If you’re a winning player, there’s absolutely no question your results will return to form over time. Why is this so hard for people to see at the time? If that is the million dollar question, then the million dollar solution is: TRUST THE MATH. A good example of this is the swingy phenomenon of coin flips. Literal coin flips, that is. If we flip a coin 100 times, it’s completely within reason that it lands on heads 75 times out of 100 when of course the odds are exactly 50%. Let’s take that same coin and flip it 900 more times, totaling 1,000 flips. This time, heads is only slightly ahead of tails (513 to 487 - 51.3% to 48.7%).  Going even further, let’s flip the coin 10,000 times. This time, the number of heads outcomes are eerily close to the number of tails outcomes — (5,023 to 4,977 - 50.23% to 49.77%). Point being, as the number of flips increases infinitely, the closer the percentages will gravitate towards either other, eventually totally leveling out at 50 percent within fractions of decimal points.

It’s important to just recognize that when you’re running bad you are just caught in one of these deviations (see the first 100 flips), and that it will eventually come to an end. Like we’ve discussed before, the best solution is volume. But equally as important as volume is maintaining your composure during these times and realize that mathematics doesn’t always take the same path, but it always, always leads to the same point — no matter how you slice the pie. Put every single ounce of trust left in your body on the mathematics of poker. I promise it will even out for you over time. When? It could take a while, but hang in there. That’s why long term thinking is the key to success.

2. Learn to let go. You need a break. It’s extremely important to recognize when you’re in the beginning stages of tilt so to avoid anything totally devastating happening. I can’t tell you how many times (in my past) that I ignored this advice, and found myself thinking “things can’t get worse”. Things can always get worse, and I cannot stress that enough. A good friend of mine once told me (and it’s so true): “when you play to get even, you get even worse”. It’s time to let go and swallow your pride when you feel even three of those ten symptoms creeping in. You’ve lost, get over it. It’s perfectly normal to lose.

3. Find a healthy way to express your anger. Some of this might sound a little crass, but that’s only because we all have different ways of expressing anger. Get a punching bag. Masturbate. Go punt a football 40 yards outside. Cry, if you have to. The idea here is to not keep the anger bottled up and to express it in a way that’s not going to hurt anybody physically or mentally. If you keep these hostile feelings inside, you’re going to feel a permanent resentment towards poker (which is where I believe the term “perma-tilt” came from.)

4. Be happy you got the money in good (if bad beats are causing you to tilt). Fish pay your bills. I know that it’s a very pride swallowing thing on nights where you constantly get the money in good, only to lose to runner runner and miracle cards over and over and over again — only to have your -35% roi opponent (who think he’s a genius) taunt you in the chat. Rejoice during times like these. Don’t get angry. Be happy that (a) poker is still a very beatable game because (b) people keep putting their money in bad. And for re-assurance about when that will turn around, see point #1.

5. Remember that it happens to everyone. You lost $300 tonight, and it seems like the complete end of the world, right? To that, I say: no it’s not, and misery loves company. Open up a $200/$400 NL cash game table and watch people lose Plasma TVs, Cars, and even HOMES in these games. Seeing someone lose a $140,000 pot on a two outer on the river suddenly puts things into perspective for you. Maybe things aren’t that bad? Like I said before, it can always get worse. Always.

6. Detach yourself from the results. This is perhaps the hardest of the six suggestions, but it’s completely necessary in order to avoid going on tilt. Everyone likes to win, and most poker players are very competitive people, but there comes a point where winning can mean TOO much to you. We hear the term “results oriented” a lot, and this is where that phrase comes into play. Don’t worry about the outcome of one particular hand. Worry about the outcome of the same hand ran 100, 1000, and 10,000 times, which ties back into long term thinking. Complete emotional attachment might be asking too much, but I definitely think it’s completely reasonable for you to not care AS much when you happen to get unlucky. It’s just a game.

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Another suggestion is to look up some bad beat videos on youtube (there’s tons). One of the most important things to remember when you’re on tilt is that you’re not alone — thousands of people are having the exact SAME problem as you at the exact same moment. Yes, they are getting two outed. Yes, they took a runner runner beat tonight. And yes, they keep getting counterfeited when they flop two pair and their opponent calls them down. Watching videos of this happening to other people re-assures that it’s not just some conspiracy against you and your account. Variance in poker is real, and it happens to everyone. No exceptions.

Someone once told me that it’s the little things that count so here are a few small suggestions in order to avoid falling into the downward spiral: (a) if you have a gym membership, go work out. Kill two birds with one stone: improve your body and get the pent up frustration out of your system. (b) a very cold/hot shower — very underrated as a means of refreshing your mind set. (c) surround yourself with people who ground you and are a calming force in your life. It’s important not to be alone during these times, because when this happens sometimes you spend too much time in your head instead of in the presence of other human beings.

I could literally go on all night, as this is a topic that I’m very familiar with. While these suggestions aren’t for everyone, hopefully I’ve put a creative spin on at least one thing that you will take from this article that will take you one step closer to solving this huge problem that many people have.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

4:59am: Poker can be a crazy game. No, scratch that, poker IS a crazy game, and there’s really nothing we can ever do to change that, especially being no limit players. Take for example, my last match of the night, which would have put me up nearly $500 (if the hand holds):

PokerStars Game #19267291875: Tournament #99347957, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/08/01 - 05:51:24 (ET)
Table ‘99347957 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1695 in chips)
Seat 2: TDiddy75 (1305 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
TDiddy75: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ad Qd]
trujm is disconnected
trujm is connected
trujm: raises 60 to 90
TDiddy75: raises 270 to 360
trujm: raises 1335 to 1695 and is all-in
TDiddy75: calls 945 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (390) returned to trujm
*** FLOP *** [Jh Js Kh]
*** TURN *** [Jh Js Kh] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [Jh Js Kh 4h] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TDiddy75: shows [Kc Qc] (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
trujm: shows [Ad Qd] (three of a kind, Jacks)
TDiddy75 collected 2610 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2610 | Rake 0
Board [Jh Js Kh 4h Jd]
Seat 1: trujm (button) (small blind) showed [Ad Qd] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 2: TDiddy75 (big blind) showed [Kc Qc] and won (2610) with a full house, Jacks full of Kings

Should I be mad that he had three outs preflop, and I was nearly a 3:1 favorite to win the hand? Maybe, but the point is that playing heads up sngs for a living takes some really, really thick skin and you have to be able to forget about this kind of stuff. You play so many games, that it almost becomes like a given that things like this are going to happen, so just take them in stride, and don’t look back.

My overall record tonight finished at 14-10, and although I got unlucky in quite a few matches, I’ll take it. Where else can you go and sit on your ass all day and make $300? If the agony of taking bad beats is the only thing that makes my job unpleasant, then I welcome all bad beats with open arms.

Here is how I finished the night:

Set 1: 3-0
Set 2: 2-1
Set 3: 0-3
Set 4: 2-1
Set 5: 1-2
Set 6: 2-1
Set 7: 2-1
Set 8: 2-1

By the looks of things, tonight was an incredibly consistent performance, and instead of cursing the “poker gods” about how I should have actually finished 17-7, rather than 14-10 (if hands that should have held up would have), I need to be really thankful that people are willing to put their money in behind at this level. Until then, I’ll take $280 profit all day long. Wouldn’t you?

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

3:28am: Most players would readily admit that playing small pocket pairs isn’t their favorite thing in the world to do. Some would sooner enjoy mowing the lawn, or scrubbing dirty pots and pans. That’s because small pocket pairs are not easy to play, as even I will admit.

There’s gotta be some kind of rule book or chart somewhere telling us what to do when dealt pocket fours, right?

Not even close. Playing small pocket pairs is much more a balancing act than anything else. First off, you must recognize your hand for what it is: it’s just a pair. Of course there’s the slightly optimistic anticipation of the possibility that you will flop a set with that bad boy and felt your opponent, but 19 times out of 20 that’s not going to happen.

Let’s take a look at how I usually approach the situation, according to “type of board” and for each opponent type (TAG and LAG). For example’s sake, let’s assume we’re holding pocket fives (5c5s) in this case. Let’s also assumed that you and your opponent are fairly equally stacked at 1500 a piece. Let’s also assume that your opponent has raised on the button (60) and you elect to just call in the 10/20 blinds:

1. Nondescript board - 9d 7s 2c. Against a LAG opponent, I would recommend check raising this flop pretty hard, and then folding to a shove or any kind of bet on the turn/river. You need to make a bold statement with your hand on the flop in order to find out where you’re at. Let’s say you check, and your opponent bets 2/3 the pot (90). Check raising to, say, 350 right here should tell you fairly quickly where you are at. Every now and then someone will float you with AJ, AQ, AK in this spot, but nearly all other hands that have not connected with this board are going into the muck. If you get called, I would say it’s pretty safe to put on the brakes. Your opponent will likely be a little timid as well, and you may even get to a showdown that you normally may not have seen — with the best hand.

Against a TAG opponent, I probably lead out for the pot. The reason I suggest this line is because a TAG opponent is going to play relatively more straight forward, and those who are playing tight will usually have the discipline to lay down over cards in this situation. If you get called, I would say theres an 80% chance you are already beat, in which case you saved yourself from being curious later on if you had just check/called the whole way through.

2. Board with at least two paints - As Qc 3c. While this is a less-than-desirable board for your hand, it’s fairly cut and dry and actually a little easier to play than on a nondescript board. In my honest opinion, after having played 7,000+ heads up sngs lifetime, that there’s no significant value in betting in this spot - no matter if your opponent is LAG or TAG. LAG opponents are a little harder to put on hands than TAG opponents, and could have been raising with any two, so your hand is more likely to be good against someone who is LAG in this spot. However, you could get into some trouble betting this hand because a good LAG is going to put you to a decision on this flop, and that’s a decision you’re not going to want to have to make. The TAG opponent almost certainly has you beat in this spot because tight players like to play paint cards, so betting usually isn’t a good idea in this spot either. I always tell people to keep your decisions as easy as possible, because it keeps your mind fresh and playing balanced. Having to decipher 3-4 levels of thought to determine whether a mediocre pair is good in this spot is too tall a task in these blind levels, and therefore not worth the brain power in chips. So to that, I say suck up the pride and check/fold.

3. “Drawy” board - 7h 9h Jh. There’s a number of ways you could go about doing this. Surprisingly, players in this day and age have progressed to the point where if you lead out strong here, they usually won’t just call. Whether or not they are on a draw, you will usually be faced with either a fold or a raise. I find this to hold true for both TAG and LAG players. Your hand may or may not be good, but I think the play regardless of whether your opponent is TAG or LAG is to lead out pretty strong (120), and then check/fold if you feel any sort of resistance whatsoever. If you get called, odds are your opponent either has (a) a heart, (b) one or more of the cards on the board, or (c) over cards and (a) combined. In any of those three cases, you aren’t far enough ahead to invest a lot of money in this pot, so it’s safe to put the breaks on after the initial information-seeking bet.

4. A paired board with an over card - 9c 9s Kd. A LAG player is probably going to make a continuation bet on this flop, so you can make a strong argument for check raising here. However, this time if you get called, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re beat. If you check to your opponent, and he bets 90 in this spot, a check raise to 240 will take it down roughly 55% of the time. From the other 45% that you get called, I would venture to say that against a LAG opponent you are ahead 40% of the time. A good portion of the time what you’re looking at in this spot is someone who has a pair higher than yours, but also didn’t connect with the board (see: pocket nines). However, more than likely you’re looking at someone who is just floating you with a strong ace. From here, the best line is to take, in my opinion, is that if the turn is lower than your card (2, 3, 4) then I would bet hard, and fold to a raise. If the turn is higher than my pair, then I would probably bet small and fold to a raise. The river should usually be checked in either case, to which you should use pot odds accordingly when faced with a bet from a LAG player.

The TAG is probably going to let you know where they are at, but there’s a good chance that they connected with the high card on the board. A solid TAG would probably still make a continuation on this flop, so my advice to you would be to make one hard check raise, see what happens, and then shut it down if you get called because you’re almost certainly beat.

5. Paired board with an under card - 10s 10c 3d. You’re almost always good in this spot, no matter if your opponent is TAG or LAG. The correct play here is to trust that your hand is good now, and will stay good because your opponent simply has over cards. I would bet each street for value in this situation.

6. Low board with one over card - 6s 4d 2c. Did your opponent really call you with a 6? That’s the question you need to ask yourself, and decide quickly because if you believe that they do not hold a 6, you have to play this hand like you have top pair, and bet out accordingly. Against a LAG, I would probably recommend check raising the flop and then betting out (if you believe they don’t hold a 6) with medium sized bets. Against a TAG player, I would just lead out and call a small raise, but fold to a large one. In either case, if you’re already beat you have a pretty solid backup plan in case a 5 or a 3 hits, and it’s going to be really hard for your opponent to put you on a gut shot draw if your straight does fill up. It get’s slightly complicated if you make your set, but you’re usually still good in that case. Just make sure to keep the pot small until you’re sure where you stand.

7. Low board with no over cards - 2s 3c 4c. In this case, even against pocket Kings, your hand is still around 40% to win so it’s justifiable to felt this hand against even a TAG. I’m almost never folding this hand against and LAG player, so you should play it as aggressively as possible. Against a TAG, I would probably bet out, and/or call all raises, and only fold if I believe my opponent has a set.

8. Flopping a set - 5s Jc Kd. I saved the best for last, for two reasons. (1) because this is the situation we all dream of, right? and (2) because it’s the least likely to happen. I actually compare this situation to sitting in the weeds for 2 days straight with a sniper rifle, waiting for something to cross your path and then finally, something slowly drifts in front of your cross hairs. All analogies aside, I would say that the main thing you need to do is just make sure that your opponent doesn’t fold. That being said, I think it actually depends on what you perceive your opponent’s opinion of you to be. If you feel that your opponent thinks you’re a tight player, I would probably make small bets or check the flop and set the trap for later. If your opponent considers you loose and reckless, then I would probably just bet out with the hand, and hope to get raised. Either way, I truly believe betting out with monster hands is the new “slowplaying”, because people sniff out slowplays way better than they used to, in general.

So there you have it. Whether you agree or disagree with my advice, one thing is certain: there’s more than one way to skin a cat. This is far from a “guide” on how to play small pocket pairs in heads up sngs, but if you have taken at least one or two small “pointers” from this very subjective article, then my work here is finished.

10:03pm: With me finally getting completely settled into my brand new home, with my brand new office, I have finally been able to dedicate the time necessary into putting in some serious volume heads up. Join me, why don’t you? — in becoming a complete heads up machine (that is, if your desire is to do this for a living). We’ve been preaching volume, volume, and more volume for quite some time, but it feels like the weight of the world on your shoulders everyday when you feel like you have to play 20+ games. Being as such, it would be beneficial if we invented some sort of routine/program to follow in order to break it down and seem like less of a burden.

So let’s do this: committ to playing 24 heads up sit n gos a day, 5 days a week. Break each day into eight segments consisting of three games a piece. Play each segment however you’d like. Take as many breaks in between each segment as you need, and play them whenever you’d like. The only catch is that you must play the required eight segments each day. This includes times when you go 6-0 in your first two segments and you don’t want to “ruin” your unblemished record by continuing, so you decide to stop for the day. No, you are not allowed to do that. No matter how you cut it, you are going to play eight segments of three games per day.

Here is a link to a sample spreadsheet I am using to keep track of these segments.

So why this method? What does it change? How does it help you?

Well, it does a few things:

• Keeps your thoughts/mindset encapsulated, meaning you only worry about the present, and not the past or the future
• It prevents the player from taking a results-oriented approach
• It keeps things in perspective because it gives variance a fighting chance of evening out
• It’s a completely organized, streamlined approach and is much more business-like than just randomly playing games whenever one feels like it.
• It will allow you to follow a regulated schedule, which makes the process seem much more like a job and less like gambling.
• Each segment is a fresh start. When you go 0-3 in one segment, the next is a new chapter in which you are entitled to forget that the chapter before it even existed.

The three game segment approach also yields a forced result. There are no ties. There are four different outcomes:

• 3-0
• 2-1
• 1-2
• 0-3

If you’re anything like me, you’d consider 75% of those results “managable”. The only one of the four you REALLY don’t want to see is 0-3. Anything else should be considered acceptable results. Even if you finish 0-3 in any of your segments, that’s ok — that’s why you play eight of them.

Another thing you should note is that I have chosen Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday as the days dedicated to playing my sessions. These days were specifically chosen and hand-picked, based on the days of the week which were most profitable, as determined by Sharkscope. If you’d like to find out which days of the week are most profitable for you, simply click your name and then “More Options” and then “Graph Results By..” and then “Day of the Week”. Choose your days wisely, as I have. You can even choose to play the hours of the day which are also most profitable for you. Relying on this data also assumes that you have a relatively large sample size, or else the data is meaningless. 1000 heads up matches should be a large enough sample size to yield the information you need in regards to this.

Remember, heads up sngs are nothing more than mindset tweaks and making self-psychological manipulations in order to keep yourself grounded, and to keep the results steady, upward, and consistent. Implementing this organized approach is a big step into getting serious about heads up sngs for some serious extra cash, if not for a living.

10:30pm: You hear it all the time: be aggressive. Aggression, aggression, aggression is supposed to be the key to winning poker, right? No doubt there’s some truth to that. So what makes you or anyone an aggressive player? Are you classified as an aggressive player if you bluff a lot? To answer this question, let’s backtrack and define the different types of aggression. There are two forms: (a) wreckless and (b) well timed.

Wreckless aggression is pretty much an illogical, alpha-male sort of aggression for those with bigger egos than IQs. People who are wrecklessly aggressive bluff in spots where:

• There is no value in doing so.
• Fold equity doesn’t justify the push
• Their table image has been established such that the whole purpose of bluffing has been negated
• They have no regard for the range of cards they will get called with in spots they choose to push

On the other hand, well timed aggression is aggression that is completely deliberate and well thought out. If bluffing is “madness” then well timed aggression is definitely the method behind the madness. Well timed aggression may consist of times where:

• The estimated odds of your opponent folding offset the smaller chance you will get called
• You have established a level of trust with your opponent such that the move is well disguised
• The board is such that your opponent has more cards that could beat them than cards that cannot
• Your opponent cannot logically call without one or two exact cards in their hand

Either way, obviously the result we are trying to acheive is to get our opponent to fold, which is why we call this technique bluffing. We don’t have a hand, and we would like to win the pot without having to show our cards.

Now that we’ve established the two kinds of aggression (that consequently lead to bluffing), let’s decide which kind is a more suitable choice for the winning heads up sit n go player. While I award brownie points for courage for those who practice wreckless aggression, the path to true heads up sng success is paved with well timed aggression. There are simply times when it makes absolutely no sense to bluff. Let’s examine these times:

• In the 10/20 blinds, and you only have 20 invested in the pot. Your opponent has bet the pot, and you have absolutely nothing. Let it go, there is no value in protecting what little you have in the pot at this point. Wait until the blinds mean something to start stealing.
• When you suspect that your opponent has caught on to the fact that you’ve been stealing quite a few pots. The more pots you drag, even if they are small, the more likely you are going to be forced at some point to prove you’ve got the goods. People catch on. This is why I suggest waiting until later to start firing with air, because establishing a tight image early on is worth more later on when the blinds actually hurt to lose.
• When you’ve just shown a bluff. I can’t tell you how many times I see people show a bluff, and then try the same move again no more than 10 seconds later. I’m well aware that some people would think that I would think that there’s no way someone would do it twice in a row without having the goods, therefore I might give them the benefit of the doubt and fold the second time. Problem with that thinking is that most people aren’t on that 2nd-3rd level of thinking, and will simply call you the next time you bet big — as they should, because you have betrayed their trust.
• When pride is starting to get in the way. We’ve seen this situation before: you’re trying to bluff someone, and they keep calling you with bottom pair — and frankly, it’s pissing you off. First off, STOP. This is not about pride, or bragging rights, or who’s got the biggest kahunas. This is about money, and it’s clear that your opponent doesn’t trust you. To counter balance this, you should probably take him to a place I like to call “value city”. It’s nice up there.
• When the risk/reward ratio is too low. Way too often, I see people fire 400 on the river into a pot with 80 chips in it, I fold, and then they show me 9 3 offsuit. Ok, so what? You risked 400 chips to get 40 of your own back? Even if I fold 9 times out of 10, that’s only a net profit of [40 x 9] = 360 chips. The one time you get called you lose 440 chips. Does that sound like a winning proposition to you? I would sure hope not.

After everything I’ve just presented you with, the main thing you need to know is that wreckless aggression is -EV, while well timed aggression is +EV. There has to be some kind of deliberacy within your system of bluffing for it to be effective. Just because something is deliberate and premeditated doesn’t mean it is dechipherable. The trick to effective bluffing is coming up with your own undechiperable method of aggression.

The key to successful bluffing is to be a good storyteller, because when you bluff, you are attempting to tell a story — even if false. The story has to be believable, or else the whole purpose of such a move is null and void. When your opponent is faced with a tough call in the later stages of the hand, they will probably try to piece together the fragments of the story to see if everything “fits”, and then come to a conclusion on whether or not your story is believable to them. Wreckless aggression and well timed aggression aside, there is a such thing as a good bluff and a bad bluff. Let’s try to pick them apart.

• The bad: You’ve played pretty tight the whole match. Whenever you’ve raised, you usually held two cards 10 or higher (KQ, AK, QJ, etc), and your opponent knows this. This time you’ve raised to 90 (from 30) preflop with AsKd - and the flop comes: 5d 6c 9h. You make a pot-sized continuation bet, and your opponent calls. The pot is now 540.The turn is 7h. Your opponent checks to you, and you decide to check behind, hoping to hit one of your overcards. The river is a total brick: 2s, and your opponent once again checks to you.

  Being perfectly honest with yourself, you’re probably a little upset that you have so much money invested in this pot with such a premium hand, and you’ve totally missed the board. You’re almost 100% sure you’re beat but you feel your opponent can’t call unless they hold an 8, so you decide that you want to throw a temper tantrum (because you missed) and steal this pot by betting 500 on the river. You do so, and your opponent goes into the tank.It is at this moment that your opponent is piecing together the story you have just told them to see if it makes any sense. Every time you’ve raised preflop, you’ve held two high cards. Therefore, there’s really no scenario with you raising preflop that involves you holding an 8 in your hand, unless you raised with 88, but that’s not entirely likely. You checked the turn when the straight hit the board, which means that you were either scared of the card, or you totally loved it. If you had an overpair, you would have probably bet the turn to see where you were at with the intention of folding to a raise.

  In addition to this, if you had an overpair, the river bet is entirely too large for this holding to make sense. With an overpair, you would want a call. 500 screams, “please don’t call me”. Therefore, a logical mindset would deduce that you’d either have the straight or nothing at all in this spot.Given your normal preflop raising range, and your betting patterns on this board, it now starts to make sense that the story you are trying to tell is false. Your opponent calls with A9, and you were caught in a fairly non well-thought-out bluff.

• The good: Good bluffs involve manipulating “sure fire” information. That is, the rare times when you are able to put your opponent on a VERY specific range of hands. This will enable you to represent cards that you know are scary for your opponents hand. For example, as stated before in one of my articles (on Tells, I believe) most opponents who raise 4x preflop are holding mid pocket pairs almost all day. Your opponent believes you to be a relatively loose player, but knows that your calling range is a lot more narrow than your raising range. Therefore, when they make a 4x raise preflop and you call, it is reasonable to assume that they are thinking that you are holding overcards to their middle pair preflop.Let’s say that your opponent makes it 80 to go in the 10/20 blinds preflop on the button, and you call not even looking at your cards. In fact, it would be a good exercise in this hand to stick a post it note on where your cards are just to emphasize that cards aren’t as important as the storytelling is.

  The pot is now 160, and the flop comes 2c 3c 9s. You believe your opponent to be holding 44-88. They make a bet of half the pot (80 - which, by the way screams “I’m leaving myself room to fold this weak hand”), and you decide to call with the intention of bluffing the turn if (a) the flush completes or (b) an overcard hits. The pot is now 320, which means you have 160 chips invested into the hand.

  The turn is an excellent card to pull this move off (Kc). Your opponent bets half the pot once again (160), but this time, you decide to raise and represent either/or the club or the king. You decide to raise to 460, making it another 300 to call for your opponent. Once again, as we discussed before, this is the moment where your opponent goes into the tank and pieces together the story. Here are some of the facts that add up to your raising seeming truthful:

  1. You are sure your opponent perceives you as tight, and you called a 4x raise preflop

  2. You just called the flop, which is often what someone with overcards and more frequently, a flush draw would do.

  3. Your opponent doesn’t know that you know that their 4x raise means “middle pocket pair”, and as a tight player, you’ve shown a tendency to at least have the highest card on the board in raising situations

  4. A flush draw just completed, which is yet another way their hand could be beat.When you add up all the facts, the benefits of folding outweigh the risks of calling, and since your story seems believable, your opponent decides to lay his hand down, and you drag the pot.

So to summarize, equally as imporant as how you bluff is the times you choose to do so. Think about these things, and whether or not the bluffs you tend to make do, in fact, make any sense at all. Before you think about pulling the trigger, make sure all the facts line up. Then and only then will you begin to see the true value in storytelling.

5:02am: Today’s live session was definitely not easy money. It was a table full of local sharks, and had it not been for the amount of trouble I went through today in order to play live (which I won’t get into), I would have sooner turned around and went back home for a full heads up sng session.

I decided to stick it out, and in doing so I decided that I was going to have to mix things up a bit today because everyone at the table knew what my usual gameplan is. Today was a day where I only played hands in position, and I picked up a bunch of small pots by playing the button and the cutoff very aggressively. The plan worked to perfection, as no one really caught on to what I was doing.

Then, there was this one hand where I made a “blocking raise” preflop of $15 with Ac9c from middle position. I knew I wanted to see the flop, however I knew if I just limped, someone was going to make it at least $25-$30 to go. Whenever I enter the pot there, I usually get a lot of respect, so everyone (5 people) just called and we see a flop of 7c 5c 2d. The guy first to act folds unprevoked (checked out) and the action was on me. I decide to bet $30. The man to my left (loose/passive) calls $30, one guy folds, another guy folds, and the LAG player on the button makes it $130 to go. I thought about pushing right here, because I did have two overs and the nut flush draw, but I wanted the third guy in too so that I’d have better odds for the hand to hit. For that reason, I decide to just call the $100 and so does the man to my left. The pot is now $480 going into the turn.

The turn is a very beautiful card for me: Jc, giving me the absolute nuts at the moment.

I thought that if I checked it at this point, there’s no way in hell someone else would bet a scary card like that on a flushed-out board without a flush themselves. Even a set would probably take the free card here, and try to pair the board cheaply. Keeping these things in mind, I decided to lead out pretty strong ($300) hoping and praying that someone else had completed the flush OR that someone would figure, “there’s no way he could have a flush here, he would have checked. Who in the hell leads out when they hit the flush?”.

Unfortunately, no one had a flush and no one figured any of that stuff I mentioned above. Everyone folds, and I take down the pot as it stood at that point.

The rest of the night was just maintenance and picking up small pots, as I mentioned above. After a 5.5 hour session, I decided that I was indeed lucky to be up nearly $400 in a very “sharked out” game so I took my loot and left with the intention to continue my session via heads up sngs when I arrived home.

In regards to my online mini-session, there is nothing significant to report other than those who ran better than me, won the match, and those did not, lost. This enabled me to finish 3-2 on the night, and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to play a longer one. Here is the last hand from the last match I played (against a pretty solid player), for those who are interested:

PokerStars Game #18736711128: Tournament #95280719, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/11 - 05:58:10 (ET)
Table ‘95280719 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: prodigies (1000 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (2000 in chips)
prodigies: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Qc Js]
prodigies: raises 60 to 90
trujm: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [Kc 3c Ts]
trujm: checks
prodigies: bets 90
trujm: calls 90
*** TURN *** [Kc 3c Ts] [Ad]
trujm: checks
prodigies: bets 240
trujm: raises 720 to 960
prodigies: calls 580 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (140) returned to trujm
*** RIVER *** [Kc 3c Ts Ad] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Qc Js] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
prodigies: shows [Qs As] (a pair of Aces)
trujm collected 2000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2000 | Rake 0
Board [Kc 3c Ts Ad 8s]
Seat 1: prodigies (button) (small blind) showed [Qs As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [Qc Js] and won (2000) with a straight, Ten to Ace

More later..

3:02am: The biggest battle you face at the tables, espcially heads up, may not even be against your next opponent. Instead, your toughest competitor might be you. Everyone’s got an achilles heel. That is, something that “sets them off” into self-distruct mode sending them downspirling in slow motion with seemingly no way to stop it.

For example, you’re about to put someone away in a $20 husng; they have 280 chips to your 2720. You pick up A10off on the button, so you just put them all in hoping to get a call. You get the call you want, and they turn over the hand you want - J10off - but the RNG lets them off the hook when the flop brings the unfortunate Jack. That’s actually OK, because you’re still at the point where you can maintain your composure and put them away.

But what happens when the situation happens not once, but twice? - and in an even MORE unlikely way. The blinds are now 50/100, and you have 2100 to your opponents 900 and pick up 10 10 in the big blind. Your opponent open shoves, which makes this an easy call and then flip over A2. Beautiful, right? Not so fast. The flop is: K K 3. Still looking good? How about the turn (Q)? Is that a good card? Almost never. Especially in this case because it allowed a Q to hit on the river, counterfeiting your two pair and giving the underdog with A2 the winning hand.

The question is: how do you handle things like that when they happen to you? How is one supposed to take it when it happens over, and over and over again. Here are a few steps to stomaching the sometimes seemingly never ending barage of SICKNESS that happens in heads up sngs (while still in the match):

1. Take 10 seconds, breathe, and look away from the screen. Remember that at the end of the day, it is still just a game and it is for this particular reason that we have bankrolls: so that we don’t have to get sick when things like this happen. It is also the same reason we preach “volume, volume, and more volume”.

2. Remember that if the best hand always held up, no one would ever play. I once heard a proposal for a game variation of Texas Hold Em where the hand would be over on the flop. This was literally one of the dumbest things I had ever heard, and clearly conceived by someone who is so emotionally scarred from getting drawn out on, that he had to invent his own little world where the best hand always wins.

3. Believe in the RNG in the long run. Yeah, yeah - you hear it all the time: long term. You hear it so much, that you’re sick of hearing it, but it’s completely true. Take it from someone who has played nearly a million hands in poker in his life. “Long term” can seem EXTREMELY long sometimes, but the numbers always even out in the end.

4. Do not melt down. There’s a tendency to compound the problem by taking out your frustration on yourself. For some reason, we love to play the victim in life whenever we can - and once a night has gotten terrible past the point of no return, people have a tendency to just “blow a fuse” and not care anymore. Whenever you feel yourself START to get at this point, it’s time to stop. Seriously. Do not register for any more heads up sngs until you’ve completely regained your composure. Also, do not lie to yourself: only you know deep down if you’re just fooling yourself into believing that you’re in the right mindset. Trust and honesty with yourself in these moments is key.

On the other hand, if you happen to be in the middle of the match, you need to do the best you can to emulate the mindset you were in when the match first started. A fresh mindset has been the base of many of my comeback victories, and there’s no reason you can’t do the same.

5. Regain your composure, and finish the guy off. He’s gotten his money in bad at least twice now, which means he’s a good candidate to give these chips back to you. Be patient, don’t rush it, and find another good spot to get your chips in. Not to get all “hollywood” and “cliche” on you, but I believe Mickey told Rocky in one of the movies that every good fighter has one good round left in him. He says, “get up, you son of a bitch! fight this guy hard! cause Mickey loves you!”

In short, don’t let yourself be your worst enemy. In playing heads up sngs for a living, you will find over time that the only person who can beat you is you. Know your weaknesses, be honest about it, and whenever you feel yourself sliding into the dark place, jump out before the water gets too deep.

2:28am: There’s all kinds of good runs in poker; Good runs with preflop cards; Good runs with opponents; Good runs with cards postflop; Good runs in race situations; Good runs with people just handing you the match. You get the idea. Right now, I’m on a good run in just about every single way I just mentioned.

Not to take anything away from the quality of my play, but I’m either off to one of the best starts even conceivable after moving up in limits (to $100 husngs from $50), or I’m just getting extremely lucky. I’d like the think it’s the former and not the latter.

I’ve had to make a few good calls here and there (see below), but for the most part, people have been just giving away money (also see below), which is something I totally didn’t expect at this level. Here are three hands that are pretty much a microcosm of my experience in the $100s so far:

Donation #1:

PokerStars Game #18546608093: Tournament #94271041, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level I (10/20) - 2008/07/03 - 02:02:41 (ET)
Table ‘94271041 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: smartass2007 (900 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (2100 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 10
smartass2007: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ac Ad]
trujm: raises 40 to 60
smartass2007: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [5d Ah Qd]
smartass2007: bets 100
trujm: calls 100
*** TURN *** [5d Ah Qd] [Kh]
smartass2007: bets 100
trujm: raises 260 to 360
smartass2007: calls 260
*** RIVER *** [5d Ah Qd Kh] [8h]
smartass2007: bets 380 and is all-in
trujm: calls 380
*** SHOW DOWN ***
smartass2007: shows [8d Kd] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
trujm: shows [Ac Ad] (three of a kind, Aces)
smartass2007 said, “lol wow”
smartass2007 said, “nh”
trujm collected 1800 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1800 | Rake 0
Board [5d Ah Qd Kh 8h]
Seat 1: smartass2007 (big blind) showed [8d Kd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Eights
Seat 2: trujm (button) (small blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won (1800) with three of a kind, Aces

Donation #2:

PokerStars Game #18546642807: Tournament #94270330, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/03 - 02:05:42 (ET)
Table ‘94270330 1′ 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: rydog012 (1255 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (1745 in chips)
rydog012: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Qs 7s]
rydog012: calls 15
trujm: checks
*** FLOP *** [6s 4s Ts]
trujm: checks
rydog012: bets 60
trujm: raises 120 to 180
rydog012: raises 120 to 300
trujm: raises 1415 to 1715 and is all-in
rydog012: calls 925 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (490) returned to trujm
*** TURN *** [6s 4s Ts] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [6s 4s Ts 7d] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Qs 7s] (a flush, Queen high)
rydog012: shows [Js Kc] (high card Ace)
trujm collected 2510 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2510 | Rake 0
Board [6s 4s Ts 7d Ac]
Seat 1: rydog012 (button) (small blind) showed [Js Kc] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [Qs 7s] and won (2510) with a flush, Queen high

Donation #3
(had to REALLY think about this one before hitting call):

PokerStars Game #18547386631: Tournament #94274799, $100+$5 Hold’em No Limit - Match Round I, Level II (15/30) - 2008/07/03 - 03:18:19 (ET)
Table ‘94274799 1′ 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: trujm (1650 in chips)
Seat 2: tywebb004 (1350 in chips)
tywebb004: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [6s 7d]
tywebb004: raises 60 to 90
trujm: calls 60
*** FLOP *** [As Ah 6h]
trujm: checks
tywebb004: bets 90
trujm: calls 90
*** TURN *** [As Ah 6h] [3c]
trujm: checks
tywebb004: bets 270
trujm: calls 270
*** RIVER *** [As Ah 6h 3c] [5s]
trujm: checks
tywebb004: bets 900 and is all-in
trujm: calls 900
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tywebb004: shows [4c Td] (a pair of Aces)
trujm: shows [6s 7d] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
trujm collected 2700 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2700 | Rake 0
Board [As Ah 6h 3c 5s]
Seat 1: trujm (big blind) showed [6s 7d] and won (2700) with two pair, Aces and Sixes
Seat 2: tywebb004 (button) (small blind) showed [4c Td] and lost with a pair of Aces

As stated above, I really had to think about the last hand before I called. My initial read was KQ (possibly KhQh), and in the end I stuck to that read. Turns out I was slightly off, but my read on the weakness was correct.

Anyways, this concludes the night. 4-1, and now 28-7 overall in the $100s. For > 40% roi. This is great and all, but unfortunately the only place to go from here is down. But I’m ready - bring it on!

Graph Updates:

If you have the bankroll to move up to the $100s, maybe you should try it out. Maybe not as many sharks as you think?

*EDIT*, 7:13am: Couldn’t sleep so I decided to play another game, and I won - so that makes me 5-1 on the day.

*EDIT*, 9:45am: Still can’t sleep and played another one and won. 6-1 on the day now.

4:16pm: Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of heads up poker online is the presence of tells on both sides. Think about it, how many times have you possibly tipped off your hand in the last 6 months or so by betting/raising too fast, too slow, or perhaps by not raising at all? Let’s take a look at which tells are obvious, how you can spot them and also how to conceal these tendencies. Keep in mind these tells are what I call “level 1″ tells, which operate under the assumption that your opponent doesn’t know that you know these are tells. An example of a “level 2″ tell would be something from the perspective that your opponent knows that you know quick betting indicates weakness, so they will quick bet a hand in strength to intentionally give off weakness.

1. Weakness Tells

• Quick bets. Like I mentioned above, those who bet their hand rather quickly are usually holding nothing more than one pair. Betting so firm, so fast is an attempt to communicate to you, “my hand is so strong that I don’t even have to think about betting”. Good players can see through this, and will usually make a play or, at the very least, optimize their play for what they assume their opponent is holding.
• The min bet. Don’t worry if you think that someone is only doing it to trap you with an attempt to force you into a raise. In all likelihood, the person you’re playing is not thinking that much, so if you need to raise for value, don’t be afraid to do so. Also don’t be afraid to try an take the pot from someone who keeps doing it repeatedly.
• Overbetting the pot on the FLOP. When I call this a “weak tell”, I might be using the term loosely, but I consider one pair to be a weak holding postflop, so by definition this tell is spot on. Notice that I emphasized the word flop, which we will get into later. In this case, usually when people overbet the flop, they are usually holding a pair, but are not necessarily looking for a call and are usually dreading a shove. If you can beat one pair in this spot, you are nearly going to be good 100% of the time in this spot.
• Quick checking. Usually when someone checks very quickly, they just want to move on to the next hand. When someone takes less than a second to check, I will usually take a stab at the pot - with probably a 66% success rate, which gives me good faith in this as a tell of weakness.

2. Strength Tells

• 4x raise preflop. Some things in life are given: death, taxes, and the fact that when someone raises 4x the pot preflop, they are probably holding a small to mid pocket pair. People usually raise more with hands that are harder to play, so they really don’t feel like seeing a flop with hands like this most of the time. A lot of people have trouble playing 77-JJ, and they’d much rather take it down uncontested because they won’t know what to do when overcards come out. Only problem with this method is that they will either win a small pot, or lose a big one. Pay attention to this next time because if you have QQ+, you can shove and will almost always get snap called by someone who is behind 4:1 who assumes you have AK or AQ.
• Long delays followed by betting. When people do this, it’s usually an attempt to communicate to you that their hand is weak enough that they need time to think about betting. When someone does this, I try to stay away unless I’m confident my hand is stronger.
• Preflop limp re raises. You’ve got KJoff in the big blind. Your opponent limps, and you want to make him pay for it, because after all you’ve got a pretty good hand heads up. That is, until he comes back over the top after having initially limped into the pot. If this happens, odds are your opponent perceives you as aggressive and knew you were going to raise pre flop. He also doesn’t believe you will have the disclipline to lay down a marginal hand in this spot - which you should - because he is more than likely not bluffing.
• The huge river overbet. Ever find yourself in a situation where the pot is like 150-250, and all of a sudden, randomly on the river your opponent fires out like 540 into a relatively small pot leaving you wondering what in the world is going on? After all, you just rivered two pair - this seems like an easy call, right? Wrong. More often than not, your opponent is holding a minimum of top two in this situation.
• “Just calling” on every street, followed by a huge bet/raise on the river. Good players will do this when they are weak because they will assume that you will assume that you have just been slowplayed, and are attempting to get you to lay your hand down. Most of the time people aren’t this advanced, and being as such you really have just been slowplayed. It’s probably a good idea to lay your hand down in this spot.

If you find yourself doing ANY of the above, drastically cutting these tactics out of your play can work wonders for improving you ROI. Good players can spot these things, and even sometimes average players. What I used to do is to keep a bunch of small post it notes next to my monitor, and anytime I caught myself giving off a tell, I would make a note on my monitor to make a conscious effort not to do it the next time. Tells are nothing more than bad habits, and most of them come natural. This is why you have to literally go out of your way not to do some of these things, until eventually — not giving off tells has now become a good habit for you.

Spotting these basic tells can also improve you ROI much the same way. Since we can’t see things such as facial expressions and body language online, we have to use the only tools we have at our disposal, such as timing tells and betting patterns. The tells listed above are very basic and are only a small part of equation, hence the name “level 1″ tells. Stay tuned later on for some tells on a more advanced level.

1:28am: Unfortunately, due to running HFL and also playing live poker 3 nights a week, and running a part time Ebay business 6 months out of the year, I am unable to put in the volume online in heads up sngs that used to. So how did I put in the volume before life got hectic?

By Using the “NFL football season” method.

The NFL is one of the most popular sports leagues in the world. Being as such, most people are aware that there are 16 games in an NFL season. Keeping this in mind, this method would mold each poker session into a microcosm of sorts of an NFL season.

Let me explain. If you follow NFL football with any sort of regularity, then every year you go through the ups and downs that is an NFL season. You also probably don’t panic right off the bat if your team starts out on the wrong foot — say, with a 1-3 record. If they win the next one, they are only one game under .500. The same holds true for heads up sngs. If you pre-commit to this set number of games each day, I find that people usually hold their composure better in a contained environment/system such as this, than they do if they are just arbitrarily playing without any real plan or system.

Any time you get serious and organized about your poker endeavors, it’s almost always a good thing. By employing this method, you’ve basically guaranteed yourself a fighting chance of beating variance because it is focused more on results at the end of the day rather than results by the hour. This is not to say that even less-than-desirable end of the day results mean anything, but it’s certainly better to put more emphasis on doing well over a 16 game stretch than it is to put emphasis on doing well on a game-to-game basis. In addition, this method also helps you stick to volume commitments. So many times we say “if I play X hours per day, and make X dollars per match, I should make X dollars per year”. However, those figures mean nothing if you don’t stick to your volume. This method will ensure that you will make [avg. profit/game] x [16] x [5] dollars per week if you play and “NFL season” per day, 5 days a week.

So let’s say you play $20 heads up sngs, and you average $3 profit per match over a 1,000 game sample size. Using this method, you will ensure that you make $3 x 16 = $48 per day.  Play 5 seasons a week, and you’re suddenly looking at a near guaranteed profit of $240 a week, which is also $960 a month. That’s not exactly chump change.

Like I said before, doing well in heads up is nothing more than a series of mind tweaks and mental manipulations you do with yourself in order to stay in the right mindset, because mindset is everything in heads up poker.

So to this I say at least give it a try - and everyday can be football season year round.