9:51pm: The HFL heads up tourney is still set to roll on Sunday (June 15). If at least 20 people register for the tourney, I will add an extra $50 to the prize pool for the winner. The details of the tourney are as follows:

• Poker Room: PokerStars
• Name: HFL Heads Up Tourney
• Time: 5:00pm EST
• Tournament ID: 89432223
• Buy In: $20 + $2
• Starting Chips: 1,500
• Opening Blinds: 10/20
• Levels: 10 Minutes
• Password: “kensentme”

You can find the tournament by clicking “Tourney” then “Private”. Sort by date (June 15) or tournament ID (89432223). I’d like to see some of you register early. The tournament will not run with less than 8 entrants.

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

3:58am: After a very busy week of painting, and eventually some poker, I was finally able to finish narrating, converting and uploading the fifth (and still FREE) tutorial. This match in particular was interesting, especially for HFL regulars, because it featured the so called “Sunday Night Showdown” between myself and up-and-comer “dnt” (which is short for “dont call it a come back”).

On a side note, I love doing these tutorials for you guys, and it’s very rewarding for me. That being said, I would REALLY appreciate it if you guys helped me out by joining some of these poker rooms we advertise. I’m not seeking to become rich by running this site, but I’d like to at least break even from a time/effort standpoint, as I don’t feel the number of people who have joined poker rooms through our site reflect the effort that is put into this website on my part. It doesn’t cost you anything, and it helps keep what I believe to be the best heads up sng website in the world completely free.

Here are the various poker rooms we support, and the corresponding links. Even if you don’t plan on making a deposit today, it would still help just to download the software and create an account through our links:

1. PokerStars
2. Full Tilt
3. Bodog
4. Cake Poker
5. Ultimate Bet

I value every single person who signs up through HFL for any of these poker rooms. Each sign up gives me more motivation to crank out the tutorials, articles, daily hot chicks, and daily videos better and faster. I cannot stress this enough.

Thanks guys.

-trujm

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

12:31am: Great news for the lurkers out there (one of the 100:1 outnumbering of people who read every day but don’t post or comment) /sarcasm. Tonight, I accepted a challenge vs. DntCltACmBk to play heads up for $20. To commemorate the occasion, I decided to record the match and post it for the community as both a video tutorial and a source of entertainment for those of you close to Dnt and I. The match was a fairly long one — it lasted exactly 30 minutes to the second.

On a side note, I just want to say that any of you thinking about learning a thing or two about heads up poker should strongly consider playing Dnt sometime, as I feel he played 100% solid poker from start to finish. There was definitely some second and even some third level thinking going on.

I won’t spoil the video, but the match ended with nearly unavoidable fireworks. I had been raising a lot, and Dnt knew that, and limp re raised with a monster. He was called by a monster, and the hand and the match pretty much played itself at that point.

I will take me a day or two to finish dubbing the audio, and will take another day or two to upload and post the link. Expect the video by Thursday at the latest, and Tuesday at the earliest. I look forward to explaining my thought process and even what I felt Dnt was thinking on certain hands. It should be interesting to see the discussion this video will generate.

10:36am: If you’ve emailed about tutoring or any inquiries in general over the last 72 hours, I did not receive it due to an internal error that has been fixed. I’m extremely sorry for the inconvenience but would love it if you guys could re-send any pending inquiries. I respond to all inquiries usually within 1-2 hours, but if not — always within 24 hours.

-trujm

3:55am: As per the request of you guys, both through email and through various comments, I will begin a series of “mini video tutorials” that will cover my thought process through single hands from video tutorials that have not been posted yet. I have decided to do it this way because I find that visual learning is the best way to communicate, and tone of voice is very important when trying to get a point across.

These videos will concentrate on hands that are debatable in nature, and those that involve solutions and situations with a high degree of difficulty. All members will be able to comment, as usual, on each video and hopefully we can generate some intelligent discussion and perhaps bring some new angles to the table.

These mini tutorials will be posted on YouTube, and uploaded and embedded here as regular posts at random times throughout the week. If all goes as planned, you guys should have 2-3 of these coming your way per week from here on out, in addition to the full length tutorial that I do once every two weeks — so keep checking this week for the new additions to HFL.

3:03am: This has been in the works for weeks, but I was finally able to code an easy login for the front page. It is located at the top of the tool bar on the right. This solves many problems:

• Logging in keeps you on the front page, whereas before it would sometimes bring you to the dash board.

• HFL now remembers that you’re logged in if you close your browser and re-open it.

• There’s no confusion about whether you’re logged in or not. You’re only prompted to log in when, in fact, you are not.

• Much, much simpler than having to go through 3 different pages to log in.

• Ability to register is now quicker and more intuitive and is located where it should be.

• The prompt to register now goes away when logged in.

• When you’re logged in, you now have the option to edit your profile.

• Logging OUT is now easy and is available as an option in the sidebar when you’re logged in.

This had been a thorn in my side the last month or so. I really wanted to get this done for you guys, and I finally made it happen. On that note, on to my heads up session!

Keep HFL Free

4:13pm: I have decided to make the HFL password available to everyone associated with this site, as not everyone received the email I sent out. The password to the tourney is:

kensentme

To find the tournament, simply load the PokerStars lobby, press “Tourney” then press “Private”. The HFL Tourney is tournament ID #: 89432223.

Hope to see all of you there. Once again, it is June 15th at 4:00pm US CST, and the buy in is $20 + $2. Anyone who signs up with PokerStars through one of our banners will receive entry into this tournament completely free of charge. Contact me using the form at the very bottom of this page if you need to claim a free seat.

I will be throwing in some completely free stuff to the winner, in addition to the cash prize of first place. (”Additional prizes” not yet determined)

Good luck to everyone playing a session today. I will be once again making the trip out to New Orleans to play another live session. Will post results when I return.

Keep HFL Free

2:35pm: Your chance to finally put to the test everything you’ve learned here is now set in stone.

The HFL heads up tournament has been created, and is scheduled for Sunday June 15th, at 5:00pm Eastern US time. The buy in for this tournament is $20 + 2, and it will take place on PokerStars.

The password to enter the tournament has been sent to all registered members of this site. Anyone who registers in between now and then will be emailed with the password to the tournament as well.

You can find the tournament here:

The payout/blind structure for the tournament is as follows:

If you don’t feel like sifting through the madness to find the tournament, you can simply search for the tournament by its ID #: 89432223.

For those who aren’t a registered member of PokerStars, and would like to play in this tournament — If you sign up for PokerStars through the link at the top left corner (and successfully complete a deposit), I will pay for your entry into this tournament. Contact me for details.

Look forward to seeing all of the regulars, both lurkers AND posters alike, in this tournament. Good luck to everyone in advance.

Keep HFL Free

2:47am: After much thought, and due to popular demand, I am looking into scheduling a private tournament just for HoldemforaLiving members. The format would be heads up matches, bracket style. Right now it’s looking like Sunday June 15, but what has yet to be determined is what poker room you guys would like to do this on. I have tournament creation privileges on both PokerStars and Full Tilt, so it would be one or the other.

As for the buy in, that would also be totally up to you guys. I don’t have a problem with any amount $100 or less. $50 sounds reasonable. $20 sounds good too, it just depends on what you guys want. If possible, reply to this post as a comment with the following information:

(a) Which room would you prefer it to be on?
(b) What should the buy in be?
(c) What time should it be for?

This tournament will be restricted to REGISTERED HFL members only, so if you haven’t already registered for HFL, you can do so here - as always, it’s completely free and takes about 20 seconds. The password to the tournament will be emailed to all registered members who have an email on file once the room, time and buy in have been established. If you don’t have an email on file, make sure to update your account to reflect that.

I look forward to hosting this tournament, and I think it will give everyone a good chance to gauge where they stand and put to the test everything you’ve learned from HFL. I should also make it known that the matches will be chosen at random, as I have no control over that. The winner of the tournament will of course win the prize designated to first place. However, I might throw in a little something extra into the prize pool for the top 3.

Comment with your preferences. I’d love to hear your suggestions. Just keep in mind that I only have so much control over certain aspects of the tournament.

6:52pm: There was a slight delay in the release of the fourth tutorial, as I had originally planned to play my live session on Sunday rather than Saturday. However, since I had to switch, the tutorial was now made available as of 10 minutes ago. Once again, the fourth tutorial features briefly some end-game strategy and is part of a 3 part series on end game strategy. Concepts of aggression and trapping are discussed. Part 2 will focus on pure hyper aggression in the high blinds itself.

Look for part 2 later this week. Enjoy!