For me poker is all about the fight! Me against another player(s) and the result of that contest, the winning or losing of that hand. Problem is, even the fast paces world of 6 max doesn’t give me enough sensible opportunities for these mini battles. I mean I could raise any old junk from any old position but its not clever and will only allow me to donate my bankroll to everyone else at the table.
It was then last night, while laying in bed that I had a weird epiphany! I don’t know if it was the overdose of cough medicine I accidently had or the poker gods giving me a message, either way the message was...Heads Up!
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before! Heads Up is the purest form of poker there is, its man vs man (or woman :)), no other players, no waiting, no distractions. If you snooze you lose basically!
The more I thought about it the more I wanted to start playing heads up. HU will literally force me into difficult/marginal situations and make me learn! Here is a little of my thinking;
1) I’m going to have to widen my range or I will blind myself away
2) I’m gonna have to be more aggressive
3) I’m going to have to deal with aggression more frequently
4) I’ll have to play more flops in and out of position
5) I’ll be playing more turns and more rivers
6) I’ll be seeing more showdowns
7) I’ll be playing all of the above in more marginal positions
Its gladiatorial!
I think overall as well it will propel my game to the next level at 6max. All my mistakes will be amplified forcing me to learn, learn, learn. If I don’t there is only one way, and thats DOWN!
So here’s the challenge to myself.
Currently my bankroll sits at about $1023, but lets call it $1000.
I’m going to start playing at NL10 and review my position after 1000, 2500 and 5000 hands to get some idea of how my HU education is going.
If I’m a winning player then all move on up the ranks as long as I have 52 buyin’s for the next level. The number 52 gives me 2 tester buyins that I can use to experiment and adjust to the new level before things get serious!
So there it is, my little heads up challenge. I haven’t felt this excited about the prospect of playing poker in a while so absolutely itching to get things going!
If anyone else out there is interested in learning heads up (has a background in FR or 6M) with me then drop me an email and we can move through the ranks together, should be easier to learn in tandem, otherwise wish me luck!
