Hello, fellow videophiles, I have returned to bring you my finest recommendations from the world of DeucesCracked. I am here to save you from (metaphorically) drowning in the sea of audio-visual strategy content and throw you a life raft of cherry-picked subject matter to keep you afloat. Basically, I pick some good videos, review what’s in them and tell you about it so you don’t waste your time watching stuff you’re not interested in. Non-metaphorically. The subject this week is heads-up.
Pr1nnyraiding 1 is the definitive heads-up series. Despite being somewhat of a dinosaur among strategy videos, the fundamentals outlined by WiltOnTilt and Krantz are constantly being referred to by coaches and heads-up specialists today. As someone making the transition to heads-up cash games, this was always going to be my first port of call.
One of the main reasons the principles in these videos remain relevant, is how unconventional heads-up is in comparison to its six-max and full-ring cousins. With so many less ‘solvable’ spots, heads-up requires an entirely different mental approach, which Krantz outlines at the start of this season premiere.
The main issue for most players making the transition from ring games is that it’s not so possible to just slip into an ABC style of poker which never really deviates regardless of who you are playing. Heads-up is built almost entirely around psychology, getting into your specific opponent’s head and figuring out how to beat them into the ground. Krantz talks about the importance of quickly profiling players and creating a counter strategy, something he returns to both later in the video and the series itself. Having said this, he goes on to talk through the creation of our General strategy.
The General strategy is our chief strategy, the one we will go into most heads-up matches before we get a chance to properly profile our opponents. This section is a must for anyone laying a solid foundation from which to build their heads-up game. Krantz talks us through some principles of position and opening ranges, which were tighter than someone like myself - whose experience has come much more from shallow tournament heads-up situations - might expect. The section on playing hands out of position here is vital for those of us who spend most of our poker lives trying to simply avoid ever getting into such spots!
As we move onto post-flip mentality, Krantz introduces us to his fundamental principles of heads-up play; each a clear and direct piece of logic, with the important caveat: “until you have a reason not to.” He drums into us the important principles of value-betting relentlessly, bluffing mercilessly and running our opponent over at every opportunity. Heads-up, no one ever has anything and everyone takes it personally. Krantz has that ability to explain things in a way that makes them seem so blindingly obvious and inspires you to go forth and crush! But crush who? We hand over to WiltOnTilt to cover the classic player types.
WiltOnTilt and Krantz complement each other because they are different player types themselves. Krantz, master of psychology, looks to mind-frick his opponents out of the park whilst Wilt takes a more mathematical approach. This section on player types has something for everyone as it defines players not only by their psychological make-up - i.e. ‘weak-tight’ or ‘maniac’ - but by the HUD stats that suggest that playing style. ‘Standard’ stats do change over the years and this is one area that I would advise caution over when watching it today. One very relevant principle that is brought up, however, is the differences you can find between pre and post-flop stats. This is of course much more important heads-up where you reach so many more flops, and often you’ll get people playing much tighter post-flop than they do pre flop, and vice versa.
Stats are a controversial topic when it comes to heads-up. Despite being considered vital in ring games today, many top heads-up players don’t really use them and argue they can be misleading. Indeed, even maths geek WiltOnTilt starts this section reminding us that match flow and psychology is king, but offers us a compromise. He suggests having the player’s overall stats for pat heads-up games up at the start to get a general idea of how the person normally plays, then after taking that in, selecting ‘stats for current session only’ to assess how they are playing today. He suggests using stats as a tiebreaker along with his other reads and thought processes. He also argues that they’re useful in ensuring that your perception of things correlates with reality - sometimes we see things we want to see; stats don’t lie.
One of the most useful sections of the video entails Wilt going through which stats he actually chooses to have on display when playing heads-up. Things like ‘aggression factor by street’ and ‘check-raise continuation bet’ all of a sudden take on much greater importance than they do in six-max games.
The video is rounded off with a live table selection process, offering some tips on how to pick the right opponents even before they sit down. This is of course key to heads-up profitability and we’re reminded to check our egos at the door.
This episode should be compulsory viewing for all aspiring heads-up masters. Many of the principles are sound and timeless and it’s a great springboard for your heads-up development. Go forth, crush and stay off my tables!
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