Heads Up Gaming Thoughts

Ultra Turbos
Well, having played a few more of these now, some patterns are emerging. Bear in mind I've only been playing 5 buck games so far so the standard of opposition is bound to be weak. I aim to have improved my knowledge of equities and shove fold maths to a high level by the new year where I'll jump into some meaty games for more money. Right, for those patterns...
1. There is very little real poker, we may have chance to make one or two good plays based on good hand reading. This probably adds up to less than a percent of possible ROI unless you get a complete fish who hands you chips. Hyper aggression is essential early on, every bit of chip equity we can gain will help us in the nash stage. Here's an example of a hand I played earlier where I was able to get some chips where villain's line didn't make much sense. It's not a huge pot, but hand reading is one area where I'm trying to improve and I felt I played this hand well.
Stage #2007408486 Tourney ID 4819699 Holdem Single Tournament No Limit 20 - 2009-11-19 18:54:48 (ET)
Table: 32717250 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 4 - EDDDI (390 in chips)
Seat 6 - BATTERED_SOD (610 in chips)
BATTERED_SOD - Posts small blind 10
EDDDI - Posts big blind 20
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BATTERED_SOD [4c 6c]
BATTERED_SOD - Calls 10
EDDDI - Checks
*** FLOP *** [3c 7d 3d]
EDDDI - Checks
BATTERED_SOD - Bets 20
EDDDI - Raises 40 to 40
BATTERED_SOD - Calls 20
*** TURN *** [3c 7d 3d] [3h]
EDDDI - Checks
BATTERED_SOD - Checks
*** RIVER *** [3c 7d 3d 3h] [2h]
EDDDI - Bets 60
BATTERED_SOD - Raises 220 to 220
EDDDI - Folds
BATTERED_SOD - returned (160) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BATTERED_SOD - Does not show
BATTERED_SOD Collects 240 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(240)
Board [3c 7d 3d 3h 2h]
Seat 4: EDDDI (big blind) Folded on the RIVER
Seat 6: BATTERED_SOD (dealer) (small blind) collected Total (240) HI:(240) [Does not show]

also... versus a strong player my line would not make any sense either and I'd expect some chips in my face... lol. I just felt my abc opponent would fold a huge amount of the time.
2. Players seem super tight in the big blind so far once we get to the 20/40 jam/fold stage. Shoving every small blind is correct against players who do not call as loosely as they should. After several hands doing this we might back off a little and start folding the very worst of our range. In short, while I do want to learn the equilibrium tables and certainly will at some point for now just making common sense calls from the BB and shoving most SBs at this stage will prob make enough chips at these stakes to make a profit. Not much of one, but maybe 3-4% ROI.
SB reraise calling with pot odds
There are tables that give the correct calling ranges given a villain's range and the pot odds we are getting. I intend to memorise these so that I can really piss people off by calling in position with a wider range than I do currently. More hard work - but by doing all this boring learning stuff I'll be able to hold my own up to serious stakes. And judging by the sharkscope leaderboards headsup is big, big money currently. Probably for the reasons I've listed in previous posts.
Headsup in general and one tabling to improve learning
I've really come to start enjoying playing heads up. It is, essentially, post flop poker. That's where the fun in this game is in all it's intricacy. So for better or worse, I'll now specialise in these games. I'll focus on becoming a HU expert within the next two years or so, and then maybe try and make some serious money from the game finally. There are players earning three times what I earn in a year who's average tournament buy in is less than thirty dollars. That is alot of return for not alot of risk. I'd be making a life mistake by not taking this road should my knowledge get where I want it to be. Wish me luck :) Finally, I'm just playing one table at the moment and it's creating good habits in my thought processes. Such as playing less "fit or fold"/"hit or miss" poker and thinking on higher levels than I have ever done before. I'll continue with this habit and eventually begin adding tables once I feel that good habits have become second nature. Post finally over, good luck at the tables!