Heads up SnG hand question

[Dai]

Hi guys, first post. This hand is from a $55 heads up SnG. I know little about my opponent other than he is a loosing player according to his stats. This is hand number 14.

Full Tilt Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t40 (2 handed)

Hero (t1840)
BB (t1160)

Preflop: Hero is Button with , .
Hero raises to t80, BB raises to t240, Hero calls t160.

My strategy is to basically minraise every button as long as I have at least 20 bb's. My previous two buttonraises he also reraised to 240, both time I folded. After 3 straight reraises i figured he must be reraising pretty thin, so i decided to call.

Flop: (t480) , , (2 players)
BB bets t480, Hero raises to t1600 (All-In), BB calls t440 (All-In).

When he bet the pot, I had a feeling that he just wanted me to go away, so even though I didn't think I had any fold equity I figured I was in the lead against something like 2 overcards and pushed all in. What do you think, a profitable move or should I just have folded and be content with still being in the lead?

[janeg]

Poker Elmo's probably the best one to answer this but FWIW, the one problem with the 3x rule is that I find, while he may have had junk the first two times, he usually doesn't on the 3x so I now wait for the 4th move

Pre-flop 89o is a slight dog (48/52) against a random hand, worse (38/62) against the top 50%. Think I wait for something a little stronger to look him up with.

[emmapeel]

When I'm heads up, so much depends on how my opponent is playing rather than what is correct. It is much more difficult to comment on heads-up hands therefore but I'll give it a go.

I like the hand here as we have two cards that can flop a descent pair. We can also flop some draws that are good for semi-bluffing with. If villain seems to be re-raising light then I think this is the kind of hand that I might call with pre-flop.

On the flop we have hit bottom pair and villain has bet big. As an aside I think villain is playing a good style for a weaker player if he is that. Playing loosely and making big pots increase the variance and make things more luck based than skill based.

I think the push on the flop has merit but if you are the better player maybe it will be better to wait for a more clear opportunity to get all the chips in. Another idea is to just call pre-flop with the idea of getting to the flop with a smaller pot. This will also favor the better player.

It is tough though as if you hit a bad run of cards villain could go well ahead before you get a more clear opportunity.

I think this is close but I'm going to fold and hope a clearer opportunity comes.

EP

[Dai]

Yeah, I'm a postflop player and it can be hard to face opponents who like to build big pots preflop and on the flop. Often then one must resort to either play their game or be runned over. I also think this was very boarderline.

As the hand played out, my opponent had QJo for 2 overcards and an open ender. I was a 53% favourite so in this case I did the right move on the flop. However against his range, I dunno.

[chrisjp]

I flop a pair against this LAG and it's all in baby.

But I would have tempered my preflop raises against him. You can outplay him postflop and you have position so why raise? I'm just talking this opponent, not in general.

I'm not going to let him run over me post flop, but let him take the lead preflop if he wants to. And I'd fold my bottom 20% hands or so preflop.

Snyder has an interesting tidbit in PTF2. If you are heads up with equal stacks and your opponent pushes every hand...if you call him with only hands that win at least 51% of the time against him then your chances of winning the match are 59%. Doesn't prove anything really other than pointing out the wisdom of waiting for decent cards against super aggression.

Chris

[Dai]

Yeah, I like a limp from the button with 98o in this case. I just figured that he wouldn't reraise me 3 times in a row. It was so early in the match that I didn't have a solid read yet. The previous two reraises might as well have been with good hands. Still, since I didn't plan to fold the 98o I think a limp would have been the better play here.

[ImBetterDude]

If you ever want to tilt me when playing a heads up sit and go, just double my BB every single time you have the button. I get so indignated that you consider yourself a better player and that simply having position would justify a pot twice as bit...it infuriates me! After the 4th time I start getting irritated and reraising with any ace, any two faces, and of course I at least call the raise with ATC. I can sympathize with villains reraise with J Q here.

[Dai]

Haha, yeah there are some players that gets insulted by the strategy 2x every button and start to get pissed off. That is of course a good thing for me. However it can put me in some tough spots sometimes like this hand.