I am in the final stages of the book, so I missed another week. I am sorry, and I hope you wonderful (and discerning) people continue to wisit my site.

I am playing a lot of turbo heads-up No Limit tournaments on line these days. HU NL is quick, fun, and profitable. Matches take no more than 15 minutes, and most last less than five, which is perfect for my stamina these days. There is a surprising amount of skill. I started with a deposit of $300, and played $33 tournaments until I got to 500; $55 until I got to $1,000, and $100 until got to $2,000. I am now playing $100 and $200 and we’ll see how it goes. I am not that strong, so I play only one or two a day.

Heads up allows you to study your opponent carefully. Since I like to think that my game in general, even in full game limit, is geared toward exploiting my opponents’ weaknesses, this format allows me to really work on that aspect of my game.

Most of my opponents in the HU NL events pay too tight. Simply, they are waiting for a hand. This allows me to chop-chop-chop, a technical term for betting at almost everything and winning all of the ones where we both miss. I use this method to build up a chip lead against these sorts of players. My first goal is to get to to a 2:1 advantage, so if we get an all-in and I lose, I have 1/3 of the chips and if I win, the event is over. Often, I do not have the best of it, as I am willing to take races and even small underdog status to eliminate my opponent once I get to 2:1. If I lose I go back to chopping.

My second goal is to get to 3:1. In this instance, I am willing to gamble all-in more liberally as if I lose we are even in chips and if I win we are done. At least so far, I have had excellent luck against these players who allow my to gain a lead, although I am sure that are annoyed that when they finally do get all-in, they appear to get drawn out on.

Sometimes, I meet an opponent who does not allow me to chop away, by being more aggressive. In those cases, I try to make bigger bluffs and bigger moves with my good hands, as this sort of player is quite suspicious and after a while will call a big all-in with bottom pair or even k-hi. It is a question of establishing a mindset in my opponent that I am impatient.

Anyway, if you have a few minutes to spend on line, you might want to try these. Win or lose you learn things.