Heads up:

I am terrible at heads up play. Just awful. It reared its ugly head again last night. I think I am just going to have to bite the bullet and practice some heads up sit-n-go's. Even though at this stage its basically throwing money away. Last night, before bed I decided to get in a single table Sit N go on stars. I played very well counter punching. We had a maniac on the table, but I was able to avoid any big confrontations with him/her once I was able to get a lot of chips.

The first big key hand came on the second level. I had about 1700 in chips. Blinds are low. player makes a second position raise for 4xBB. (these are estimates, I will pull the hand and post it later) This player didn't seem to be out of line, so I have to put him on a solid top starting hand. The SB calls, and im in the big blind with 87s. Against two players with relative deep stacks, this is an easy call here to try and hit a home run.

Flop comes: 986 Rainbow-

I've hit middle pair with an up and down straight draw. SB checks, and I check as well. I've put the raiser on a big hand, and I don't want to be check raised out of the pot if he has an overpair. The raiser bets 300 into a 400 chip pot. So this seems to be a big hand, that he is trying to protect. Though I think he would still make this Bet with AK a good percentage of the time. So there is 700 in pot, it costs me 300 to call- and I have about 1500 in front of me. I've got 8 outs to my straight, and 2 outs to my 8-- which I believe to be winners that I can win a nice pot. A 7 maybe a winner, but I think it would kill action against all be the weakest of players. (TT is in his Range- so a 7 would br my stack)

A funny thing happened on the way to all these calculations. The SB calls the 300- now making it 300 to me with 1000 in the pot. Before the SB got involved, this was a borderline call, but one I will make early in a tourney as I believe I can play my shortstack well enough, and when I hit my hand I will win enough chips to put myself in position to win.

The SB call makes some things interesting. One, the pot is now big enough that Im happy to take it down. So thats the first question, can I take the pot down now? I don't think so, the only way I win the pot is if the initial raiser has AK and the SB has JT- and even then I think the SB would call because there is so much money in the pot, and he is probably even a favorite. So with Raising out of the question- the question becomes weather to call or fold. For that we need to see what the SB is playing and if any of my outs are forfeit. Lists of hands that he is playing here are JT, A9, A7, 97s-- A set is a possiblity, but I would suspect he would raise here with that. Epsically if he reads the raiser as stong as I have. But a set doesn't really affect me any, it just means if I hit, I can stack my oppt.

For all the calculations, i've come to the decision that if I hit my draw, at worse im splitting the raisers chips-and at best, im stacking both players. Just too much money out there, I make the call.

Turn: 5 - completing the rainbow - I think a Ten is probably a better card for me - as TT and JJ are both in raisers range- and JT is high probablity for the for SB-- that would give them both huge draws and overpair-topair or top set. in which case all the money is going in the pot. The 5 is obviously not a bad card- and with only 1100 in front of me, and 1000 in the pot-- I am only concerned about getting the most out of this hand. There is no play that either player could make that would make me fold.

SB checks- I decide to check here as well-- I will let the raiser make the play here- With so much money in the pot- it will be hard for him to not take a stab at the pot with an overpair when his two oppt both show weakness. The Raisers goes all in for his last 1000 or so-- and the SB instantly calls- Makes me think that my straight is shared- but a set or A9 are still possibilities. I of course call-

Raiser - JJ and SB - A9 -- and I win a massive pot and knock out two players -- and I am a big chip leader with six players left to go.

Now I think that both the raiser and the SB played the turn very bad. Basically doing my job for me. For the Raiser- he has two oppt who played there hands like a draw. and a card that makes the draw hit- Against two oppt. there is a good chance you are drawing dead. even if I had JT and the SB has A9 - (a perfect situation) there are still 13 outs - and you are going to lose the tourney 25% of the time.

The SB - if you are going to call an all-in raise on the turn, you might as well raise on the flop. if you were behind on the flop- your behind on the turn. and now a draw card has hit. These kind of plays are what you count on from weak players. The A9 only beats air here.

With a big chip stack - I was able to basically bully the table from there on out. At one point 4 handed I had over 10,500 chips (there are only 13,500 at the table) So how did I lose? we'll. I am terrible heads up. I may go ahead and post the heads up portion of this sit n go and ask for some advice. I think I will look to see if I can find some good heads up books. Its worth the investment because the difference between the 2nd place and 1st place is the huge.