If you sit out continuously for five minutes, you’ll be removed from the table.
You can only sit at a maximum of two Heads-Up tables without an opponent.
Table names are randomised, to eliminate any advantage to sitting at tables with names beginning with ‘A’.
Players who attempt to abuse the system or make the Heads-Up games unpleasant for others may be banned from playing at Heads-Up tables.
Doesn’t really affect me playing husngs, but figured I’d pass it along…
I’ve bought my entry into Full Tilt’s miniftops event #9 (the heads up one of course).
$50 entry fee, so that makes the most expensive tournament I’ve ever paid for. I considered some of the satellites, but I’d probably take several attempts and be wasting the money and time anyway. If I can pay S1ndr0me $50 in a stupid prop bet, then I can pay it for a tournament where I might do ok. The main downside is that it’s another Sunday late nighter, but what can you do. This time I won’t down a bottle of wine before starting though, so that might help.
Which reminds me – the $215 SCOOP ticket I won on that WBCOOP tourney is getting closer to being spent. Pokerstars has released the schedule for it now, although the heads up tournaments don’t have any $215 buy-ins -the closest are $162 and $270 entries. Can I split my ticket? I need to write to support to find out (now that I’m thinking about it I’ll do it now!). If I can’t split it I’ll have to use it on a regular FR tournament which I suck at. Stupid non-transferrable, non-cashable tickets…
So cash was way too swingy and husngs looked like a fantastic low variance easy climb up the ranks. Nothing could stop me.
Yeah right. I’ve managed to incorporate swings into husngs. It wasn’t easy, but I did it;
I’ve just lost 10 games in a row. The first 4 were $20s, and after seeing it fall away I switched back to $10s. It just kept on going. I’ve finally broken the streak with a single hand game where I sucked out to get 2pair on the river (yep, would have had a fairly crippled stack if that hadn’t happened).
One thing I’ve noticed though is that Full Tilt is easier than Pokerstars – even though PS has twice as many players there seem to be more newbs on FT husngs, plus the blind structure seems slower (well, seems slower, haven’t actually compared properly).
I think I’ll just piss around on rush poker for a bit just to have some low pressure donking – watch me throw a load more away 
FML – down $30 in 50 hands! Ran into Kings and Aces left right and center. Why do I even bother…
I played mainly $20 husngs this weekend and it was win some then lose some etc. I ended up $16 down which is pretty much the rake of all the games I played (shame it was Pokerstars – no rakeback silver lining this time).
I instantly think that I’ve hit my skill limits and should go back to $10s. What I should be thinking is that breakeven isn’t the same as losing – it’s just a hiccup. In fact if breakeven is what happens when you play/run bad, then I should be happy! How the f*k can I be thinking negatively when I’ve been running like this (2010 results so far);
(why isn’t HEM plotting the number of tournies at the bottom? That’s 150 tournaments there)
It’s not like the players were any different at $20s than they were at $10s. I’m still being my worst own enemy though – most of my losses have not been because I’ve been outplayed by aggressive super-regs, but because I bluffed too often and the other guy called me down with 3rd or 4th pair. Looking at the sharkscope charts of some of the guys that have beat me is truly embarassing.
Anyone changed their account to GBP yet?
Good idea or bad idea? They’ve dropped the 1% margin surcharge on conversions so it should be a ‘fair’ exchange, but what else would make it worthwhile (or not)?
Switching to heads-up SNG’s has been a good move, but I’ve been a bit of a coward. Games at the weekend have been nice and easy, but the few I’ve tried on weekday evenings didn’t go too well. Not that I played many – usually it would go something like;
Sit down & wait.
Guy joins the table – shit, he has an avatar! He must be a reg…
He raises the button! Oh no, I’m in trouble.
We play a bunch of hands, I panic, money goes all in and then I go out.
I log out of poker and watch tv instead. Stop loss of one game!
Very pathetic. So I came up with a plan – weekday evening time here in the UK is working day time in the States, so all the Americans playing at that time would be more likely to be a reg. Solution – play Party Poker where our girth challenged ex-colonial friends can’t play! Our evening time would mean European casual players plus the Russians who should be getting on to be fairly drunk (yes, you know who you are!). Perfect plan!
Except it turns out the rake on Party Poker for micro SNGs is horrendous! Not only that, but they ‘hide’ how much of the buy-in is Rake – you only get to see it as you register on a table (and even then it isn’t very obvious). I played a few games, won and lost the same number and was down a load just from rake. What a waste of time.
So I switched back to Pokerstars and thought ‘what the hell’ – if I play against regs then even if I lose it’s good for my game. Learn to play ffs.
And just to make it more interesting I switched up to $20 games. It turned out ok too – played 6 and won 4 of them, so was up $34. I then decided I might just cope with a 4man SNG, and crushed it 
Total winnings for the night $97 (just an hour’s play too!).Two more straight wins and I’ll be bankrolled for $30 games
Ok, now I’m not scared of the regs. Well, not the regs on Thursday nights anyway…
Update: Hmm, just checked what kind of bankroll management people are recommending out there, and I’m being cautious (bit of a surprise!). This is from an old (2007) 2p2 thread;
|
You can’t stand or would prefer not to have to move down levels. You like to have a very padded roll to feel comfortable playing. Losing a decent portion of your BR tilts you. You are still learning how to own husngs and you aren’t quite comfortable playing them yet. |
BR:$30 – $99 Play $2s BR:$100 – $199 Play $5s BR:$200 – $399 Play $10s BR:$400 – $599 Play $20s BR:$600 – $999 Play $30s BR:$1000 – $2499 Play $50s BR:$2500+ Play $100s |
| You are fine with having to move down. You want to move up the ranks semi-quickly. |
BR:$20 – $49 Play $2s BR:$50 – $99 Play $5s BR:$100 – $199 Play $10s BR:$200 – $299 Play $20s BR:$300 – $499 Play $30s BR:$500 – $999 Play $50s BR:$1000+ Play $100s |
| You are comfortable playing and adjusting to any stakes and player. You are or have good reason to believe you are a solid winner. (Think 63%+ winrate here) You have very minimal tilt issues. You want to take on a bit more risk and build a roll quickly. You are ok with having to redeposit if you bust early on. |
BR:$10 – $24 Play $2s BR:$25 – $49 Play $5s BR:$50 – $99 Play $10s BR:$100 – $149 Play $20s BR:$150 – $249 Play $30s BR:$250 – $499 Play $50s BR:$500+ Play $100s |
I reckon I fit into the middle option – 3rd one looks kinda scary, I’d be playing $50′s now and only one win away from $100s! That looks like a route to busto to me. If my weekend session has a solid winrate though, I might be tempted 
(somebody stop me!)
I tried to get onto the Pokerstars Sunday Million through an $11 satellite that guaranteed 100 seats. About 3500 people signed up for it though, so it looked like a bit a grind to get through it. I built up a decent stack quickly, and managed to stay in the top 50 for a couple of hours (10th at one point). However the blinds increased quickly and everyone switched to push/fold pretty quickly – it became a minefield to enter any pot. I also started to wonder about the point of getting through one massive MTT to enter another massive MTT, both of which run into the early hours, and I decided that if I got my ticket I’d just cash it in rather than play. The decision became moot though as I ran into a couple of suckouts and went out 340th – 100 places short of a seat. Waste of time really – I think from now on if I enter a big MTT it a) won’t be a sat, b) starts in the morning UK time…
Meanwhile, husngs continue to deliver;
Merely a handful of SNGs and a nice $50 profit I played on PokerStars for a bit since their traffic is still twice that of Full Tilt and I figured that the $10 husngs should be guaranteed fishy. On the whole they are, but I’m still defeating myself more than being outplayed – aggression works well, but it’s very easy to walk into a calling station’s bottom pair. I’m still trying to get the balance, and it’s getting better, but not perfect yet.
The fourth tournament was a 4 person shootout – very profitable it seems, $11 buy-in for a $44 prize. Only downside is having to wait for the other table to finish in the first round.
Holy Sunday morning TV! Batman the movie just came on, and this just happened. This could be quality!
Update: Solid run at 4 man HU shootouts Won 4 out of 5! Could this be my biggest winning day? $132 – it must be I think, I can’t remember anything bigger, including the day I won $90 in a $2 180man MTT. They are very slow though – I’ve just had to wait almost half an hour for one pair of donks trading blinds before one randomly went through to play me…
Turns out my hourly rate in husngs is comparable to my day job salary. Sooo, if I could maintain 40 hours a week of poker I could be a pro! I think I’ll wait until my hourly rate means I don’t have to play quite so many hours. Oh, and also when I know I’ll be on a heater 100% of the time
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