[AGreen]

How do all of you feel about headsup sag's. Lately I've been sitting in a tourny, a cash game, and a headsup sag everytime I play. From what I've seen, these are horrible. It's nothing like being headsup in a tourny where the difference between winning and being runner-up is more than just the buyin.

[Texas72]

I hear this from a lot of people. Many people I know play $50 HU SnGs and finish them off in minutes. I love playing HU, but I haven't tried many of these. Probably should though.

[ElGod]

i don't enjoy playin HU SNG's either. however i try to play lots of low buy in ones between $1-5 to gain experience as the difference between 1st and 2nd in tournaments is often vast. Also if you play at these limits its quite likely to end up in profit, the players are generally awefull at best, my favourite ones are the ones who go all in every single hand from the first hand,just wait a few hands then double your money, SWEET!

[nxtyear]

i did try playing in a heads-up tournament on Pokerstars.
20+2 buy-in, 128 people.
won 5 rounds (got lucky at some points...) and got to the semi-finals, and then lost miserably to an ultra-aggressive player, who kept raising me and reraising me, and i wasn't getting much hands so.
at one point after losing half my stack i re-re-reraised all in, only this time he was hlding AK and i lost.
came 3/4th so i got 276 dollars, which wasn't so bad
(but it only made up of for the losses i had that day...)

[AGreen]

I've never played a tournament with this format. How long did it take for you to get into the semi's? I've been playing a few HU sag's and each one takes an average of about 45 minutes, so I was just wondering how long this type of tourny takes.

[nxtyear]

it took about 2 hours and a half or so
there was lots of waiting, seeing as my games finished quite quick and some people took AAAGES

good idea is to be playing cash games on the side, so you can sit out while the next round starts. and when it ends start playing cash games again

[AGreen]

that sounds like a good tourny then, 2.5 hours and gets you all the way to the semifinals. thanks nxt

[beriac]

I quite like playing Heads Up SnG's. First off, it's good practice for when you actually get to Heads Up mode in a table tourney (single or otherwise). Second, I find the game becomes much more complex. Bluffing, which is often a tertiary strategy in a 10-person game, becomes almost the sole element. Aggression increases quite a bit.

I think of it more like a old-style Western cowboy duel or a chess match. I don't prefer it to regular table play, but it definitely has a place in my typical playing routine.

[benjahuna]

I've played in these a bit. Good fun.

I won one on pokerhost, 72 people. Scheduled.

As soon as one person wins, they're in a queue. As soon as another one wins (eliminates someone else), they join the person waiting. Until I was waiting for the 2nd and 3rd place people to play, I waited no more than 40 seconds to play. In this format, if you are successful, you may end up playing a number of matches more than your final opponent, but it is nice because the tournament goes faster that way. It isn't really a balanced format though.

I've played some heads up sit and gos as well. These are interesting and I think good for your poker skills overall, as beriac mentioned.

[beriac]

I haven't seen tournament-style heads up SNGs where I play, that sounds like a lot of fun. I think I'll have to try that.

One complaint I have is that the blinds go up too slowly in some formats. I think playing around the blinds is a crucial heads up skill.