I've been playing hours of Heads-up on Pokerstars everyday for the past week or so and feel like I'm getting better at it, even though I still make tons of mistakes. One of the toughest things in headsup is being able to read an aggressive player who will frequently bet big on a bluff or with the nuts. Playing a $105 SnG earlier today, this hand came up:

My opponent, who has been playing very loose-aggressive, has me outchipped at 1880-1120. He is the button, and I'm the BB. Blinds are 10/20. He raises to 60. I call with [3h].

FLOP: [7d][4c] (Pot: t120)

I lead out for 60. He calls.

TURN: (Pot: t240)

I check. He bets 160. I call.

RIVER: (Pot: t560)

I check. He puts me all-in for my last 860. I call immediately. He shows [6h] and I double up.

With his chiplead, villian had frequently been bullying me out of hands. When he smooth called my bet on the flop, I was almost positive that it had missed him. If he had any pp or any pair, he would have raised, being a LAG. When the third club comes off, I check. He makes a strong bet, one that I'm confident that he would not make with the flush. He would either push his monsters VERY hard or slowroll them. The river is again a blank, and it's pretty clear that both turn and river have missed him. Now, if he makes a value bet of about 400, I feel comfortable laying down my hand. But I've showed so much weakness, so why would he go all-in? He wasn't sophisticated enough to trap me this way with TT, and he sure as hell wasn't putting me allin if he wanted a call. I was confident he had Ax, although I didn't know that he picked up the nut flush draw on the turn.

I think this hand is a good example of how you have to adjust your strategy completely when playing headsup. Last night, I got involved in a series of $200 HU matches against this Italian fellow, and eventually we ended up playing 14 and tying at 7-7. What made him so tough to play, initially, was that he would put me to the test on every big hand. He never gave up on raised pots easily and would throw out big bets on the river whenever he sensed weakness. I don't play the role of the aggressor as well, but I think if you follow the betting patterns of your opponent carefully and such, it should eventually become fairly easy to spot what is a bluff and what isn't. In this particular hand, the river allin wouldn't have been made by anything other than a monster or a pure bluff - I rarely see any players making big river bets with an average showdown hand (say, top pair).

Comments/Thoughts on this hand would be appreciated. Also, I'd love to hear general strategy on how else to attack LAG players Headsup.

Heads up matches have to be played almost entirely by feel. You have to get a quick read on your opponent and hope your right. I dont think anyone who wasnt playing this particular guy could really analyze the hand correctly. I thought you were crazy to call the river all in, but without seeing his other hands I have no way of knowing his tendencies.
Ive played heads up SNGs that I won in 1 hand and Ive played some that lasted a LONG time.
I think its pretty hard to analyze theses hands out of context.

Are you the ”genius28” that played against ”daxxxxxxxxxx” from Rome with ”Jxxxx nuts” as observer? If you are not please let me know or I will feel like a fool. If you are I will never give you advice on how to play a final table again. I watched some of the Italian fellow's matches against two other players (one of them genius28) in the 109 and 210 HU SNG's at PS and I think the players in the games played very well. But I have to give an advice and of course I agree with Iceman: You can’t analyze a HU match outside it’s context or without having played with the other player (unless you watched him play very carefully).

Yes I am in fact Genius28. I played a series of what ended up being 14 consecutive headsup matches against the Italian fellow "dariominieri" (or something like that), and we ended up splitting 7-7 and dumping over $100 to rake. At first I couldn't figure him out because his betting style was very aggressive and unpredictable, but after being down 2-5 or 2-6 at one point I think I began picking things up. Thanks for the compliment by the way.