PokerStars Heads-Up Fixed Limit Sit N Go

PokerStars.com

(HUSNG) 

Heads Up FIXED LIMIT Sit and Go tournament

 Poker Structure Information

Structure:

Regular: 1500 chips, blinds go up every 10 minutes: 10/20; 20/40; 30/60; 50/100; 100/200; 150/300; 200/400; 300/600; 400/800
Turbo: 1500 chips, blinds go up every 5 minutes: 10/20; 20/40; 30/60; 50/100; 100/200; 150/300; 200/400; 300/600; 400/800

http://www.heads-up-fixed-limit-texas-hold-em-poker.com/2014/12/hu-fl-sng-blinds-structure.html


FL Hold'em (HU, 2 players) on PokerStars

Buy-in for each player and Prize pool for the winner

$1.50 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 2,76 $
$1.50 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 2,80 $

$3.50 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 6,58 $
$3.50 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 6,64 $

$7.00 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 13,34 $
$7.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 13,42 $

$15.00 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 28,58 $
$15.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 28,78 $

$30.00 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 57,14 $
$30.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 57,56 $

$60.00 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 114,56 $
$60.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 115,34 $

$100.00 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 191,38 $
$100.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 192,64 $

$200.00 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 385,50 $
$200.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 387,70 $

$300.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 582,50 $

$500.00 FL Hold'em [HU, regular, 2 Players] Prize pool: 970,80 $
$500.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 975,20 $

$1000.00 FL Hold'em [HU, Turbo, 2 Players] Prize pool: 1958,40 $

http://www.pokerstars.com/?source=11059573


FL Hold'em (HU, 2 players)

Buy-in and Rake for each player
The name of the SNG is simply the Buy-in that the player has to pay.

Then the Prize pool / winning prize is very simple to calculate.
Prize Pool = (Buy-in x 2) - (Rake x 2)

http://www.husng.com/content/pokerstars-husng-heads-up-sit-and-go-poker-structure-information

Buy-in	Rake	Rake %
$1.50 (Regular)	$0.12	8
$1.50 (Turbo)	$0.10	6.7

  

    

 

$3.50 (Regular)	$0.21	6
$3.50 (Turbo)	$0.18	5.1

 
 

$7 (Regular)	$0.33	4.7
$7 (Turbo)	$0.29	4.1

$15 (Regular)	$0.71	4.7
$15 (Turbo)	$0.61	4.1

$30 (Regular)	$1.43	4.8
$30 (Turbo)	$1.22	4.1

$60 (Regular)	$2.72	4.5
$60 (Turbo)	$2.33	3.9

$100 (Regular)	$4.31	4.3
$100 (Turbo)	$3.68	3.7

$200 (Regular)	$7.25	3.6
$200 (Turbo)	$6.15	3.1

$300 (Regular)	$10.15	3.4
$300 (Turbo)	$8.75	2.9

$500 (Regular)	$14.60	2.9
$500 (Turbo)	$12.40	2.5

$1,000 (Regular)	$24.40	2.4
$1,000 (Turbo)	$20.80	2.1

Perfect Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em Strategy part 2

COMPARING THE PLAYING STYLE OF PHIL IVEY, ANDY BEAL, POLARIS, AND TEXAS HOLD' EM HEADS UP POKER "THE BRAIN" TO DEVICE YOUR OWN

At the highest level of excellence.  There is two obvious reasons that push you to excel in an particular activity. OBSESSION and/or PROFESSION.  So what is the fuel behind the success and the excellence of our four champions?

PROFESSION - Phil Ivey plays for a living.
OBSESSION - Andy Beal was obsessed with facing the bests to be the best.
OBSESSION - Polaris was created to beat the best pro players.
PROFESSION - Texas Hold' Em Heads Up Poker machine was manufactured to legally take the maximum amounts of money out of patrons's pockets.

As you can see in the four above examples.  Those who are mainly fueled by OBSESSION wants to be THE best in the world.  And those doing it as a PROFESSION are mainly interested in the money. 

Now that we know they main motivation.  Let's analyze their playing style and do a mix of it all to create The Ultimate Heads-Up Hold' Em Winning Strategy.

P.S. (Read the first part of this guide... The HULHE winning strategies of Phil Ivey, Andy Beal, Polaris, and Texas Hold' Em Heads Up Poker machine.)

First of all, as I see it. 
All four are hyper aggressive.
All but Ivey are specialized and exclusively play Heads Up Limit Hold' Em.  Phil Ivey is excellent in any form of poker.


All four take on all comers.
All four want to be the best in the world.
All four want to face the bests of the world.
No table selection and bum hunting here! 
 

Phil Ivey learned the game by playing it.
Andy Beal learned the game by studying it.
And Polaris and "The Brain"...  Well?  Are both robots.


Phil Ivey's style is purely exploitative.
Andy Beal is a machine.  Purely GTO (Game Theory Optimal), probabilities and mathematics.
Polaris, despite using the Nash Equilibrium as his default strategy, is exploitative.  Since his playing style is all about adaptation.
"The Brain" can't be exploitative so it is GTO defensive.  All about preventing itself to be exploited.


What is the main strength of each player / robot?  Just one word to describe each player/bot's main secret to win and be so excellent at HULHE.
Phil Ivey = his reads
Andy Beal = mathematics
Polaris = adaptation
"The Brain" = defense


CHANGING GEARS / UNPREDICTIBILITY

We don't know much about Phil Ivey and Andy Beal unpredictibility and different play modes.  This isn't the case with Polaris and "The Brain"

Polaris changes gear to adapt.
"The Brain" changes gear for defense.

Polaris have 5 strategies
"The Brain" have 3 "tag team fighters"

Polaris 5 different strategies
1- Polaris default strategy is Nash Equilibrium.  
2- Exploitative Counter Strategy
3- A compromise between the first 2???
4- A team of all strategies to learn which one to use during the game???
5- 


"The Brain" 3 tag-team fighters
1- Neutral net with optimal number of bluff.
2- A slightly different style.
3- To finish off a short-stacked opponent.  I like this one!
Aggression level might change randomly.

 

So, if we can do a melting of those four winning strategies.  What it would be like? 

I will call it the P.I.B.B. in hommage of our four HULHE gods.
P.I.B.B. stands for... 

Polaris-Ivey-Beal-Brain
or  if you prefer
Poker-International-Big-Boss



Now let's look at the

HULHE P.I.B.B. Winning Strategy aka P.I.B.B. Strategy

Pre-Flop (LOOSE AGGRESSIVE)

• Play nearly every hands

BUTTON (in position): 

• Raise almost 100% of the time

BIG BLIND (out of position): 

• Raise called button 75% of the time.
• Always raise (3-Betting) with Ax, Kx, Q3s+, Q6+, J8+, T7s+, T9+, 98s+, 22+. 

Or you can use the Polaris's 3-Betting strategy from the BB.

Flop

• Continuation Bet 100% of the time.

Turn

• Continuation Bet 100% of the time.
• 8-bet the turn with two pairs

River

• Check-call all the way down the river with any Ace-high hand.
• Call with K-high unless the board is scary.

Extreme Aggression
Be The Aggressor

Tag team fighters / different strategies (P.I.B.B.)

1- Extreme Aggression (default strategy) 

2- Finish off a short stacked opponent 

    Push or Fold when villain (or you) are 4BB

    (Ax, Kx, Qx, Jx, T8, T7s, 98s, 22+)


Guidelines

• You are the aggressor
• Leave after losing one buy-in
• Keep playing when winning
• Obsession with preventing tells

Now, after studying the playing style of my four heads up limit hold em icons, heros and idols.  I have enough information to devise my own strategy.  The Perfect Heads-Up Fixed Limit Hold' Em Strategy.   This will be the third part of this highly instructive guide.


PYGOD


For an analysis of the respective playing style of Polaris. Ivey. Beal. Brain. you have to see

Perfect Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em Strategy part 1

The bio, profile, in-dept playing style of each of our four marvels read the following.

• Polaris
• Ivey
• Beal
• Brain

Stay tuned for the 3rd and last part of this article. Where I will devise a more usable, realistic, and adaptative strategy. Everything you need to know to be a $ucce$$ful poker player from playing style to money management. 

HEADS-UP LIMIT HOLD' EM POKER

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE MY WORK INTO YOUR WEBSITE WITHOUT GIVING ME THE CREDIT

NASH EQUILIBRIUM Game Theory for Fixed Limit Heads-Up Hold' Em

Transition from No-Limit to Fixed-Limit
Adapting the Nash Equilibrium for Heads-Up LIMIT Hold' Em


Since our concern here isn't Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold' Em but Heads-Up Fixed Limit Hold' Em the number of effective BB (Big Blinds) will be different.

On PokerStar the minimum required stack to play

HU NL HE  40 BB

HU FL HE     5 BB

According to this, we need 8 TIMES less money to play Limit Holdem than we need to play No Limit.

So the 20+ BB mentioned above would be reduced to 2.5 + BB in a Fixed Limit game.  Well... ???? I'm not so sure about the correlation between the two.

A more realistic and representative stack is 100 BB in no limit vs. 20 BB in fixed limit as suggested on Pokerstars.

With that being said: 
HU NL HE  20 BB = HU FL HE  4 BB

I have to admit that I feel pretty naked at 4-5 BB.

The following is copy-and-paste general information about the HeadsUp Push/Fold charts and their usage for Heads-Up No-Limit Hold' Em. For the original source, I encourage you to click the links of the source at the end of the explanations. 

Keep in mind that the explanations below were deviced for HU NL HE. So divide the numbers by 5 to give you an idea of what it could be in Heads-Up LIMIT Hold' Em.



General Information

The charts show the Nash Equilibrium solution of the heads-up push-or-fold game. This is a simplified game where the SB is only allowed to go all-in or fold, and the BB can either call or fold when facing a shove.
It is important to keep in mind that this is not the solution for the full game where limps and smaller raises are also available. The push-or-fold solution is generally assumed to be very close to the solution of the full game up to around 8bb. In practice the strategy can likely be used at least until 10bb without being too exploitable.

Usage

The tables show the highest effective stack size in big blinds where a hand can be pushed or called. Values bigger than 20 are only displayed as 20+, which means the hand can be played for any stack size of 20bb or less. (Playing push-or-fold is typically only recommended up to around 10bb, depending on the situation. Using push-or-fold for >20bb is almost certainly a bad idea.)
Some hands have gaps in their pushing strategies, they are marked with * and the details are displayed below the charts. For example 63s is included in the pushing strategy for stack sizes between 7.1 and 5.1bb, and stacks below 2.3bb.

Example

SB (9.0bb): T3s
BB (6.0bb): Q2o
The effective stack size is the smaller of the two, before posting any blinds. So the relevant stack size for both players in this hand is 6.0 big blinds.
To find the strategy for SBs T3s, check the green area (suited hands) of the "Pusher" chart. The value for T3s is 7.7bb, and since that is larger than the current effective stacks the hand is a push in the Nash Equilibrium strategy.
To determine if the BB should call with his Q2o, check the orange area (offsuit hands) of the "Caller" chart and locate Q2o. The value there is 5.6bb. The effective stacks in the current hand are larger than the value for Q2o, so this hand is a fold in the Nash Equilibrium strategy.

http://www.holdemresources.net/h/poker-theory/hune/usage.html
http://www.holdemresources.net/h/poker-theory/hune.html

http://www.thepokerforum.com/joebenik8.htm




I have included the following chart analyzing the game play of Hyperborean and the legendary Polaris.



http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/heads-up-holdem-solved-1379043/index5.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaris_(poker_bot)

http://www.computerpokercompetition.org/index.php/competitions/participants/93-participants-2013?showall=&start=1

http://www.headsupsitandgo.com/