Rudy Edwards

I had a fairly eventful heads up game, vs Jimmy (his screen name is Jimmy and some digits but I don't see a reason to post it) on Full Tilt. I sat down to the NL100 heads up table and Jimmy had $114 in his stack. This HU game is noteworthy primarily because of my use of table talk. It was all experimental, but I gave it a shot.

The Session began with me raising from the button with J4s, and taking it down with a continuation bet. He folded his first button, and I deviated from my usual HU strategy by limping J3s from the button to test his reaction. He overraised to $5, and I immediately wished I had waited to limp with a stronger hand so I could play back at him, but I noted his overraise and moved on. we swapped big blinds by raising in position for a few hands, until I three bet him pot ($9) with AQ, and he folded. My next button saw 96o, and I raised pot as usual, and he three bet to 9. I put in a loose call here, hoping to take him for a big pot. The flop came down ATs9. He continuation bet 12.50 into an $18 pot, and I decided the board was scary enough I'd take a shot and I raised to 30, with outs to two pair, trips, or even a back door flush draw if he calls. He didn't.

Jimmy backed off for a few hands, and then came in with a raise, but folded to my 3-bet with AKs. He backed for a few hands and folded the blinds to me, Finally, he raised the blinds from the button, and I called with 75s. The flop came down T98 with two clubs. I checked to Jimmy, who bet $5 into the $6 pot, and I made it 21 to go with a check raise. Jimmy pushed all-in, and I called. The turn gave him a set, but the river gave me a flush to stack him.
He claimed in player chat that the irrelevant set of Qs tilted him, which I was looking for but hadn't seen much sign of. If anything, he seemed even more passive. I was able to escape his quad kings vs my Kings full of eights (with 88 in the hole, obv) losing only $18 because he was so passive. I started my chats now, telling him that his river bet with the quads was a perfect one, and that I would have folded to just a little more. This was true, and I'm still unsure if that statement would help later or if it was irrelevant.

A few hands later, Jimmy has taken a few hands from me and he's got about $120 to play for. I raise T3 suited from the button, and Jimmy 3 bets me, but with a Ten Dollar bet instead of our standard $9 pot-sized reraise. I mention to him during the next hand that his 10 bet looked kind of weak, but he caught me with weak suited, so I couldn't play. Immediately after this chat, I raise up ATo from the button, and he ten bets me again. "Another Ten Bet so soon? OK I'll bite" I say, and call. The flop is a nightmare, probably for both of us, 36s5, and I lay down to his $14 bet into the $20 pot.

Me: Now I wish I hadn't chatted about it
Jimmy: Lay down 99 or something?

About this time, I'm dealt KK

Me: No, A with a good kicker, but I really thought you were full of it.

Jimmy raises the button to $3

Me: Have a taste of my 10 bet

I three bet to $10. Jimmy reraises to $35. I pause-push. Jimmy Calls for his stack with AQ

Now, for all I know, this was going to be the path we would take if I had shut my mouth and just played, but the AQ call seems way out of Jimmy's usual range. We've played about 40 or 50 hands at this point, and You've really got to think I'm full of it to call that bet all in with AQo. I can't break down why I feel I made the right chats (or more likely the right play based on the chats we had) But I felt like I was doing the right thing. This was less like the Rock-Paper-Scissors I usually feel like I'm playing when trying to get into someone's head, and a little more like... well, an art form.

I don't even know if I would blindly feel the same way when playing an opponent who is more aware or insightful, so there are plenty of ways to decide that it was just plain luck that he called AQ when I had been chatting him up, but it sticks in my mind as something I'd like to work on. If I ever want to have success at medium to high stakes live games, I'll certainly need to be more aware of it's impact.

While Honan and I were in Jacksonville learning from Crosby, one of the more entertaining things of the trip was watching Cros play NL Heads up.

I have a lot of experience in Limit Heads up play, and am intrigued by the NLHU game. I absorbed quite a bit by watching Crosby, and on the road trip from JAX to ATL, Honan and I discussed the game a decent amount. Once back in the ATL, I scabbed a quick game on Full Tilt with Honan watching while we were waiting on dinner over at The Big House.

I was playing well outside my comfort zone, as the smallest heads up table they had was NL100, and this was my first NLHU game, but I had quick success. I could've gone hunting for HU games at empty tables of lower limits, but I wasn't in the mood to have to work for it. In fact, it's my experience that you want Heads Up games to go as long as possible. Even if you are losing, if you are the better player, you'll tend to leave the game with a profit as long as your mark doesn't stand up.

I was up 400 on a guy, when he kept buying in and eventually took his money back on a few consecutive hands. Aziz was watching and assured me that what I needed was patience, the guy was not smart and as long as he sat, we'd take it back. Aziz was right, and over a marathon session, I was able to come back from a starting stack to scooping his chips.

It took a little longer that usual because I called a overbet that I probably shouldn't have called, against Aziz's advice. Don Smith was watching, had been giving great advice up to that point, and he could tell I wanted to call. TIme was running out, and Aziz told me I should fold, when I looked at Don. "You could call...." he said and I quickly hit the call button. I was just looking for any reason to do it, and made the game a little harder for myself.

Between Don, Justin, Aziz, and Honan cycling around behind me, I got a lot of that great Dialogue I like to claim is the best way to learn, and I've developed a love for NL Heads-up. I can't play more than one table at a time, but it really tickles that part of the brain that loves the cerebral competition.

Just before I went to visit my folks in Fayeteville, NC I discovered that an old Magic pro I got along with real well was in the Army and freshly stationed at Ft. Bragg. When I got into town, Chris Honan got in touch with me and we had dinner. We hung out a decent amount while in town. I showed him around my hometown and some great places to eat, while he told me stories about Ranger School and other things he's done since we last spoke. Chris is really intelligent. He's the kind of guy that John Kerry won't ever understand why he enlisted. We chatted a lot about poker, as Chris hasn't played much in the past few years, and I described to him the learning process I was going through figuring out no limit.

Chris sat next to me while I played some low stakes NL, and we discussed hands. I was doing my best to describe my reasons for every action until he understood what my whole approach was, and it reaped multiple benefits. First, the act of vocalizing your rationale for every important decision can shed an awful lot of light on where you are inconsistent or illogical. Second, Chris is an intelligent gamer himself and pretty soon we were having great dialogue about the games themselves.

I still hold to this day that the most important tool to improving your game in almost anything is intelligent dialogue. My biggest advances in Limit play were when I was working with Jim (The man who would eventually buy my store and free me for full time poker) and we were moving up stakes together, poring over our databases analyzing hands and breaking our play down multiple times a week. It was true on the pro Magic circuit as well, my game increased the more I worked with other pros and talked about the games, and it's true now in Poker.

My plan was to head down to Jacksonville and spend some time with Joe Crosby, gaming genius and good teacher. Joe was a teammate of mine in MTG, and has one of those brains that is just built for games. If he's not the most successful of our group in poker, he's close... and he's put a lot of time into the game. There is an endless amount of knowledge I can gain from watching him, discussing, and playing while he watches me. Honan also knew Crosby, and he had a few weeks of leave built up, and he took the trip with me to Jacksonville, then back to Atlanta to hang out with the old Magic pros for a few days.

Crosby gloated just a little, as he had been telling me (and all the limit players in our group) that we were banging our heads against the wall and should be exploring NL. Well, he was right and deserved the opportunity to gloat. We got a decent amount of incredibly productive poker time in, including a few hours of Crosby watching me play, where I really feel like I leveled up. I really need to get some more time in with Crosby if I'm going to accelerate through the middle-lower limits of NL.