WPT GTO Trainer Hands of the Week: Playing Heads Up on 25 Big Blinds
This week we’re playing a heads up match for the title in a multi-table tournament! Stacks in this match are 25BBs effective, which will be a common depth in many heads up situations. You’ll alternate between being the Button and Big Blind in these hands, so pay attention to your position in every hand.
Each hand has the same preflop action: The Button/SB minraises and the Big Blind calls. Ranges will be extremely wide for both players. The Big Blind will not have many medium to high pocket pairs or big Aces, since those hands would be 3-bet preflop.
Hand values shift quite a bit during heads up play given the width of both ranges. Hands like Ace and King high have significant showdown value in heads up play. Often Ace high hands that you may be semi-bluffing with in other spots are passively played heads up, since the Ace has enough showdown value against Villain’s very wide range. Hands like second pair are typically able to get to showdown profitably in this scenario.
When you are out of position (starting in the Big Blind), you can typically check to the raiser on most flops. You will do some leading on specific board textures such as lower straightening flops.
When Villain checks back on the flop, you should often fire a large turn bet with both made hands and a variety of semi-bluffs. Do not be overly fearful of potential bigger hands. At this stack depth with very wide heads up hand ranges, you should often be value betting top pair hands or better even when a potential flush hits on a later street.
Attempt to start with a solid default strategy then adjust to clear opponent weaknesses when playing heads up. Having a fundamental game plan in place will give you the best chance of success.
To see more examples and test your skills, you can play through five free solved hands from this scenario.
To access the free five hands, visit this page.
Regular play on the WPT GTO Trainer will help you adjust your decisions closer and closer to GTO strategy.
You don’t have to be the world’s best player to use GTO Strategy, and thanks to the WPT GTO Trainer, now you don’t have to buy expensive software or have expert level knowledge to study GTO.
Why use the WPT GTO Trainer?
The WPT GTO Trainer lets you play real solved hands against a perfect opponent in a wide variety of postflop scenarios for cash game and tournament play.
If your goal is to be a tough poker player then you should try the WPT GTO Trainer today.
Register a free account here (it only takes your e-mail address to begin) to play hands and see true GTO strategy in real-time.
The WPT GTO Trainer has over 4 billion unique solved flops, turns and rivers that are fully playable.
As you make decisions in a hand, you receive instant feedback on the specific EV loss (if any) and Played Percentage for every action you take as compared to GTO strategy.
The full selection of scenarios for the WPT GTO Trainer are only available to members of LearnWPT, however we’re giving PokerNews Readers free access to the Trainer on a regular basis with the WPT GTO Hands of The Week.
Use this series of articles to practice the strategies you learn on LearnWPT (or at the table) and test your progress by playing a five-hand sample each week.
