Hypothetical heads up situation

[AmigoPro]

NL holdem. Blinds 5/10, 2k chip stacks. You are always big blind. Your opponent shoves preflop every hand. With what range of hands do you call with X number of chips left in your stack?

[puckhead23]

Welcome to the forum. I'm not a HU expert, but I would be comfortable getting it in if I was pretty sure I'm a 60:40 favorite or better. There's software out there that can tell you this information, but I would guess 88+, AT+. I think if you get into calling with a K in your hand, your equity goes down because of all the Ax hands you become an underdog to.

I cannot stress enough there are better HU players here than me. Someone's gonna call me a rock. I'm WAITING!!!!!!

[MewsicLovr]

Puck's range doesn't seem to be too far off, since blinds are pretty low compared to your stack size. I might add A9s or even A8s.

[bigloser2448]

Originally Posted by puckhead23

Someone's gonna call me a rock. I'm WAITING!!!!!!

You're a rock.

[Mirage]

Depends on whether or not you can rebuy for however long you wish.

[bigloser2448]

Is this cash or a tourney? I'm assuming a HU Tourney since why would you stay at a cash table with a maniac like that?

Not that I'm any good at HU either but... What I will generally do here is wait a few hands so he thinks you're waiting for a monster to call with. And the 1st time I get an above average hand from the button, I make a standard raise. Usually he'll do one of two things, shove or fold. If he folds, it could mean that he just likes to be the 1st to bluff. If he shoves, then unless you have a premium hand, fold. Then wait a few more hands, and the next time you get an above average hand, just shove. He'll probably call with ATC thinking you're just sick of his shoving. If he really shoves EVERY hand, then playing poker isn't an option, so just gamble with an above average holding and hope your next opponent isn't a moron. It's rare to be a huge underdog in HU play preflop. So since his range is infinite, you'll stand a pretty good chance to double up and cripple him, them let him shove his miniscule stack all he wants.

One more thing, you didn't mention if this is a HU tournament, a Single Table SnG, or Multi-Table Tournament. If it's either of the latter two, maybe you can rely on reads from earlier play. What got him to HU? He could also see you as weak/tight and think he can walk all over you. For example, I played in a $5 - 4 player HU shootout tournament last night. I knocked off my opponent pretty early compared to the other table so I had a chance to watch both of my prospective players play. I saw that both of them almost never called a pf raise and only seemed to bet when they had cards. I used this to my advantage when I met the winner in HU. I raised pf relentlessly from the button with almost any two cards. After a while, he got tired of folding so, he started just calling my raises and folding to my Continuation bets, but the time he started actually playing back with raises of his own, I had almost double his stack.

[sfustsh]

There's a formula for this. I'll dig it out somewhere.

[Randy]

Welcome to the forums. I like this question and off the top of my head I like Puck's answer.. I'll wait and let a better HU player jump in though..

[Ugignadl]

Well I'm not going to deal with the general situation but right at the beginning you want to be calling with AJs+ and maybe 66+. That's with no computation. If the trend continues then you would gradually loosen up. Probably I'm a bit more of a gambler than I should be, you could probably get away with AQ+ and 88+. At the beginning with 5/10 blinds and 2k stacks there is absolutely no reason to throw away the tournament.

[Mirage]

What tournament? I'm still unclear as to whether this is a tourney or a cash game.

Hell, even if it is a tourney, the question still stands whether you get to play him again if you bust.