I’ll admit it. I have a major leak in my sit-and-go game. I am simply not very good heads-up. Sure, I can win, but not nearly as often as I’d like when I get into the final two, even if I go in as the chip leader. I just always seem to do the wrong thing at the wrong time. There is one kind of player, however, that I do seem to have success against in the heads-up portion of a tournament: the massive overbettor.
This type of player is super-aggressive post-flop with any sort of decent, yet not monster, hand. If he hits a pair on the flop or even finds himself with a solid draw, he will likely way overbet the pot, even to the point of going all-in, in order to protect his hand. He will pretty much always raise pre-flop in position (since it’s heads-up, this obviously means on the button), even more than a good player normally would, and will try to beat you into submission with continuation bets after the flop. Really, unless the board looks ultra-scary, he is not likely to take his foot off the gas once he becomes the aggressor.
Fortunately, the overbettor, or severe LAG (Loose-Aggressive) player, as we could call him, is relatively easy to defeat, provided you have patience and a stack which will allow you to play defense.
While you will, of course, need to open up your game a bit since it’s heads-up, you will want to proceed with caution pre-flop. As always, raise with powerful hands, but be a little less aggressive than you might normally be with small to medium pairs and marginal hands like connectors (suited or otherwise). Because your overbetting opponent is apt to raise, raise, raise, you want to keep the pots smaller with drawing hands, and this includes lesser pairs, since you will likely need to hit at least something on the board to win the hand at showdown. The last thing you want is to get three-bet with connectors and then have to call even bigger bets after the flop if you want to continue chasing a draw. By keeping the pot small early in the hand, you will be able to play more hands, hoping to hit big, while still being able to get away from them if need be without sustaining too much damage.
In the meantime, let the other player do all the betting for you. You know he’s going to bet and raise, bet and raise without worrying too much about what you have, so oblige him. He might get away with sticking his head in the lion’s mouth time and time again, but eventually, he’s going to get complacent and the jaws will snap down on him. When you do get a hand worthy of making a move, just play it passively. Check-call the flop if you’re out of position (which is a great spot to be in against this betting fiend when you have a big hand) and let him make his grand, greater-than-pot-size continuation bets. If the board is still innocent looking enough, check-call the turn. By the time you become the aggressor on the river, your opponent will likely be pot committed and will have to call you with his inferior hand.
The time to tread more lightly when you have a strong hand after the flop is when you raise your opponent’s overbet, only to have him just call. As I mentioned earlier, this kind of opponent tends to go nuts with his betting when he has a drawing hand or something good, but not special, like top pair. If he’s on a pure bluff, he will probably fold to a sizable raise (he’s a crazy overbettor, not a crazy bluffer). But if he just calls, he may actually have something strong. This doesn’t mean you should concede the hand. It just means that you are going to need to make a read and evaluate whether or not your strong hand is likely to beat his possibly strong hand.
If you don’t want to wait until the river to make your move, that’s fine, too. You will still likely take down a nice pot and your aggression may serve to slow your opponent down, allowing you to take control of the match. And if he just goes right back to what he was doing, fine. You’ll nail him soon enough.
Of course, you can’t wait too long and let your stack get whittled away if you enter the heads-up match with too short of a stack. In that case, make your big moves as you typically would with the short stack, knowing that your opponent very well might get careless and give you a courtesy double-up.
Remember, the key to besting the habitual overbettor is patience. It is easy to get antsy when you have to constantly fold to an opponent’s unnecessarily large bets. But if you have a large enough stack to wait him out, you can eventually let him dig his own grave. Also keep in mind, as I mentioned briefly earlier, that this player is not a maniac bluffer. If he’s making his overbets, he at least has something, even if it’s just a draw. So, trying to match his aggression with misplaced bluffs will not usually work, as he will be handcuffed to hands that will likely beat a bluff, even if those hands are weak. Take advantage of the love he has for his middling hand and crush him when you have a monster.
