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Message: [QUOTE="PurgatoryD, post: 1327676, member: 43498"] To me, being a "consistent winner" at HU means that if I play the best of the best and I find the two of us evenly stacked, I still manage to win, on average, 50% of the time. That's why, in a normal tournament, when it comes down to the final table, everyone is jockeying for position before it gets down to the final two. Some are playing it safe, trying to work their way up the payout ladder. Others are taking calculated risks with nine opponents to make their job easier if/when they make it to the final two. So, in a typical tournament, a whole lot of things have happened between the final two players well before it ever got down to those two players. All this information is used when playing HU, in addition to any stack size advantage that was achieved during earlier play. For me personally, I can't imagine playing HU with someone without first going through the three-way cycle. That's a chance for me to really see how they react to passivity and agression. Do they play me differently than they play that third player? What does that mean they think of my play? How am I going to best maximize a future AA or KK, for instance? Will they call if I shove, or will I have to draw them in? Four-way gives similar information, as does five-way, etc. By playing in a strictly HU tournament, you are giving up all of this information as well as the opportunity to get a HU stack advantage. So, you are evenly stacked with no prior information. Against an evenly matched opponent, you are now highly dependent on cards. Thus, in my opinion, you are an average 50% to win. That's fine, but because you need to win 53.75% of the time to break even in these types of tournaments, you can see that it's a losing proposition. I think this is why you are seeing so many people tell you that this is not a good place to put your money. What good is HU practice going to be if you can never make it to HU through a full field of players? Instead of that, try playing a full field MTT. Focus on getting ITM. There are so many aspects to that, including the early play pitfalls and getting past the bubble. Then focus on getting from ITM to the final table. Once again, there are unique challenges that may change the way you decide to play the earlier part of your game. Once you can consistently get to the final table, you can work on getting to the final three. Once there, you will get your share of HU opportunities. The great thing about learning poker in the order that you normally experience it is this: you can use it right away to advance you further in the game. HU practice, on the other hand, in no way -- no way at all -- teaches you how to make it from the start of the game to the final table, for instance. It just doesn't. So, good luck to you, and take the avice of those here, stop spinning the roulette wheel and start playing poker! Good luck! -Dave [/QUOTE]

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