HUNL = Stress

Damn, Is heads-up no limit stressful or what? It is to me anyway. I'm conservative by nature with all things poker. I like to be properly rolled because I've seen the roller coaster rides that poker can put a player through. Being a limit player for nearly 95% of my poker career, I've taken a bunch of these rides on the roller coaster. That's why I moved to NL poker and made full ring NL my mainstay. Good, boring, low variance poker. That is until I moved up...

When I made the leap from $25NL to $50NL, I found out that Stars and Full Tilt both spread Heads up NL games at that level. Being a sucker for action, I had to try them. And try them I did. In fact, I've pretty much crushed those tables for over 22PTBB/100 over a couple thousand hands. Definitely unsustainable. I'll probably never find out what I can sustain as a win rate on those tables though because they are just too stressful for me.

I might be conservative, but I am aggressive. Usually when a donkey sits down at the HUNL tables, they want to call, call, call. I'm a raiser myself. After about 5-10 minutes of this torture, donkies usually up the aggression as well to combat me. That's what I usually get the jackpot hands. Sound good? Good! That's the extent of my HUNL expertise.

Now lets to get to the stress. My bankroll is new to the $50NL level, so I'm protective over it right now. HUNL has a lot of swings in a given session. Just today, I was donking around at lunch. I got in a match against a guy. I was sitting with $50 and he of course joined with $20. Next thing I know, I've rebought twice and then some and he's sitting on a $150 stack to my $50. 5 minutes later, I busted his account. I caught some good hands at the right time.

I stress playing tilt-free poker when I'm playing. My poker music is still rock n' roll, but far from Metal. I need to be relaxed. Playing on a small bankroll doesn't allow me to relax, so that's why I'm conservative with the bankroll. When I'm overstaked for a limit, I'm not worrying about results so much...just the play. This is optimal. I can't do this playing Heads Up. In what little bit I've played, I've seen how swingy the game can get. That's fine and dandy if I'm over-bankrolled for the limit. Hell, I feel like I have a huge advantage anyway. However, when I'm only "properly" rolled for a limit (20 buyins), then I dont' feel so confident. I start sweating the results. I don't play tilt free. That is a recipe for disaster on the tables.

So, I'm retiring early from the heads up no limit tables. I'm hanging my 22PTBB/100 winrate on the wall over the virtual mantle. Not forever, though. Once I build the bankroll up a bit, I'll flock back to those oh so fun Heads up tables.