... at the HU S&G's until...

First hand of the tourney. I'm in the BB with KK. Opponent raises to T60. I re-raise to T270. He calls. Pot is 540, no Ace on the flop. Opponent bets around 200. I raise to 600, he pushes. He had... nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Next game, first hand again. I'm in the SB/B wit AKs. I raise to T60. Opponent min-raises, I call. Flop comes AKQ. Opponent bets pot, I min-raise, he pushes with... 2 low cards. Different opponent from the first one, mind you, but they're both tagged for future reference.

Then, I must admit, I caught the fever. The next 3 games (the last 3 I played), I raised 3xbb preflop first hand regardless what I had. If re-raised, I'd raise 3x the raise. Invariably this was called. I always bet the pot on the flop, regardless what landed. If my opponent raised, I pushed and he folded. If he called, I pushed the turn and he folded. Either way, those last 3 games had me at about a 2-1 chip lead after the first hand, which makes it very easy to win.

What have your experiences been with these?

I agree, there is a LOT of bluffing in HU sngs, and it's funny sometimes because people are pulling ridiculous bluffs when the blinds are still 10/20 with 1500 chipstacks.. against those opponents, just call and wait till you flop a monster and most of the time you'll get a big enough chiplead from there to get the win. It's dangerous to make these big plays yourself because to be a successful HU sng player you want to push small edges to increase your win % bit by bit, and the problem with making huge bluffs is that the whole game pretty much comes down to 1 hand - if you get called, you lose, if you get away with it, you win. Now I know there's definitely room to come back from a 2:1 chip dog but it still can change a lot, with just 1 hand, which isn't necessary. That being said, i've never really experimented in a lot of depth with how often you can get away with it, so if you try it and seem to be getting away with it 70% - 80% of the time, then it might be a good strategy.. proceed with caution, however, is my advice..

So what strategy did you use on the $10's to build that BR so effectively? Did you basically emulate the way Ivey played D'Agostino as described in HoH2?

On HU play, Harrington says you've got to be willing to raise and re-raise with nothing if you're going to be successful. Good hands don't come up nearly often enough to sit and wait against a maniac...

I did play very much like Ivey in Ivey v D'Agostino, but the players online are a lot less skilled and you have to adjust to their play. I agree that you have to be able to raise and re-raise with nothing but going in with the intent to bluff on the first hand and get a chiplead is not what that means, i don't think. HU matches are about getting inside your opponents head and notiicing subtle betting patterns and tendencies and using these to your advantage. Does he like to lead into you when you raise preflop? Does he always use a contiuation bet? Does he always follow this up with a bet on the turn? If you bet the flop after a preflop raise and check the turn, will he always bet? It's things like this you have to ask yourself and answer. For example, one time i raise pre-flop with Q9s and he called me. The flop came something like TT4 and i bet half the pot as a continuation bet, he called. I checked the turn and he fired out a pot sized bet, i push all in, and he folds. I knew from previous experience that he had nothing and sensed weakness in me, which is why he bet. If he had a hand, he would have either bet less or checked behind - his pot sized bet just screamed "go away", so i didn't. At one point I was winning between 75% - 80% of HU matches at the $10 level because i'd play 1 at a time and concentrate on every hand, make mental and written notes, and really look for those opportunities to win a few extra chips. That was my strategy, and it worked and helped a lot for when I moved up in stakes. There are probably others who adapt more of a push-bot style (bet preflop, bet the flop, bet the turn, bet the river, just to push the opponent off the hand and from there just bully them around) and can multi-table and make more $/hr than I did, but I played it to improve my skills aswell which I think i did.

It's up to you, but my experience with those habitual bluffers was that i'd let them make huge bets with such small blinds and them trap them when i flop top or middle pair because most of the time it'll be good.