Most MTT Players Aren't Studying Heads-Up: Kevin Rabichow

– Today our guest is Kevin Rabichow, heads-up specialist, GTO Wizard coach, WPT bracelet winner with over seven million in career tournament winnings live and online. He has been playing poker for over 15 years. The hand he is about to tell you about was played at the World Series of Poker in the $25k HU Championship. Can I say that was your main tournament, Kevin?
– Thanks! I had to think to myself, did I really win the WPT? Oh yeah, that’s right, the High Roller tournament! Okay.

Indeed, I perceive the WSOP Heads-Up Championship as the main start. I look forward to it with much more impatience than any other tournament. This year I was lucky to break through to the round, the victory in which allowed me to go into the money, and I got the future winner as an opponent – Artur Martirosyan. The hand I am going to tell you about was played against him.

– Oh, spoiler! Or not? You can still win the hand!
– As you will soon understand, this hand did not become decisive in the match. Almost immediately after it, a break began, during which Artur and I talked a little, and I learned that he, it turns out, has quite a lot of experience in playing heads-up. Before switching to MTT, he played Spin&Go for many years. It's a pity, of course, that I did not know this from the very beginning. When I start matches against MTT players, I automatically consider them insufficiently experienced in HU.

– Effective stack at the start of the hand is 600k. Blinds are 1,000/2,500, no ante. Insane depth! What is that?
– It’s just a really good tournament that suits me perfectly. Each round starts with an effective stack of 250bb. The depth is good for me because I play a lot of cash.

In deep stacks I play only raises. Of course, limping is not a mistake, but I don't want any extra hassle. I raise to 6,000 from 65o. Artur defends the BB. There's nothing to say about the ranges yet – I have almost 100%, he also has more than half of the deck.

Flop – rainbow. He checks.

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Of course, I have sizings ready for any texture. On low flops, I only play big bets – 66-75%. Top pair and gutshot – the combo is very strong. I bet 8,000 into a 12,000 pot, and Artur calls.

It's important to note that a good player heads up in Artur's position will still have a lot of strong hands in his range even after calling. Hitting a set or a straight in such deep water doesn't necessarily mean check-raising right away. So while 65o is pretty strong on a board like this, I don't feel like I'm that far ahead of his range.

Turn – , a flush draw came. I don't remember what suit exactly. There are four cards to a straight on the board, and I have a straight. I'm only losing , with which he decided not to check-raise the flop.

Artur checks. This is not an automatic check, by the way, the BB can very well have leads on such a turn, and they are quite often made in regular tournaments, because the board is not very favorable for the button. However, in heads-up both players get into such boards, and that's the fun.

What hands could you expect a lead from? For example, from floats with a seven that have improved to a gutshot. Or from weak pairs without a straight draw – with them you want to make a small bet, forcing your opponent to have a sizing that suits you. So after the check, I exclude some medium-strength hands from Artur's range. But the entire top is still in place, as is the entire bottom.

I decide to check next. Generally, you shouldn't check a straight too often in this game, but occasionally it's okay. Both of them have very wide ranges. It also seemed reasonable to check a straight with a six – I block top pair, so it's harder to get called. I think if I just had a five, unpaired, I would always bet – such a simple heuristic.

River – a , not closing the flush. The nuts is now , against I divide. Artur checks.

I pay a lot of attention to straights, but the ranges are still very wide. He could have any pair, some of which he will turn into bluffs on this river and, I suspect, overbluff a little. Lots of floats like with a backdoor, or without a backdoor. And of course, a lot of ace-high hands. His main bluffs are unpaired. So when he checks, I put any pair on him. It could be two pair or a set, but they will usually bet extra because they are not strong enough to check-raise. Even a seven on the river seems like a good value bet to me.

Against his check, my range of value will be very wide. A straight on a five is the very top. In principle, any overpair or even a good seven will do. Since I have many value hands, I simplify the strategy to one sizing and bet 75% of the pot.

I bet 21,000 into a 28,000 pot. Artur suddenly starts thinking and spends his time bank. Wow! My first thought is – I’m going to get all-in now! He’ll push 600k – what should I do?

He takes the second time bank, and I let go a little. True, paradoxically, I am strengthened in the thought that he has , and he takes his time to come up with the perfect draw sizing. He ends up check-raising to 132,000. It's a big raise, more than 1.5 pots, but the stacks are very deep. I have one pair 90% of the time, and now I have a straight. So I call – I don't think there's anything else I can do. There are hands in his value range that I'll split with.

But Artur shows .

When I saw his cards, I was glad he didn't reraise bigger. I could have been eliminated in this hand! There are many ways to lose 200bb with a second street against a nut. And almost all of them start with me betting the turn. Then he raises, I make an autocall, and voila, I can't fold to an all-in on the river. If he doesn't raise, but only calls, that can also save me from elimination.

So I was relieved, but also a little angry that I lost the pot with such a strong hand.

Meanwhile, in the line we played, I almost planned to fold to all-in. Almost – because I could give the final decision to the randomizer. But while Artur was thinking about the move, I came to the conclusion that I would have to fold to all-in. Although folding is not quite a solving decision.

Unique, rare spot, but I have worked on the game enough to know what to do in this situation. There are not enough in my range , to open the river push only with them. You can't call all-in with any five either – he's a regular bluffcatcher. Against a player who bluffs with the right frequency, you need to mix. Artur has a reputation for being a bluffer. Whether this is true in HU or not, I'm not sure, but in regular tournaments I've seen him bluff a lot against a variety of opponents, and I have to take that into account.

– What hands are best for him to bluff with?
– If we talk about all-in, then you need to have an eight. But having an eight is not difficult for him, in principle, so he cannot go all-in with any eight, it will be a strong over-bluff.

– What else did you talk about with Artur during the break?
– We discussed how terrible many of the players in this tournament are playing heads-up. It’s a sore subject for me. I just released a HU course for tournament players, in which I try to convey one idea: you guys play great, but why do you refuse to take this stage seriously?

During the tournament I saw many great players making very crude, childish mistakes, and I couldn't figure out whether they didn't know they couldn't play that way, or whether they didn't think it would make a difference. It was nice to get confirmation from Artur. He seemed almost offended that the opponents in such a tournament weren't playing heads-up well enough.

I also asked him what he thought about the hand. Did he think the river was a good spot to bluff? Did he consider going all-in? Perhaps the most interesting thing for me was that he rejected going all-in in principle. It is clear that you can bet as much as you want with the nuts, but he did not believe that he could find enough bluffs to play for stacks. And I was just sitting there and grieving about how vulnerable my range turned out to be on the river, because I never check the turn after , so I'm dripping. But Artur didn't say anything like that.

Then I checked the hand with GTO Wizard and found that the solver was, of course, checking part of it on the turn to have the nuts on this river too, and so I don't consider going all-in on the river for Artur. I was only thinking about my strategy, and it was interesting to see that players of Artur's level think I'm more balanced. My range in this spot was more defensive than I thought!

I played around with different sizings a bit and came to the conclusion that Artur's sizing was also too high. The goal of a check-raise should be to get paid for your , and not only . A sizing of 75% of the pot is suitable for this.

Since I would be getting from top pair and higher, I would pay 75% on a check-raise with a sufficient number of good bluff catchers and definitely with all sets.

Check Raise in Poker to Bluff or Increase Value

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– Imagine you are a tournament director. What would heads-up tournaments look like at your series?
– Great question! I have thought about this a lot, hoping to someday convince series organizers to host more heads-up tournaments that will make money.

My ideal tournament starts online. The main problem with live HU tournaments is that you can’t get a big enough field. Tables that can fit four players and two dealers take up too much space. It’s not profitable for a casino that lives off the rake. I’d like to see a HU tournament with 1,024 players! And that’s possible if you play the first six or seven rounds online. And then, starting with eight or 16 players, take the game offline and make a good TV story. I think that would work.

A small detail about the structure – I prefer to play with an ante.

You could also think about a more colorful setting. I once played a HU tournament by invitation at the WPT in Cabo. The organizers made a whole show out of the draw the day before the game: they discussed the resulting pairs, Doug Polk assessed the players' chances... I'm not sure if it was possible to bet on the matches, but in general I really like this approach. Unfortunately, nothing like this is done at the WSOP.

– What are the most common mistakes made by professional players who don't work on HU separately?
– I'll try to avoid the exploits I talk about in my course. In each part I have two exploits of the main tendencies of the field, but of course they don't exhaust all the possibilities.

Globally, the main problem of good players is that they play strong hands too aggressively. They bet two or three barrels with the initiative, immediately take over the initiative with a check-raise when defending... This is normal for regular tournaments, but in HU you need to play differently – constantly set traps. The ranges are too wide, so the correct style is passive and tricky.

Otherwise, you get capped too easily, and a good player will destroy you in many lines with re-bluffs and thin draws. Top heads-up players, which Artur undoubtedly belongs to, can show the nuts in any line.

Many fundamental mistakes don't affect your win rate at a full ring. For example, when you're on the river with top pair out of position, you always bet extra and never slowplay. And this works because your opponent, due to the narrow ranges at a full ring, simply doesn't have enough trash hands to bluff you with to check, and too few thin extra hands that will only win against your top pair. But in HU, ranges are so wide that we can't make things easy for our opponents in this situation. Against a guy who always leads top pair, you can thinly bet extra wide to check, and it's incredibly EV.

Heads-up is an incredibly demanding format. Any leaks are exposed quickly and are very expensive.

– Patrick Leonard, who finished third in this tournament, did a Twitter poll of MTT regulars a while back asking, among other things, how important it is to work on your heads-up game. How would you prioritize it?
– I remember feeling bad about heads-up, because I was absolutely sure that everyone would put it last. Of course, strategically, there is no doubt that studying ICM will bring more money in the long run than studying HU. If you have to choose between someone who knows nothing about ICM and someone who knows nothing about HU, the latter will always have a more successful career.

But! It is impossible to learn the ICM base in five hours. I have been studying ICM for years and still have not finished. But HU... That is how I sell my course: you will be able to sharply improve in just five hours! There is not much to know.

So even if HU is objectively at the bottom of an MTTer's priority list, it doesn't mean it should be neglected. It's quite possible that the most profitable solution would be to just pile on HU, learn everything you need, and close the issue once and for all.

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