Heads Up Challenge: DaMatrix v skinpa

The heads up challenge match between myself and winner of the January comp, skinpa, took place Saturday. With 10k starting chips each and blinds starting very low, it was a very long heads up match, lasting 169 hands of which I managed to win 78 (46%). Since I had never played my opponent, I spent the first few levels trying to gauge him. This meant that I was behind for a long period of time (never more than about 8:12k) as I used my chips to buy showdowns. This explains why I won only 19/36 at showdown (53%).

The first key hand I won was when I flopped the nut straight with T8o and slowplayed it til the river when the board paired. Skinpa must have caught trips as I managed to win a big pot:


T8o flops the straight.

Over 75% of the pots I won were uncontested. The next key hand is one of them. Making a play for the pot preflop with 72o wasn't one of my best ideas, especialy when I got called. Luckily the flop gave me hope, and my semi-bluff wasn't called leaving skinpa with about 1,700 chips:


The hammer.

Next hand, skinpa doubled when I set him all in pre with J7o against his KTo. When I didn't call his all in the following hand, my opponent was back up to 5k.

My next two hands though were KQo and AJo and I managed to win 2 uncontested pots to take skinpa back down to 1,600.

Finally, skinpa goes all-in for his 1.6k and this time I call with 93s:


DaMatrix wins.

Many thanks to skinpa for taking part - the $20 heads up challenge will return next month.