I'm watching Dreamclown play HU $500-$1000 and I've noticed this:

Preflop in the small blind, DC ALWAYS raises.
Preflop in the big blind, DC NEVER raises, always calls.

I don't think I've seen him fold preflop more than once or twice, if that.

This is completely automatic and regardless of what his hole cards are. I'm not really a limt player, so I'm curious if any of you all have any thoughts on this. What do you think the benefit of this strat is?

I guess it hides the strength/weakness of his hand, and brings all decisions postflop. Is this effective? (I guess it must be...) How would you counter this? Any other thoughts?

Thanks.

its fairly common strategy that whoever is on the sb/button will raise almost everytime heads up regardless of thier cards since position cannot be overcome heads up..

At this level, watching these guys play
does it not seem like a luck-box card-catching
contest?? I don't see a lot of skill making
much difference here...

Am I alone?

Look at it this way. In a normal high stakes ring game, you're supposed to make 1 BB an hour.

Well, even though a lot of the basic decisions are automatic in a heads up game, there's still going to be some serious judgement calls at least every few minutes. Thus while, HU limit HE is a total card catching contest in the short term, in the long term, a great player's edge would be much higher than in a full game.

Just a few subtle decisions here and there could be enough for a great player to have a 5 BB/hr edge, even if the SD was up around 50 BB/hr or higher.

It's pretty standard to raise your button (the small blind) due to the immense positional advantages you'll have.

And in the BB, you're getting an immediate 3-1 on your call when the SB raises. Folding is almost always a mistake

In the shortterm, if both players play some type of reasonable heads-up strategy, it can look like a card catching contest, but like Iggy said, mistakes add up in a hurry over the longterm

Thus while, HU limit HE is a total card catching contest in the short term,

So is every other kind of poker.

but HU LHE is probably more so than other types is probably what this person meant. though you could argue "short term" in HU play might be different than HU in full ring play for instance.