Heads up

Any good advice out there on playing heads up . Thanks for any help. Gl at the tables all.

This article should help: Heads Up Poker Tournament Strategy - No Limit Texas Hold'em

You need not hurry to close, even when your opponent is in short stack.

When you're very strong @ flop (exclude a scale or color),seeks to increase the pot more than you can.

If your opponent is tight passive, do mini-raise in position SB, but be careful if he re-raises.

If your opponent is aggressive, have still a lot of patience to play hands in which u're very strong and then fold marginal hands or couples intermediate @ flop.

One word: Aggression. You have to be aggressive HU. Raise most hands when your the button, purley because you'll have position for the rest of the hand which gives you a massive advantage. Hands like A2 and K9 increase so much in value in HU you cant afford to wait around for good hands.

play your position ! that s very important for the advantage during the hand ! be agressive with select hands! calling anything is not the solution !

and one word: PATIENT !!!

Thank you all for your replies. Good tips here and I will check out the Heads Up Site. Gl at the tables all

Straight to the point, and perfectly succinct.


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I tend to be impatient in HU play. Especially if im the short stack. The blinds will eat me up.

ye, that is more spontaneous thing, but you must think that every hand is a story in itself, with victory / defeat's rates that do not depend on your chips

generally, by the time you are HU you have seen him play at least a FEW hands...try to get a feel for his betting patterns going in as it will give a fairly good insight into how and what he plays....not everyone knows to switch gears repeatedly to avoid patterning...

well not all HU are from MTT's, what if it is an actual HU sng, then imo you have to test the waters and push some of the players buttons to see what type of player he/she is..

In heads up play if you can sense that your opponent will in anyway be intimidated by aggressive play, its time to go to work. This will allow you to bluff more and force them out of hands, this is the key to being a sucessful player heads up.

I play live table as well near here (weekly tourney) and usually do fairly well. In that circumstance, you usually get to see them play, and can get a general feel at least. I've found that it is usually the samew online if you look for it...I've never played a str8 HU sng so I cant comment on that directly...

My issue why I do not really play heads up is when you are card dead. I feel like I am wasting the other persons time if I am constantly folding if they are raising. I know you should loosen up a little but if neither of my hole cards are above 10 I fold automatically. Can you fold too much?

WOW! You should be playing ALOT more hands! Heads up from the small
blind you should be playing close to 70% of the time. That means fold any hand with a deuce or an off suit trey and play everything else.

are you talking cash or tourney?

personally i like being aggressive and bluffing can both help and hurt you so risking is your own choice. i find that a lot of players need to be lucky in order to bluff and get the cards. my advice is to try and play the best hands you recieve but mix it up with mediocre aces and mid connectioning cards like 8 9 or 10 9

Yes my opinion is much similar...The only tip is Aggression and change constantly ways of playing...By that i mean the frequencies of just calling,raising and of all-in of course....

aggression is the key u'll put your opponent in a tight spot leaving him to think either your hitting all these hands and he should tighten up and leave u to take alot of pots and cut down on there bluffing

I don't think there is only 1 good strategy to play HU. Chagning gears and being little bit aggressive is good way tho. Usually debends on my opponent. But always i seems to be doing min raises at 1st hands, with anything.

When playing heads- up aggression is a good thing.
Remember that a hand such as A5 (weak Ace) has a much better chance of winning because its only against 1 hand.

Look for betting patterns in the other person. E.g. If you check and they bet minimum all the time it normally shows that they want you to call. On most occasions if they small bet and then on the river pot bet look at the flop for flush draws or straight draws that may have been missed. Normally it means they realise they have missed and want to get you off.

Just remember to not go storming in with aggression with an opponent you have never played. Attempt to trap them first off and see how they react to it.

RK