Heads Up

When I lived in Colorado my buddy owned a bar that had poker on Fri, Sat and Sun nights. The winner would take home $50 and the top five would be entered into a winner take $200 on the first tue of every month, not bad for free (minus drinks, however my buddy owned the place)! Also, there was no other bar doing this any where. It drew a pretty big crowed on Fri and Sat, on average 60 or more, not bad for a neighborhood bar.

I can't tell you how many times I've been heads up in this tournament, too many to count. I would say that 40% of the time I would have over double my oppents stack heads up. 30% of the time we would have about the same size stack, 10% I would be a little behind, and the remaining 20% I would be dominated by double or more. You would think I would've won at least 50% of the time heads up. However, I probably only won about 15-20% of the time. I thought that it was mainly due to the fact I played with the same people almost every weekend for over two years. There was a long running joke of who was going to beat me heads up!!

Now that I moved to NY I've only been playing freerolls and $2 SNGs online and I've done pretty well. I've finished first once, second twice and finished in the top 20 four times, and I've only been playing two weeks!! However, I've done 21 single table SNG with 10 seats. I've won once, finished second 6 times and third twice. So, something is way wrong with my Heads up skils!! Any advice for heads up!!?? I'm tired of being the Bride's Maid!!

Heads up is a whole different stategy, for a start you should play alot more hands and look to raise with any A-rag and all pocket pair.I like to control the betting, this involves frequently raising preflop making my opponent pay to see it. I also like to put small "feeler" bets on the flop to see where my opponent is. Also mix up your play alot, for example if you have an aggresive opponent try flat calling/checking premium pocket hands to try and trap them or let them hit on the flop. Overall loosen up alot play most hands, and raise alot preflop. Try to make continuation bets on the flop after all most of the time your opponent will miss. And generally mix up your play, don't become predictable.

heads up is all about playing the player not the cards...mind you having some cards to back up a semi bluff is always a good idea...but you really wanna outplay your opponent. the most aggressive player will probably win

Interesting.

When heads up balance is important.

Play bigger pots on the button. If your opponent limps his button 10% of the time, raises 2.5 blinds 20% of the time and raises 3blinds 65% of the time and folds 5% of the time, then when you have the button increase these raises so you are playing bigger pots with him/or her more often in position.

Think of hands in relative terms. Say you have 10,10 and on the turn feel that you no longer have the best hand. Due to circumstances you don't feel an aggresive play can win the pot, ask yourself how much your opponent would lose to you if the situation was reversed, then try to control the pot and lose less than your opponent would.

Float flops and turns with more frequency in position. Heads up plays later streets far more often.

Stop and go plays should increase when out of position.

Generally raise or fold out of position, checks should be followed with check raises more than check followed by folds. This makes your opponent at least a little worried about raising marginal hands because you may come over the top. If you check fold too often his raises with marginal holdings goes way up in value.


These are some guidlines, the most important thing is setting up plays that exploit your opponents tendencies, as it was mentioned in an earlier post. Your opponent will tell you how to beat him. Watch and listen for mistakes.

-Bill

Definetly cant wait for the perfect hand as you do normally i usually stick with connecters and suited gappers and play low pocket pairs pretty strong!!

Ya Bill is pretty much spot on. The button is so strong in HU and I pretty much 100% open from the button. Definitely you want to be playing your big pots in position and not the other way around. HU really puts an emphasis on postflop play, reading hands, etc. Playing postflop is so much easier in position and therefore the button is extremely important.

Really to become good HU you have to become a good postflop player, that's about all there is to it. Playing HU preflop isn't really that hard once you learn general guidelines on when you should 3Bet, 4Bet etc. So just work on reading hands, and general postflop play. Experiment with different lines that you don't normally take, maybe c/r bluff etc, and work on your postflop game. Improving this area of your game will not only help you HU but it will greatly improve your poker game as a whole.

Another important concept for HU is extracting the most value from your hands. In HU, especially with a LAGgy image, (opening 100% or w/e on button usually accomplishes this) you can really value bet thin as you are going to get called so much wider by your opponent. There is situations where you have to value bet Ace high.

Of course all this really doesn't apply if the stacks are really small relative to the blinds. In that situation it's just determining when to shove or not.

the only thing i think is good about heads up is that you dont have to worrie about haveing like 3-5 players on the hand and someone catching a lucky river. you have better chances of winning more hands

Thank you Bill, Riley and everyone else that responded to my post. You have given me a great base line to go off of. I can't wait to implement these strategies the next time I'm heads up!!! Thank you all again... This really is the best poker forum on the planet!!!