Heads up poker is so brutal!

[Sivraj]

Man I swear this tournament format is insanely crazy! From the upswings and downswings, the winning rates becoming losing rates. Back up to winning again. Beating your opponent down to chump change to a final all in and they miraculously come back and beat you on some Atlanta Falcons 28-3 super bowl blown lead outcome. You really really have to be strong minded and emotionally strong in this game format in poker. The variance is unpredictable moving randomly up and down like the stock/crypto market of volatility. The bad beats, the psychological mind games! This game of heads up poker is very very brutal! But I'm up to the challenge to keep working on it and I'm good with my bankroll management I'll make it through.

 

[bablovod]

Man I swear this tournament format is insanely crazy! From the upswings and downswings, the winning rates becoming losing rates. Back up to winning again. Beating your opponent down to chump change to a final all in and they miraculously come back and beat you on some Atlanta Falcons 28-3 super bowl blown lead outcome. You really really have to be strong minded and emotionally strong in this game format in poker. The variance is unpredictable moving randomly up and down like the stock/crypto market of volatility. The bad beats, the psychological mind games! This game of heads up poker is very very brutal! But I'm up to the challenge to keep working on it and I'm good with my bankroll management I'll make it through.

hello. heads up is a really difficult stage of the game. but if you can get your opponent to play the game you proposed and according to your rules, then there will be every chance of winning. and the most important thing is not to fall into the same traps.
good luck at the tables!
P.S. I would like to invite you to read this section. perhaps you will learn something new.
https://www.cardschat.com/poker-strategy.php

 

[perrywh]

Man I swear this tournament format is insanely crazy! From the upswings and downswings, the winning rates becoming losing rates. Back up to winning again. Beating your opponent down to chump change to a final all in and they miraculously come back and beat you on some Atlanta Falcons 28-3 super bowl blown lead outcome. You really really have to be strong minded and emotionally strong in this game format in poker. The variance is unpredictable moving randomly up and down like the stock/crypto

market of volatility. The bad beats, the psychological mind games! This game of heads up poker is very very brutal! But I'm up to the challenge to keep working on it and I'm good with my bankroll management I'll make it through.

Don’t you just love it!!!

 

[Sivraj]

hello. heads up is a really difficult stage of the game. but if you can get your opponent to play the game you proposed and according to your rules, then there will be every chance of winning. and the most important thing is not to fall into the same traps.
good luck at the tables!

Thank you for the advice I know I'll have my good days again soon.

Don’t you just love it!!!

I both love it and hate it at the same time but this is what I signed up for lol.

 

[azgeda]

I totally understand this, the luck in the game is sometimes madness. Especially in heads up, they’ll magically have runner-runners or a river completes their hand. That’s the game.

 

[Cooking]

I wish I could be good at HU tournaments, but I also think you need a very good poker mentality and play very aggressively and I still think it's very difficult.
But I wish you good luck in your challenge

 

[Sivraj]

I wish I could be good at HU tournaments, but I also think you need a very good poker mentality and play very aggressively and I still think it's very difficult.
But I wish you good luck in your challenge

Same to you. Trust me you can be good in this format of poker but the hardest thing to do is consistently win back to back games over and over.

 

[Sulfuros001]

Play to win

Once you care about every box you spend or await from the game, you become stressed out and emotional and you lose concentration. Play as if you're playing for a title, don't care about the rewards as money, concentrate and leave emotions aside. Then you'll win it!

 

[Daen27]

Sometimes I decided to play in such tournaments. And then I didn't even play this anymore) Each player has his own favorite type of game, I prefer hyper tournaments and knockout bounties because they can quickly get into the prize zone with a good game or take your buy-in back.

 

[Noobs420]

Heads up is hard

I always go all in with any decent hand heads up which I think is a mistake. I watched Daniel Negreanu vs Phil Ivey play heads up on shark tank rerun yesterday and was surprised by which hands they played and how they played. I find heads up the most difficult.

 

[Sivraj]

Sometimes I decided to play in such tournaments. And then I didn't even play this anymore) Each player has his own favorite type of game, I prefer hyper tournaments and knockout bounties because they can quickly get into the prize zone with a good game or take your buy-in back.

I wanna start playing hyper tournaments more. The only problem with them because they are so fast you really have to rely on luck just a bit to get by. You have to be extremely aggressive and can't afford to be conservative.

I always go all in with any decent hand heads up which I think is a mistake. I watched Daniel Negreanu vs Phil Ivey play heads up on shark tank rerun yesterday and was surprised by which hands they played and how they played. I find heads up the most difficult.

Well in heads up because there are so many cards that are random any card can almost beat any card so you have to be flexible in that type of game.

 

[seraxel]

The last few people left in a tournament is the rush to play for. Always enjoy it when it happens, especially heads up!

 

[619Leafs]

Heads up poker is more psychological skills. You got to anticipate your opponent moves so that to you can defend that to capitalize their aggresiveness.

 

[SAKhur]

Playing heads up against a new player is a pleasure. To sit at the table with an experienced player is a waste of time and perhaps partially draining the bankroll

 

[Piligrin66]

I do not recommend playing this kind of poker, you can simply drain your entire bankroll from one hand and only high-class players should play there.

 

[lukovnikofff]

Man I swear this tournament format is insanely crazy! From the upswings and downswings, the winning rates becoming losing rates. Back up to winning again. Beating your opponent down to chump change to a final all in and they miraculously come back and beat you on some Atlanta Falcons 28-3 super bowl blown lead outcome. You really really have to be strong minded and emotionally strong in this game format in poker. The variance is unpredictable moving randomly up and down like the stock/crypto market of volatility. The bad beats, the psychological mind games! This game of heads up poker is very very brutal! But I'm up to the challenge to keep working on it and I'm good with my bankroll management I'll make it through.

One-on-one is a very difficult game and human psychology plays a big role here, but as soon as you get a feel for your opponent, it becomes a little easier! Head-to-head game is very difficult to train, so good luck with your endeavors and hopefully you will soon be the best at it!

 

[ChubbySin]

hello. heads up is a really difficult stage of the game. but if you can get your opponent to play the game you proposed and according to your rules, then there will be every chance of winning. and the most important thing is not to fall into the same traps.
good luck at the tables!
P.S. I would like to invite you to read this section. perhaps you will learn something new.
https://www.cardschat.com/poker-strategy.php

Is a matter of propose the game to villain and knows how to play cold deck moments, thus maintaining the cold blood.

 

[alien666dj]

Each aspect of the game has its own nuances. Success depends only on how much you are able to develop as a player.

 

[TonyTadzh]

Yes head up is very interesting poker format, but it's so seldom for mtts

 

[Recreationalplayer]

Poker gets more difficult as the number of player decreases. One has to play wide ranges and bluff more. Heads up is most difficult and it becomes more difficult in tournaments when a lot of money is at stake.

 

[Alizona]

I think heads up is far easier to play than, say, 3-handed or 4-handed.

I was lucky enough to win the ACR freeroll last night, and it made me realize what I just stated... the pressure was FAR higher with 4 left, and then 3 left... and the decisions I had to make (which thankfully were correct decisions but it required much thought without a whole lot of time to do so) were far more difficult than the decisions I had to make when it got to heads up.

HU play is really not so bad if you understand you must play a far wider range of hands than you do when there are 4 or 3 players left... With 4 left, you must be extremely careful and selective, you are basically trying to out-last the other players and let them take all the risks so they get knocked out before you do. The hard part is that you must balance this careful attitude with the fact that if you are TOO careful, you will end up being a very short stack when it does get to heads-up play... but overall you want to take fewer risks with 4 players left, unless of course your opponents are playing very tight too, then you should probably adjust and place more pressure on the tighter players... but by far our overriding concern when shorthanded is "DON'T BUST". But when it gets to HU, you simply must have a good understanding of what a good "push-fold" range looks like (its a lot wider than your normal default range of playable hands is at any other stage of the tournament) and then apply that push-fold range to put maximum pressure on your opponent. Don't let them push YOU around, you need to be the one pushing them around instead... and I find that much easier to play than when we are 4-handed and in "Don't Bust Out" mode. Last night I was faced with a very difficult decision at 3-handed, and thankfully I was not only able to recognize that my correct play was to call an all-in shove but then I was lucky enough to catch my straight by the river and go on to win the tournament. It wasn't easy, heck no!! And yes I did need some luck to do it, but I was also able to benefit from past learning experiences. Every time you are in these spots, you hopefully will get better at recognizing the correct plays, and over time you will learn how to be a beast at shorthanded final tables and HU play. Best wishes and good luck at the tables!!

 

[theStarfish]

Poker gets more difficult as the number of player decreases. One has to play wide ranges and bluff more. Heads up is most difficult and it becomes more difficult in tournaments when a lot of money is at stake.

Yes, you are absolutely right. Heads Up or even 3- or 4-handed is completely different and requires practice. But it is not easy to get into these kind of situations, so every opportunity is helpful.

 

[Sivraj]

I think heads up is far easier to play than, say, 3-handed or 4-handed.

I was lucky enough to win the ACR freeroll last night, and it made me realize what I just stated... the pressure was FAR higher with 4 left, and then 3 left... and the decisions I had to make (which thankfully were correct decisions but it required much thought without a whole lot of time to do so) were far more difficult than the decisions I had to make when it got to heads up.

HU play is really not so bad if you understand you must play a far wider range of hands than you do when there are 4 or 3 players left... With 4 left, you must be extremely careful and selective, you are basically trying to out-last the other players and let them take all the risks so they get knocked out before you do. The hard part is that you must balance this careful attitude with the fact that if you are TOO careful, you will end up being a very short stack when it does get to heads-up play... but overall you want to take fewer risks with 4 players left, unless of course your opponents are playing very tight too, then you should probably adjust and place more pressure on the tighter players... but by far our overriding concern when shorthanded is "DON'T BUST". But when it gets to HU, you simply must have a good understanding of what a good "push-fold" range looks like (its a lot wider than your normal default range of playable hands is at any other stage of the tournament) and then apply that push-fold range to put maximum pressure on your opponent. Don't let them push YOU around, you need to be the one pushing them around instead... and I find that much easier to play than when we are 4-handed and in "Don't Bust Out" mode. Last night I was faced with a very difficult decision at 3-handed, and thankfully I was not only able to recognize that my correct play was to call an all-in shove but then I was lucky enough to catch my straight by the river and go on to win the tournament. It wasn't easy, heck no!! And yes I did need some luck to do it, but I was also able to benefit from past learning experiences. Every time you are in these spots, you hopefully will get better at recognizing the correct plays, and over time you will learn how to be a beast at shorthanded final tables and HU play. Best wishes and good luck at the tables!!

Very good post sometimes I wonder if jackpot SnG is easier than heads up cause with 3 handed you can kind of piggy back a player until that 3rd person is eliminated than the heads up begins and you open your range lol

 

[NDRWTRLGC]

yes. and it is where the real battle begins

 

[NWPatriot]

If we were playing a MTT and find that we were fortunate enough to be one of the final two left, then we can be assured that both players are probably competent and neither has a skill advantage. This means it will come down to the deck. The game will more than likely get solved when KK runs into AA or some other big hand vs. big hand. At this point it is out of our control.

If we are playing a HU format (rather than a MTT or SNG), then the skill edge may be a bit wider, so we will need a good HU strategy to succeed. For me, my strategy is fairly straightforward, and I feel like I am fairly competent here as my bb/100 is 3x higher than my full ring bb/100. Maybe some of you can bounce this off of your stats and let us know what a good HU bb/100 value might be.

Pre-flop, when OOP, I will simply call the BTN to get to a flop when I want to play the hand. When IP, I will almost always make a bet because I will have the positional advantage on the flop. Initially I will vary this bet size until I can deduce which bet sizes may get more folds. When I know this, I will likely use this bet size with my worse hands and the smaller bet sizes with my better hands, but obviously we need to mix it up. My pre-flop all-in requirements are quite high - medium/big Aces or pocket pairs. I will not go all-in pre-flop without some showdown value already in hand. If my opponent wants to shove to win a couple bb's, then let him.

Post-flop, I will maintain pressure when IP, and will play passively OOP. Since we are playing HU against almost any 2 cards, the board texture is less relevant than when we know we are up against a 20% range. Did we catch a piece or not, becomes hard to really know? We will find out quickly if our opponent caught a piece, when the betting/calling/folding starts.

Our opponent is still important and we need to pay close attention to their aggression level and their frequencies/ranges. But with only a single player to watch, this is very easy to do. While bluffing is still a thing HU, I believe that the game is now more value based rather than aggression based. We must win that last hand and we can only win it at a showdown, and we will not win it bluffing.

Good luck and God Bless.