Heads-up Poker

Being a good heads-up poker player is extremely important, for a whole set of reasons. First of all, heads-up play is the truest measure of poker skill you’ll ever encounter. In heads-up games, luck takes a back seat, and even though it’s still present, it hands the lead role over to skill. The better poker player will always dominate a weaker one in a heads-up confrontation. For that reason, the stakes are much higher in any heads-up game than at a full table: heads-up play is personal, you can no longer expect some other guy’s mistakes to protect you from an opponent, nor can you seek any advantage by standing back and letting the others battle it out. Heads-up play leaves you no way out. You either fend for yourself, or you let your opponent roughshod all over you.

Another reason to brush up on your heads-up skills is that you won’t ever be able to win a tournament without beating the heads-up session at the end of it. Finishing in the money is sure sweet by itself, but a win is worth a whole bunch of money finishes, not just because of the bragging rights that come with it, but also because of the prize-money: winning is much more lucrative than finishing ITM.
In any online poker room, you’ll find a whole bunch of heads-up games on offer at any time of the day or night. There are heads-up cash games, heads-up tournaments, and on top of those, any STT or MTT can only be won through skilled heads-up play too.

The very first thing you need to know about heads-up games, something that you’d do better to integrate into your overall strategy, is to avoid heads-up cash games. These games might look appealing at first glance, but the catch is that you’ll be paying tons more rake on them than on any tournament or even a full-table cash games. There are far more hands played per hour in cash game that under any other circumstances, and since you pay rake on every hand (you’ll be an active rake generator on every hand too, because you’ll be either in the BB or the SB, so you’ll contribute to the pot, like it or not), you’ll pay much more rake per hour too. It’s an excellent way to run a nice bankroll ashore in no time. A rakeback deal will always alleviate your-rake related grievances, and under special circumstances (if your goal is to generate as much rake as possible in the shortest amount of time) you should indeed play heads-up cash. Prop players usually get 100% or even more rake back, so it pays for them to generate as much rake as they can through heads-up play (provided there are no prop restrictions on these games). Rake races also require you to earn as many FPPs per hour as you possibly can. Under any other circumstances though – again – stay clear of heads-up cash games.

Heads-up tournaments are a different matter. They are actually pretty good bankroll builders for skilled people who are running low on funds. One can double up his/her investment by beating out one guy only, and he/she will not pay rake on every hand either. The tourney fee paid out in the beginning takes care of the rake for good. Remember, in this situation, you’re always taking a gamble whenever you register for a heads-up tournament: you gamble on whether or not your opponent is a weaker player than you. If you know that the chances of you being better than any randomly chosen person from a given poker room are meager, stay away from heads-up STTs too.
Strategy-wise, there are two things you need to focus on: your starting hand requirements, and your level of aggression.

Starting hands always plummet in value when it comes to heads-up play. Chasing flushes or straights will no longer pay here. Often, pots are taken down on as little as a high-card, therefore it is much more important for you to have a high-card in your pocket hand than having suited cards or connectors.
Keeping with the idea: the worst possible pocket hand is not 7,2o in heads-up poker, but rather 3,2o.
Aggression is important because you just cannot afford to be a rock in a heads-up game. Be careful though: there’s but a fine line between aggression and recklessness.

Published Articles: http://www.gamblingstrategyguide.com/

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