Heads up is where the money is.

Playing poker means studying the best. After all it's a money making opportunity. Most people pay for golf lessons. All you have to do is read and play..

Written by Mike Bernstein at pokertips.org

Heads Up Play

One of the most exciting parts of playing poker is when you get to play someone heads-up. For any players who are new and don´t know what that means, it is when two players play one on one. When you play heads up with someone the strategy of your game completely changes. Many beginners struggle with this because they don´t know how to adjust their style of play accordingly. So to give you a little help with that, I wrote this. Like most of my other articles on strategy and techniques, the information and tactics I describe in this section are what I and many others feel are the best. Yet these tactics might not always be the wining ones and it is that part of poker that makes it so interesting to play. I will however, try to make it as clear as possible on how to play heads up and on what techniques to use.


What to do and Why

In a normal, multi-player game, the best strategy to use is to put the most money in when you have a hand and the least when you don´t have one. When you are in a heads up battle you must widen your spectrum of typically playable hands. The main reason why you play more hands in a one on one game is because there is only one other hand you are playing against and so your initial odds of winning, before the cards are dealt, is 50%. This is a very high percent compared to something like a 25% in a four person game, or worse, 10% in a 10 person game. Since your percent of winning is so much higher, you want to play more hands and change your betting strategies.

Some Guidelines

Like I mentioned above, in a normal game you want to get the most money in when you have a hand and the least when you don´t. This general guideline helps you to know that you should probably only raise when you have some very good hands, unless you prefer to play more bluffs.

However, this strategy does not work as well when you are playing an opponent heads up, especially when there are blinds. This is true because in every hand you have some money in the pot from blinds, and if you just wait for a great hand you will continually lose to your opponent who will most likely raise before the flop with a less powerful hand. When playing heads up you should aim to raise much more with mediocre hands then you would in a multi-player game. When I play heads up this is the table of cards that I usually play or raise with.

Hands I raise with:
* Suited connectors
* Two face cards, suited or not
* Anything with an Ace
* A King and anything higher then 9
* Suited cards higher then 7
* Any Pocket Pair

Hands I call With if it hasn't been raised:

* Suited low cards not connected

* Low connectors

* Q and any card (except face cards)

* J and any card (except face cards)

* 10 and any card (except face cards)

In Conclusion
Playing heads up is one of the most essential tournament poker skills, and probably also the most ignored. It can be fun, intimidating, and challenging all at once, and is one of the finer points of playing poker. With some practice and the advice provided here you should be on your way to scoring that first place pot, and not always settling with second best.

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