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How to Play Heads-Up Poker |
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When it comes to winning at heads-up poker, the best and simplest advice that should be followed is an old poker axiom: play your opponent, rather than the cards you are dealt. Great advice, but certainly easier said than accomplished. However, if you want to win at poker, especially in heads-up situations, it helps if you follow this advice.
The reason for this is simple: the novice poker player’s greatest liability is often his heads-up play. Whether he folds under the pressure or fails to adapt to heads-up poker, the novice will almost always fall to the more experienced heads-up player, simply because the novice either doesn’t understand the odds or he isn’t reading his opponent well enough to win.
Let’s use an example to illustrate this problem. After playing in a no-limit, single-table tournament, you and one other player remain to compete for first place. You have the chip lead, with twice the number of chips as your opponent, who has played fairly tight up until this stage. Before reaching the final two, you have played well, only playing hands you felt you had a good chance to win with. However, now that heads-up has started, your chip lead is starting to dwindle. Your opponent is playing very aggressively, raising the majority of hands dealt, and betting strongly before most flops are shown.
Could it be that your opponent is now getting great hands almost every single time? The answer is: probably not. What’s happening here is that your opponent has adapted his game to heads-up play – he’s playing a strong, aggressive game against an opponent he knows is reluctant to call his big raises. As a result, he is eating into your chip stack, and he will eventually take the chip lead, and even the entire tournament, if you are unable to augment your playing style as well.
So what can be done here, you ask? The simplest advice I can give to novice heads-up players is this: play more hands, and play them aggressively. Now that you only have one opponent remaining, your odds of winning just got better. And so have the odds of winning with marginal hands that would normally be folded in non-heads-up circumstances.
If you are dealt K-5, for example, your odds of winning stand at around 59% if your opponent has a hand like Q-8, so don’t be afraid to raise with a hand like K-5. Given the same hand, K-5, and an opposing hand like Q-J suited, you still have about a 52% chance to win. In fact, if you have any face card at all, and especially an ace, chances are you have your opponent beat, at least before the flop comes. So don’t be afraid to call your opponent’s pre-flop raises if you have these cards. The same thing goes with pocket pairs. If you are dealt a pocket pair in a heads-up situation, know that the odds dictate that you have the best hand – so play accordingly.
The hardest part about playing heads-up against a more experienced opponent is overcoming your fears. Don’t be afraid to play moderate hands in a heads-up situation. And certainly don’t be afraid to go all-in with any premium starting hands – because chances are, you’ve already got the best hand. Know your odds, (tools for calculating pot odds and poker odds are available online) for once you understand them, the intimidation factor that arises with heads-up poker will be lessened. |
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