Heads Poker
Watch more #poker: Twitch: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwsWa65jkbHfv. Poker 3 Heads Up Hold’em is a unique take on a popular poker game, one that allows you to go into four different stages to accumulate big cash. The graphics are not the best we’ve seen, but the 3D animations allow you to think you are in a real life setting. Free to Play Table Games 21 Burn Blackjack.
Heads Up Poker
Poker at it’s purest, heads up poker is one on one duelling. It can be played in cash game or tournament format. This article will detail the reasons why playing one on one is awesome.
- Poker news site covering online poker, new jersey online poker, california online poker, nevada online poker, pokerstars, full tilt, WSOP, Borgata, 888 and more. Heads Up Poker Podcast: 244 - Steve and Daniel.
- After plenty of sniping between the duo, it appears that there will be a “heads up for rollz” battle between two of poker’s mostengagingpersonalities. 15-time World Series of Poker bracelet.
Beginner Texas Holdem Question
Who is Small Blind in Heads Up Poker?
The dealer button is always the small blind. They will act first before the flop and last afterwards.
Tournament End Game
You want to win a MTT? Guess what, you will have to play heads up to do so. The difference between 1st and 2nd in any tournament is always substantial. The difference is often tens or hundred times the initial buy in. The most common mistake a runner up will make is not adjusting, letting the winner bully them into submission then taking a stand with too short a stack and losing.
Heads up trains you for the end game of a tournament and increases your chances of winning them when you get to the final two.
Gain Experience and Technical Skills
Heads up poker will afford you the chance to play many different scenarios both in and out of position. You will be playing hands and situations you are not accustomed to in regular tournaments or cash games with 6 or more people.
How often are you playing K-4 suited to a raise and calling down with 2nd bottom pair? The experience you gain from playing heads up is invaluable and improve your technical skills and hand reading ability.
Heads Up Poker Rewards the Aggressor
If you are a strong aggressive player, heads up poker is perfect. The truth is, heads up poker is often a battle of relentless aggression. The more aggressive players tend to win, provided it’s calculated and measured of course. This is rarely the case in full ring poker where you run into monsters all too often. However, heads up, there are so many nothing pots where an aggressive player can just pick them up consistently. Not only is this fun, it is great for your hourly rate and ROI.
Less Variance Heads Up
It stands to reason with less opponents and deeper stacks, chance or luck is less of an element. Of course, luck and variance exist but not to the same extent. If you are risk averse but a competent heads up player, heads up cash games may be ideal for you.
Table Selection
Never has table selection been more important when you’re facing just one person. You can be heavily rewarded for good table selection playing heads up cash games. There are many experts about but also lots of awful heads up players. By taking your time and carefully selecting the games you play, you can make a lot of money playing heads up.
Conclusion
Heads up poker can be rewarding for you if you enjoy playing post flop poker, gaining experience and are a shrewd game selector. If you are interested in learning more about heads up or want coaching in it, feel free to email us at info@texasholdemquestions.com for information.
Photo by Richard Lee
Heads up poker is the purest form of the game and is one of the most profitable game types for skilled players.
Heads up poker format means that you will have to play the blind every hand and hence will have to play LOTS of hands - in some cases 100% of the hands you are dealt.
It's a high-pressure environment, that's for sure.
For a proficient player, this gives the opportunity to impost their skill set onto weaker opponents every single hand and can mean higher win-rates when compared to 6-max and full-ring games.
The key skill in heads up poker is the ability to adjust to your opponent and exploit them - that is what we will be covering in this article as we try to adjust to another professional player and target his leaks and weaknesses.
Adjusting Your Heads Up Strategy
A winning player's heads up poker strategy consists of a malleable game plan ready to go from the onset. Solid ranges they’ve developed that they look to adjust as new information is learned about their opponent.
Playing against a past challenger allows you pick-up where you left off in your previous encounter. Looking for ways to get an edge. Exactly what I was doing in a recent heads-up poker SNG tournament battle where I was pitted against a coach from Japanese poker site, www.pokertrainingjp.com.
I had won 2-1 in the previous bout of HU SNG’s, but Akinori issued a new challenge. He was keen for revenge since the games would be recorded for content on the Japanese poker training site.
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The key to defeating Akinori again was all in the adjustments. His style was ‘TAGish’ which leaves you particularly vulnerable in short-handed and heads-up games.
My plan was an aggressive blitz. Constant aggression allowing me to win the majority of the pots. Chipping away at him until eventually, I’d finish off his dwindling stack.
This is also a very common scenario when heads-up in an MTT.
MTT poker players often lack a heads up poker skill set and are easily exploited since they aren’t used to playing the wide ranges necessary to be competitive heads-up.
Check out the video of the match and then we will discuss the strategy involved:
Heads Up Poker Strategy: Preflop Starting Ranges
I planned to open around 5% wider than I would against a tough opponent. In hindsight, I think opening 100% of hands would have been a reasonable strategy. This would allow me to exploit his tendencies to over-fold preflop, and 3bet at a low frequency. A style which was confirmed in the replay as he made some questionable folds.
Conversely, against his open raises, I didn’t plan on folding much at all.
Versus his 2.5x open raise I was calling more than 5% wider than I would against a tougher player. The pot odds would be 2.3:1 to call. Around 30% ‘straight-up‘ equity required. When considering the all important equity realization, with some of the weakest calls in my range like 63o, I’d need to realize equity as follows;
Equity realization required = pot odds / equity = 0.3 / 0. 334 = 90%.
I was fairly confident I’d be in this vicinity given Akinori’s tendency to be a little passive post flop, especially on the later streets. This is common for a lot of ‘TAGish’ players when they get to heads-up.
They know a good strategy is to open a lot of hands preflop, but this translates to them being out of their comfort-zone on later streets when they’re frequently left with much more marginal holdings then they are used to. Typically resulting in a lot of turn and river checking.
This passivity on later streets would allow me to realize a reasonable share of my equity OOP. Again evident in the replay as some of my weaker out of position floats did get to the river where I was able to steal some nice pots (Q2, J9, etc).
Heads Up Game Poker
Defending The Blinds Heads Up: 3betting
Part of the HU strategy to defend frequently from the big blind included 3 betting a lot.
A typical strategy might include a mix of:
- weaker suited hands,
- premium hands,
- and a mix of suited connectors mostly for board coverage protection.
All at a frequency.
Equating to around a 15-20% sort of range spread. I planned on pushing this a bit further to 20%+ by including a mix of high-low holdings (as we saw with Q2s, J4o), and some weaker combinations at a low frequency. Aiming to profit from my opponent's over folding ways.
Key Strategies To Beating Heads Up Poker
Overall the adjustments pointed out are not huge. However, they help set the tone of the match, as well as lay the foundation for post-flop play. Increased opens, more defending from the big blind including a lot of 3 betting.
This style makes it really tough for a 'TAGish' type of opponent to get into a rhythm as it keeps them constantly under pressure. Their likely response is to attempt to steal less, which has the profitable result of allowing for more walks from the big blind.
This tough preflop play is then backed up postflop with frequent cbets and barrels, as well as a good mix of raises and floats. Which will be the topic of next article as we continue this heads-up series!
What About VS Loose Heads Up Opponents?
Each type of opponent presents different challenges to overcome. Loose opponents allow you to me more patient with your offense. Reducing your bluffs whilst increasing your value bets - Since your opponent will be doing more calling.
You can 3 bet wider for value if they aren't folding to reraises preflop. Proceed post-flop by cbetting less, but look for 'thinner' value. Especially on the later streets when you have more accurately identified your opponents range.
Floating out of position which works well against tighter opponents, should be used carefully. When calling a flop cbet with a marginal hand, along with some hope of improving to the best hand, the chance to steal the pot on a later street often makes this play profitable. However loose opponents often call the river with a wide range. So bluffing in a lot of spots can be a futile play. Stick to solid holdings and contest the pot more aggressively in position.
Positional advantage offers you the opportunity to take more free cards, value bet confidently, and fire small ball bluffs. Remembers a loose opponents range will often be wide, so timely bluffs should be an important part of your strategy. Attack when their range consists of numerous weak holdings, and the board heavily favors your range. Don't push the aggression but rather look for boards that develop favorably when firing multiple bullet bluffs. Moves like this can be quite risky against a loose opponent!
Heads Up Display Poker
Summary: Strategical adjustments made this match
Heads Up Poker
Having played against my opponent previously, I'd gained a good feel for the way Akinori was playing. Overall a little too tight, in, and out of position. This provided me with an opportunity to make some adjustments to gain an edge in the match.
Starting with preflop. Raising more on the button and defending more aggressively from the big blind. Setting the tempo of the match, I kept my opponent under pressure and was clearly winning the majority of the pots. By adjusting and gaining an edge in the game, I was again able to claim a 2-1 victory in this heads up poker match.
Make sure you check out the video below for some more heads up poker strategies:
Poker Heads Up Display
Get Access to Lesson 5.8 From the Road to Success Course which is a 45 minute video covering important heads up strategies.
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