Heads Up Stragety

Alright this happens to me everytime and i need some help. Ill be in a tournament and im a guy who plays tight and i always find a way to make it to the final table then it'll be heads up. Well ill have a big chip stack compared to the person sitting across from me. Then theres always a way that I piss away my chip stack and get second.

Now, i know that going heads up you cant play tight and i don't. But i get this feeling like hey i got this chip lead let's scare him out of the pot. No instead the kid doubles up. Now im just asking is their a stragety that anyones uses thats effective, if so please comment. Thanks.

Folding the SB is -EV. Other than that, the answer to all your questions are "it depends". I hear Harrington On Hold 'Em Volume II has a good section on heads up play.

The It Depends is a big one.

Stack sizes, blinds, opponent... etc etc.

If you have say a 2:1 chip lead on someone, and let's say stack sizes are 10,000 - 5,000 w/ blinds at 400/800 you should be extremely aggressive. However, with the same stack sizes and blinds at 50/100 there is a lot more room for play.

Also if your opponent plays the cards too much heads up in a short-stacked battle, put on the accelerator.

Pretty much what i do is divide the small blind and big blind into the # of players entered times starting chips. If its over 7 or 8% then i just start pushing, folding costs too much, calling usually gets an all in raise anyways

Heads up.. start raising any A or K, any suited or connected cards. Top pair is a super hand in HU.. if the blinds are high compared to both your stacks, you can play TP for stacks. If the blinds are low compared to both your stacks, then you need a better hand than TP to get your stack in the middle. HU is also very read dependant.

Basically.. you have to figure out how your opponent is playing. Is he nutcamping preflop? Postflop? Does he make big bluffs postflop? Does he play back at your aggression or does it always mean he has something? How does he play his draws? How does he play his monsters - slowplay or bet them hard? Can you get him disoriented by playing aggressively or does he keep his own? Etc

Also one of my favourite plays is to set up your player for an ass-whooping. If the blinds are relatively low to your stack, flat call and fold as soon as you get raised, no hesitation (do this with weak hands) after you do this 5 or 6 times your opponent will think hey, this guys always folding after i raise him. Fastforward to when the blinds get bigger. When you pick up a monster flat call, and over half the time youll get a big reraise fired at you.

heads up is very read dependent.

in general, don't limp very much, you can sometimes though. fold trash. low cards are much worse than even like k6 or something, because if 56 hits a 5 you really can't be confident, but if k6 hits a king you can be pretty confident, and its unlikely you'll get your straight or flush with the 56, you can't wait around for hands that big most of the time.

play most all of your hands from the button (sb), be a lot more inclined to fold from the BB.

pay attention to what your opp thinks of you. If you've been aggressive and he's been folding, but suddenly he goes nuclear aggro, you can tighten up a bit for a while. and etc.

and lastly, don't be afraid to raise if the blinds are big. if the blinds are huge, raise hands that can handle a push at least sometimes. ax, kx, qx, don't be raising 87s.

Use the first few hands to sound out the oppo - does he raise all the time, does he fold the SB, does he push over aggression etc. Don't take too many risks until you have an idea of his tactics. See how he reacts to you, as well - the last HU match I had I was the short stack but played aggressively while he played passively. Then, he hit a few good hands, and suddnely he realised that if HE played aggressively he was winning loads more pots.

(and then he goes and calls my AK push with A3o and makes a flush. But that's poker.)

Pretty much follow everyones advice here. For me, the biggest factor in heads up is aggression. Make sure YOU are the aggressor. Never limp, always raise. More often than not you will steal the blinds. If he shows strength, fold it up. Just wait for a strong hand yourself and call his all in. The more aggression you show, the more willing he will be to go all in with a less than premium hand.

I really dont like heads up strategy posts because there really isnt a strategy, it is all dependent on your opponent and you need to learn to adjust to that. Typically the common factor in most situations is to be aggressive, but that isnt always the case. And contrary to popular belief, you can fold in the SB, should you do it much? Usually, no, but it does have its merits especially if you are playing against a good player who is aggressive. My best advice to you is play a bunch of heads up SNGs to get a feel for the game and see what works against who and what doesnt work. Heads up is different than most forms in poker in that there often arent simple answers to questions about specific hands or general situations.