Heads Up

Anyone willing to share Heads up Strategy ?

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Word! Ripptyde has some very good points here. I think it's important to shift your betting pattern as well if it's a long game. Not necessarily checking monsters but shifting gears so often the other player doesn't know what he's up against. Ever. He won't know if you have deuces or aces, high card ace or a flush. Cause you have been playing in a way that makes you impossible to read. The player that reads the other one and knows the value of his own hand best will win eventually. I think the best way to learn it is to play a lot heads up. No reading in the world will make you a winning heads up player. At expekt (prima network) they have one vs one tables but I think it's even better to play heads up sitn' go's since it will probably be cheaper in the short run. I think they have them on Poker Stars, right?

Raise any A and any cards that total 20-21 in blackjack ie. 2 face cards as well as any pocket pair.

Draws are almost worthless heads up.

You will almost never have a showdown unless you are both all in or both check all the way down.

Do not let your opponent steal your blinds and at the same time don't get trapped. So if you have any strength in your hand, reraise. If you have a monster, smooth call. Mix it up as mentioned above. It is almost never correct to just call heads up. Sometimes fold to the raise if you really have nothing. You will gain some respect from opponent and he will respect you more the next time you play back at him.

Bet the flop fairly strong if you hit anything, including bottom pair.

Heads up revolves around protecting your blinds and stealing theirs while avoiding traps. In that regard, heads up also involves a lot of luck.

Do not become an all in maniac. Only play your monsters all in or if you are against an all in maniac, all you can do is lay in wait for a great hand to finish him off. In heads up a monster can be any poket pair 9 or better and AK.

This strategy applies to any really short handed game with 4 or less players. That's all the advice I can think of at the moment.

Oh yeah, there are also the poker intangibles. How big is your stack compared to everyone elses. How wild/tight is your opponent. Luck.

If you have a big chip lead you need to balance you aggression w/ protecting your lead. The blinds get big and you can go from prince to pauper in as little as one hand in no limit heads up.

Last weekend i was heads up with a very aggressive player. Which worked to my advantage. He would raise everything and i would call and then i would let him bluff me on the flop or turn. UNTILL! we had a 16 person tournament at my house $25 buy-in an by the time it got heads up i had good lead on him chip wise. I knew he loved to bluff so I let him steal blinds and bully me around while i waited for the right moment. Then it came. I was in the Big Blind was dealt As Qs he raised me 5x the BB. and i called. FLOP came down Qc 10h Qd. I checked and he bet 500 chips we each had around 8000 so i called. The turn showed a 7d. again i checked. He fired 1000 chips out at me i thought and thought and then called the whole time knowing he was going down. The River was a 2d i checked and he pushed his remaining chips in the pile and said you didnt catch your straight so fold. I said yep your right i only have TRIPS. He mucked his cards and I won. VERY VERY gratifiying. TRAP TRAP TRAP them.

I am still getting used to heads up but i play everyday in school, we play challanges for 5 dollars at a time no limit heads up, and though this strategy seems to work well, im not really sure what to do when im the one short stacked, usually they are more aggresive and i dont know how to handle it, is there any good way, or am i just supposed to call the all ins when i have an okay hand, or wait for a good hand or what?

Never play short stacked if you can avoid it heads up. The disadvantage is huge. If permitted, buy in again. Aggression is necessary when playing heads up. The best players are very aggressive and you won't get a penny of them when you have the best hand. If the other player is overly aggressive you have to take advantage of it by trying to trap him. You probably can't do it if he's a better player though. I play pretty much the same if I'm short stacked heads up as if I'm big stacked. You can't wait for the nuts. Just be confident in that you will have the best hand in 50% of the cases statistically. That means if you can steal the pot when he's got the best hand a couple of times and allways bet out (and get called) when you have the best hand you will make a profit, UNLESS you get trapped when he's got the best hand. NL heads up is a little tricky though especially when you both have equally big stacks. A mediocre but gutsy player can steal a lot from a solid player by going all-in pre-flop consistently making every hand a coinflip. This is the major fault in NL tournaments as well I think. I have played a lot short handed and heads up lately because I think it's a difficult part to learn. I have been most successful when I have shown lot's of aggression, however it depends a lot on the resistance. But a lot of solid players seems to play too restrictive heads up. I can get my ass busted in a 6-handed or 10-handed game by the same players I run over pretty quick once we get heads up. Now I am not a very good or experienced player so it must be them who are playing bad. A lot of people play too tight heads up. Play aggressive but fold when you think you are beat. If you win more than 50% of the hands you should make a profit OR you are doing anything wrong i.e not letting go of the worst hand or beeing trapped too often. I really don't think there is a recipe for succeeding heads up. Just play, play, play! And avoid beeing the short stack! Just my 50 cents or what ever... don't get me wrong here I don't claim to be a good (or even decent) HU-player. I just say what I think is right and following my advices may lead to great losses :D How ever it has worked for me.

P.S I think one of Sklansky's books has a chapter on heads up play. I can't recall which one though. Theory of poker or HEFAP I think...one of them.