Consider the following frustrating scenario: You’ve spent hours at an online poker tournament, eliminated countless players, built up your stack, and advanced all the way to the final table. Many hands later, you’re still on top of your game. Now it’s down to just you and one more contender, and that’s when things start to go wrong. After an evening of flawless poker, all of a sudden you feel like some kind of amateur. You just can’t seem to get a grip on your game, and you sit there watching your hard earned chips as they migrate into the hands of your enemy. Sounds familiar? If you answered yes, then you’re in need of some basic Heads-Up Hold’em training.

Heads-Up is a term used to describe the game of poker when played by two opponents only. It is the ultimate poker duel. Heads-Up play is becoming increasingly popular, with many online poker sites offering dedicated Heads-Up tables and sit’n’go tourneys. In fact, this poker variant has become so popular in recent years that it has earned its own annual championships – the World Heads-Up Poker Championship (WHPC), held in Europe, and the U.S. National Heads-Up Poker Championship (NHPC). During these championships, the best poker players in the world compete against each other in one-on-one no limit texas hold'em matches, and the elimination format generates endless drama, and makes for great TV.

Many players find themselves off balance when facing a single opponent. This is simply because a heads-up situation requires a completely different strategy than that used at a full table. Mastering this strategy will improve your all-around poker game, because with Heads-Up, you must confront your faults. There is nowhere to hide! The nature of the game forces you to take an active role and step up your play. You can’t sit around waiting for super-strong starting hands. You can't rely on statistics and pot odds. To win, you must read your opponent correctly and you must be the aggressor. Just like any other duel, it’s ‘do or die’. To make sure you don’t end up on the wrong side of that phrase, we at pokermaster.org are proud to present you with the following Heads-Up texas hold'em tips and strategies.

Starting Hands

The most common mistake in Heads-Up play, and the one that is most easily fixed, is waiting for strong starting hands. You must remember that starting hands requirements are significantly lower and you must play hands you wouldn’t dream of playing at a full ring or even a short hand game. Making this adjustment is relatively simple.

The average hand in a one-on-one situation is J7o (Jack Seven offsuit). This means that if you are dealt a J7o, you have a 50-50 chance of winning against an unknown hand. Anything above that hand is better than average, so you are almost forced to play hands like Q7o, even against a small raise, since it will win 51.77 percent over a random hand (more often than not).

For this reason, Heads-Up has a completely different standard for ‘monster hands’. If you’re looking down at an Ace, any pair, or any suited faces, you have a monster, and you can comfortably raise. Small suited cards and small connectors, on the other hand, do not hold well in a Heads-Up situation. In full ring games, these cards can win big pots if they lead to a flush or a straight by the river. But in Heads-Up, a good opponent will raise and make sure you don’t have the pot odds to see the river in these situations, so if you don’t hit your flop you should probably fold.

Be aggressive

With just two players, most chances are the flop doesn’t hit either player. This means that the one to act first will win the pot. Exactly how much and when to bluff no one can say for sure, but bearing that fact in mind, don’t be afraid to sniff out your opponents cards by risking some chips. Most chances are – he doesn’t have a great hand either, so if he is inexperienced, he will fold to your raises more times than not. How exactly does this aggressiveness come to play? That depends on your position.

Position is the key

The Heads-Up game is intense, and most of that intensity is due to the high blinds. As the blinds soar higher, each round is more painful to loose, so you must act fast. This is where even the most calculated poker players must bluff, and bluff a lot, just to stay alive. The key is your position. The button posts the small blind, therefore acting first before the flop, but last after it. This is the “attack” position, because from here you can take the lead in a pot, and then apply more pressure after the flop. The main advantage is that you have three opportunities to raise when you play from the button, so you can get your opponent to risk most of his pot from here. This is where you must be aggressive with a monster hand, and sometimes bluff a monster hand with aggressiveness (unless you are met with strong resistance).

If you are playing off the button, you have not only posted the big blind, therefore risking more money, but you also have to respond to your opponents actions. For this reason you should play defensive poker from this position and try to sniff out your opponent’s bluffs.

Small blind strategy

Some strategies call for the small blind to simply raise with any hand, explaining that if the big blind folds half of the time, the small blind will show a profit - either by stealing the blind, or by wining when the hand is called. Showing a consistent profit means that you will eventually win, even if it is a slow process.

If you find yourself facing an opponent that is applying this strategy against you, you must counter it by calling more than him and often raising his call from the big blind position. You must let him know that his strategy may cost him more than just the blind.

Learn your opponent

Heads-Up is a great way to acquire many important poker skills. Aggressiveness and bluffing are a must in this situation, but you can’t play aggressively or bluff without reading your opponent correctly. More than anything else, Heads-Up forces you to get inside your opponent’s head. You must study his or her every move, and act upon it. Heads-Up will help you develop all these crucial poker skills, and improve your game all around.

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