Heads up Strategy

jimbling

how do people play heads up..... i just seem to be absolutely terrible at it.... both live and online. Once it gets down to the last two, it just seems to be pot luck.....

In my home game which we play at least once... possible twice a week, I finish 2nd more often than not.... and I believe i am the best player at the table....

and chip counts etc dont seem to matter either..... i just dont know what to do....

so what is a good strategy to take.... and if no one wants to go into detail... if you know a good source for help on this it would be great.

Imposter

There's some good articles on UB's site about heads-up play. Also have a look at shipitpoker.blogspot.com and go right back to the first articles written.

biteme

I think everyone plays headsup a little different. Aggression can pay off if you can control the game, this usually means you have to play a little looser. Others play fairly tight and wait and try to trap their opponent to win large pots instead of taking down small pots regularly. You just have to learn from practice and see what suits your style of play and what you are most comfortable with. It's much like many aspects of poker

jimbling

biteme wrote:

You just have to learn from practice and see what suits your style of play and what you are most comfortable with. It's much like many aspects of poker

well practice is useless (or not as usefull) to you unless you know what and why you do things. These are things that I picked up from reading books and posts etc for the rest of the game, but there seems to be very little literature for heads up......

you also dont get as much practice in heads up as in the rest of the game... unless you specifically go playing heads up games online or something.... which could be a costly way to learn it.

i am having a read of the UB stuff at the mo....

careca

I don't have a lot of hu experience either but the one thing I do notice is that players try to win them as fast as possible. Just because you get hu doesn't mean the game has to finish within 5 hands. I would normally try and get a chip lead early on because then you can dictate the pace of the game. Play hands that bit looser. Suited connectors again become good and any pair is playable.

Donnacha O'Dea against Devilfish in the Ladbroke Million was a masterclass of hu play (albeit with a big stack).

pokertroll

Dan Harrington's second book volume 2 has a good section on headsup strategy

Both of his books are a must read.

jimbling

pokertroll wrote:

Dan Harrington's second book volume 2 has a good section on headsup strategy

Both of his books are a must read.

lol... thats hilarious.... I swear, I just ordered that book from amazon about 15 minutes ago... I finished his first one about a week ago, and am currently reading super system 2. Only realised that the second book was out today...

kinaldo

i think it was doyle brunson who said if it's good enough to call it's good enough to raise. any hand is playable when heads up and any pocket pair should be played like aces preflop.

Hectorjelly

kinaldo wrote:

any pocket pair should be played like aces preflop.

Hands that should be played like aces preflop:

AA

JuliusFranco

Hectorjelly wrote:

Hands that should be played like aces preflop:

AA

another jem


anyway, the button is probably the most important part of heads up play, well, maybe the cards too i suppose
also, you need to adjust your play depending on your opponent - does he want to win the game in 5 hands or is he waiting to trap you? watch out for any gear changing too

Imposter

Hectorjelly wrote:

Hands that should be played like aces preflop:

AA

lmfao

Any chance of you mosying on over to the "how much do you make" thread and going mad with some maths for us?

Lafortezza

careca wrote:

Suited connectors again become good and any pair is playable.

I'd disagree about the suited connectors, drawing hands go down in value as you get shorthanded/headsup, pairs and Ax go up in value. A hand like AT is a monster headsup depending on the opposition.