It’s a part of their game that even the most accomplished players can struggle with, we take on a huge field, get to the biggest pay jump of the tournament and then get crushed one on one.
So we have come up with some easy tips to make your heads up game watertight…
Heads up against Maniacs
In general, if you are playing against someone heads up who is playing too loose, you are going to want to work in some well-timed re-steals and look to make moves with little equity, like leading turn cards after calling C-bets or simply check raising them with no hand as a bluff against what will be a nearly 100% C betting frequency. This will make you less exploited by overfolding. You will also want to just get to showdown often Vs these types of opponents.
Another way to counter these Aggro players is to just turn into a calling station, grab a piece of the board and hold on for a wild ride as these players are going to put you to the test.
On the other side of that coin is sometimes you will get to heads up play against a very tight opponent, who may have just had a few coolers go there way on the final table, but not be a very aggressive player…
Heads up against Nits
Against this type of player, we are going to look to be doing most of the bluffing and C-Bet a high percentage as our opponents will not hit the board often at all, so if they are not working in some timely check raises we are going to win the pots uncontested often and be able to shut down our bluffs when called.
Try to play bigger pots in position
We are going to want to do a lot of stabbing at boards when checked to and play in position a lot, we want to be doing this as a mixture of bluffs and for value, this way we will keep our opponents guessing, calling us with worse hands in certain situations and folding better hands out other times.
Play Small Ball Poker out of Position
Out of position, we should be looking to play small ball, meaning we will look to keep the pots small, even when we flop a decent holding, looking to get to showdown and allowing our opponents to bluff keeps in worse hands and keeps the pot small when we are beaten.
How to play short stacked Heads Up Poker?
Well, this has been almost solved to an unexploitable level by applying a nash game theory equilibrium. So, in theory, we can just use these charts to decide whether to push or fold, however, these charts work better when we are sub 10bbs for simple push fold decisions. We are not going to want to push all in with 20bbs heads up with AA, KK, QQ against our opponent, there is just too much EV to win if played other ways. So I would recommend knowing these charts for sub 10bb all in play, but to be honest I am not the type of player that wants to shove call off 18bb effective all-ins with JTs, in too many situations we are going to be an underdog.
Stay Balanced
The key to playing poker effectively is to be balanced, it’s important we do this even when we get really short stacked, we are going to want to find a blend of a limping with strong hands as well as limping with our weaker holdings, this way we will be unexploitable as sometimes we are trapping to call a shove and other times we are looking to seek value from the bottom of our range for the minimum investment on the button.
Put in a Grind
There is nothing better for your game than experience, so start playing! There are many game types out there that will help you improve on your heads up game, I would recommend playing some short-handed games such as Pokerstars Spin & Go’s or Heads Up sit & go’s… these will give you a decent idea of the principles needed to beat your opponents when it comes to your deep runs in tournaments.
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