Heads Up Poker Strategy

USAPlayers.com Online Poker Poker Strategy Heads Up Poker Strategy

Playing heads up can be challenging for any player especially if they haven't developed good Heads Up Poker Strategy. Many of those players have trouble adapting to playing only one opponent and struggle when first learning to play head ups up. We are going to discuss heads up strategy ideas that will hopefully will beginning poker players more comfortable when playing only one opponent. One of the biggest things that inexperienced players struggle with is the concept of hand values when playing only one opponent. For example if you have an A10 and the USA Poker table is full with 9 players, that hand could very well be no good if there are many players left to act behind you. This is because with so many opponents it is likely that someone may devalue that particular pocket.

When playing heads up you only have one player who you have to worry about. Since this is the case, you will need to loosen up your starting hand requirements drastically. There is a good chance that if you have a pair when playing heads up, then you may very well have the best hand, even with a bottom pair. What you want to do when playing heads up is to play with more relaxed hand requirements than you would when playing multiple opponents. The goal is to play rather loose and aggressive but be able to get away from hands when you are beat. Depending on your opponent, you should raise with any pair, all aces, any two face cards, and most suited connectors. It is an important thing for players who do not have much heads up experience to be comfortable playing more hands than usual and playing them aggressively as part of good Heads Up Poker Strategies.

Another important thing to understand about heads up play is trying to figure out how your opponent is playing. This requires you to observe them as you begin to play one another and get a feel for how aggressively they are playing. The sooner you can identify whether they are a tight conservative player, or maybe the opposite (a loose, aggressive player) then the better chance you have at winning your heads up match. If you feel the player is playing too conservative and is not playing enough hands, use this to your advantage and loosen up and start to try to bully them a bit. Play more hands than normal and play for a small raise before the flop and you will see your tight opponent fold most of their hands to you. This is a great way to pick up easy chips if they are playing a very tight game. Other times you may be facing the opposite type of opponent who is playing very aggressively on every hand. You want to approach this one pretty much the opposite and tighten up your play and not play too many hands. Do not limp the button with weak hands, as you will usually get raised by the aggressive player. Do not go into a shell and tighten up completely, but try to wait for good spots to extract a large amount of chips from your opponent. A good Heads Up Poker Strategy is to try to trap the aggressive player and let them bluff off a ton of chips to you. Wait to hit a good hand and let them do the betting for you, as many times they will throw all of their chips into the pot trying to bluff you out. Gladly make the call and you will have successfully trapped the overaggressive player. You give them a little bit of rope and they may fall for it completely as you win a huge pot. One thing to be careful of is letting the aggressive player get the best of you as they try to run you over. Do not be afraid to play back at them and re-raise them or go all in if you feel the time is right. By reacting to how your opponent is playing and using the appropriate strategy you will find it much easier when playing heads up.

If you can successfully implement these ideas into your game you will find it much easier when playing heads up poker. As you become more comfortable as a player and get more practice on Strategies for Playing Heads Up Poker, you will see that these two concepts will hold true. Open up your range of hands that you would normally play against a full table of players. Since you have only one opponent you should be playing more hands than normal and usually be raising with them. The biggest key to being successful when playing heads up is to find out how your opponent is playing and play the opposite of them. If they are tight then pick up your aggression and routinely raise them before the flop. If they are overly aggressive then slow down a bit and wait for your chance to trap them. Following these tips will allow players to feel more confident in their heads up game and they will have much more success when playing.