Going head-to-head in Texas Hold’em is not the same as playing against multiple opponents. One of the most challenging forms of poker in the world is, without a doubt, heads-up No-Limit Texas Hold’em. Besides a little luck, it demands players to have a set of skills that are different from those seen when playing a table full of opponents. Aggression is Critical in Heads-Up Poker! Aggression is an important part of any form of poker but with heads-up it's critical. You're in the blinds every hand. If you buy-in for $200 for a $1/$2 heads-up match and fold every hand, you will lose half your stack in just 66 hands. A good heads-up poker player will assess the opponents mindset. Some poker players prefer to shove on any cards while others raise the blinds no matter the hole card combination. Conservative players elect to fold small blinds and wait for an ace or face card before playing. Heads Up Poker Strategy Heads up poker is one of the most fun ways, in my opinion, to play some popular variations of the game, but playing heads up is also the most difficult way to play Texas Holdem. Going from a full ring table to only a two man table is much more intense.

1. Heads Up Poker Free Online
2. Heads Up Online Poker Strategy Against

Heads Up Sit n Go Strategy:

Heads up Sit n Goes can be the most profitable games for poker players. Indeed, their popularity in online poker is steadily increasing due to the profitability against weaker poker players who don’t actually know correct heads up sit n go strategy. And although many cash game players will be avoidant of the heads up sit n goes because of their aggressive and risky nature; the truth is a good poker player can make far more money playing heads up sit n goes then cash games or regular six handed sit n goes. Think about it, against a worse opponent we can expect to win 7/10 times giving room for variance. This will give an average return on investment (ROI) in heads up of 20%. Even if you only win 6/10 games, you’ll still be getting around 10% ROI in heads up matches. Considering you can quite easily multi-table heads up games too, there is an awful amount f money to be made in learning heads up sit n go strategy.

Heads Up Sit n Go Strategy

The basics of heads up games are that they are much more aggressive then shorthanded sit n goes or regular cash games. This requires you to play a much broader range of starting hands and to bluff the pot a hell of a lot more. The maths of heads up are that your opponent will only hit the flop with a pair around 40% of the time; which means bluffing the flop will give you positive value in the long run if your opponent folds every time he misses.

Raise on the Button

Always raise on the button (3-4xBB) as more often than not your opponent will be forced to fold. This includes raising with hands like J9 or 34 suited. The position you get on the flop, turn and river is what gives this opening bet so much implied value. If your opponent misses the flop then you’ll usually be able to take it down using position.

Big Stack Strategy

Being in big stack is always the best position in heads up. Your aim and heads up strategy now should be to raise the blinds all the time in order to squeeze your opponent out of the pot. His small stack size relative to the blinds will put him under tremendous pressure, and ultimately his decision with you bluffing the pots continuously will include only going all in or folding. He won’t be able to afford missing flops he’s called your straddled blinds for in the heads up sit n go. Also make sure you don’t give away chips too cheaply however. If you’re on a draw and want to see your opponent off, make sure you have a decent number of outs and pot value before you look solely at the implied odds of knocking out your opponent with one lucky card.

Small Stack Strategy in Sit n Go heads up

Your short stack strategy in heads up must be to go all in preflop with your top hands. Calling to see the flop isn’t an option really because you won’t be able to deal with the variance in the game – especially in the later stages of the game when the blinds rise.

With less than 10xBB, you need to go all in with your top 75% of hands. Between 10-30xbb stack, you should go all in with your top 75% hands.

Remember that even if you’re 80% favorite when you get called all in; if you require 3 all ins to double up you’ll only make it 50% of the time – hence why the chances of winning a heads up sit n go from small stack position are so small.

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Last week, we discussed three-handed strategy for a single-table sit & go. This week, we will tackle heads-up play.

It's important to be able to play the endgame effectively in SNGs. When playing poker online in a standard single-table sit & go, for example, the payouts typically have 50 percent of the prize pool go to the winner and 30 percent to the runner-up.

At this point of a SNG, the effective stack is usually under 10 big blinds or it will be in short order. The shallow stacks tend to make the game simple and relatively easy to play. Generally, you want to be going all in or folding. Which hands you do this with depends on the tendencies of your opponent.

Facing an Unknown or Balanced Player

When you are facing an unknown or balanced opponent, it is best to utilize an unexploitable strategy. One strategy that has stood the test of time is called the 'Sit And Go Endgame' system, or SAGE for short. It was developed and introduced by Lee Jones back in 2006 and is still relevant to SNG strategy today.

Essentially, SAGE is a shorthand memory trick that helps you determine if a hand is an unexploitable shove or call. Here is how you use SAGE.

Heads Up Online Poker Strategy Against

First, you must calculate the Power Index (PI) of your hand. Number cards are valued at the displayed amount 2 through 10. Then jacks are worth 11, queens 12, kings 13 and aces 15.

To calculate your hand's PI, double the value of your highest card, then add the value of your lowest card. If you hand is suited, add another 2 points. If you have a pair, double the value of one of your cards, add the other one, then add another 22 points.

For example, with , you double the value of the jack (11 x 2) and add the 7, totaling 29. With , you double the eight (8 x 2), add the 7, then add 2 more for suitedness to total 25. With you double one of the sixes (6 x 2), add 6 more, then add 22 for being paired to total 40.

Once you've calculated the PI of your hand, use the chart below to look up the number of big blinds in the effective stack to determine if your hand has a PI high enough to play.

For example, when the effective stack is 7 big blinds, you must have a PI of 26 or higher to shove and a PI of 30 or higher to call. This means it would be recommended to open-fold (PI = 25), to shove but not call with (PI = 29) and shove or call with (PI = 40) based on our calculations above.

This shorthand is game theoretically optimal for effective stack sizes 7 BBs or below. It starts to break down for bigger stacks, so I am including a second short chart with the percentage of hands you can shove or fold 8-10 BBs unexploitably as recommended by Max Silver's SnapShove app.

SAGE Chart

SnapShove

These are great defaults to use when you don't know what mistakes your opponent is likely to make. But when you know he is too tight or too loose, you can deviate from this baseline to exploit him even further.

Facing an Overly Tight or Overly Loose Player

SAGE would have you call a 7 BB shove with a hand like (PI = 30). This is great to know against a good player who is shoving hands as bad as (PI = 26), but not against a player who shoves too tight.

If you know this to be true about your opponent, you should call him tighter than SAGE suggests. If you can determine the bottom of his shoving range, just call him slightly tighter than that.

By the same token, the range of hands SAGE suggests to shove is profitable against a player who calls correctly. But if your opponent calls too tight, then you can shove even wider than the SAGE ranges.

Feel free to throw in a few more hands, especially those that contain big cards, but don't go overboard. There are players and situations where you can get away with shoving any two cards — but this approach can quickly become a slippery slope to Spew Valley, so be careful.

When facing a player who shoves or calls too loose, you can just stick to the SAGE ranges. The fact that he is getting it in with more garbage than you just improves the EV of every hand in your ranges.

Heads-up play is where the real money is in a SNG. But because of the short stack sizes, it can be one of the easiest parts of the tournament to play. If you utilize these tips, you should win at least your fair share of SNGs in the long run.

Next week, we'll wrap this series up with a discussion of sit & go bankroll management.

Also in this series...

Ready to start giving sit & gos a try? Put these tips into practice at partypoker.

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