Basic Heads-up Strategy

Chris Wheeler | September 19, 2011

Regardless of whether it’s cash game poker or you’ve made it to the final two in a tournament, heads-up poker is vastly different from full ring or six-handed games.

For one thing, you’re in the blinds every single hand. In a full ring game, you’ll play from the blinds twice per round, or twice every ten hands. In heads-up play, you are always either the small blind or the big blind.

Another major difference is that with only two players involved in each hand, the calibre of hand needed to win a pot drops drastically compared to facing off against 10 opponents.

Up the ante with aggression

Since you’re constantly under pressure from the blinds in heads-up play, you need to step up your aggression. You can’t afford to wait for a premium hand in heads-up poker. If you do, you’ll go broke. If you sit and fold while waiting for a hand like Ace of SpadesKing of Spades or Queen of ClubsQueen of Diamonds, you’ll fold your blinds to your opponent most of the time. When you finally get a strong hand, you’ll still have to play for the pot, and sometimes you’ll lose that hand.

To succeed in heads-up poker, increase your aggression. Open up the range of hands you’re willing to enter a pot with.

Playing from the small blind

When playing heads-up, the small blind is the button, meaning you’ll have position from the flop onwards. You should raise a good percentage of the time. Be prepared to fire in raises with hands like 9 of Spades10 of Spades, King of SpadesJack of Clubs, and 5 of Diamonds5 of Clubs.

Open up your starting range. With hands like 6 of Diamonds7 of Spades, which aren’t necessarily strong but have potential, you should look to limp often—unless you’re playing a maniac. If your opponent is pushing all-in on every flop, it makes no sense to limp in with a hand like this.

Useless hands like 2 of Diamonds7 of Hearts still get ditched—don’t get that aggressive.

Playing from the big blind

You’ve got more in the pot than you will playing from the small blind, but you’ll be out of position on the flop. You need to play a little tighter here.

If you have a mediocre to reasonable hand and your opponent limps, you’re best off checking to see the flop. With a strong hand, raise most of the time unless you’re trying to trap your opponent.

Facing a raise in the big blind is more complex. If your opponent is constantly raising your big blind, you’ll need to adjust your game to avoid folding away all your chips.

At the showdown

In heads-up play, the range of hands with showdown value is far greater. On the flop, feel comfortable betting out with middle or bottom pair unless you have a great read on your opponent. Odds suggest that your opponent probably hasn’t hit stronger than you.

If you hit a pair on the flop, almost always bet out. If you’ve flopped a monster hand, you might want to draw things out and extract maximum value. But if you’ve hit something reasonable but not great, like middle pair, take the pot there and then to avoid a suckout on the turn or the river.

When you flop a big hand, mix up how you play it to avoid becoming predictable. Sometimes, betting hard at your made hand can be as profitable as slow-playing it.