You don't have to be a pro to win at Heads Up Poker

Playing heads up poker can be a refreshing experience to someone who has grown tired of regular cash game or 10 person sit n go tournaments. Playing HU is still the same game, but it is totally different when you take a step back. For starters you are only playing against one player the entire game. It is much easier to get a grasp on what type of player you are up against. The range of starting hands is much wider in a heads up game than it is in a 6-10 person poker game. As you may have already realized heads up poker is more of a mental game than it is an actual card game. The point is… you don’t have to be a pro to win a heads up poker game.

Being Aggressive Pays

Putting the pressure on your opponent can be the quickest way to break him down to the point where he will make poor decisions. Your opponent will never have a chance to think about his strategy if he is constantly being raised and re-raised. I wouldn’t recommend letting him see any flops for cheap… we all know what this can lead to.

Starting Hands

I like to think of the starting hand in heads up poker as just a reassurance as to whether I should bet… or bet huge. Most likely your opponent is holding some low ranking hand like [Ks][7d] or [6h][10c]. Most of the you wont even need to look at your cards. Just make a bet of a couple hundred chips and watch them buckle. The logic behind this is simple. Would you risk that much just to see the flop with a marginal hand? This strategy works best when you are big blind aka last to act.

Control the Chip Lead

Every match starts out even, but once you gain that edge there is no turning back. Maintaining a constant chip lead is just one of the factors that will lead to your opponents demise. It’s all in the head. Players play differently when they have a big stack. Taking away some of your opponent’s chips is the quickest way to turn him into a conservative player for the rest of the game. This is good because he will now only play when he’s got a good hand.

Conclusion

Heads up poker is all about the offensive moves. Once you establish that your opponent is on defense and you are on offense, it shouldn’t be hard to control the rest of the game. Sure there will be times when you get bad beat or sucked out on, and of course we all make mistakes. Just remember that the idea isn’t to win every game, but to win most of the games. And you don’t have to be a pro to do this.