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Heads Up poker - Why Aggression Pays
Heads-Up Poker is the climax to every single game of Texas Holdem, if you are going to win you will always face a heads up situation. Heads up poker is where you play one-on-one against a single opponent and whether you start off with two players in the game or two thousand, the result is always the same - a heads up between the final two players.
If you start with a high number of players, or indeed any number of players bigger than two, the game will lose one of them at a time as they run out of chips until you are left with the final pairing - the heads-up.
Now heads up poker is different from the rest of the tournament and requires a different mindset in order to be successful. Nowhere is the contrast more stark than in online Texas Holdem poker play and if you've never made it to the final of a Hold ‘em tournament you are in for a rollercoaster ride when you do!
The pace is extremely fast and furious with little or no time to think, you are relying mostly on your experience and quick thinking to pull you through.
But the number one strategy you need to adopt when playing heads up poker online is to be aggressive. It is a ruthless winner-takes-all situation and if you don't show enough determination and aggression, your opponent almost certainly will and you will quickly wilt under the onslaught.
You need to call almost every hand, after all you're paying for the blinds so if you don't call it your opponent gets to keep the blinds for free. Remeber also that when it gets to this stage, the blinds are at their highest so every hand is important to win. You can’t afford to let one go for free unless you feel you have absolutely no chance of winning the hand.
Of course a Holdem hand that you would probably fold in a ten player situation is often one that you can go all-in with at heads up. Any Ace at all is certainly worth raising and re-raising, the chances are your opponent is adopting a similar strategy to you and he may be going in with a King or Queen along with a lower card.
Say for example you are dealt King-Eight. Now at a ten player poker tournament you would most probably fold this hand in early position, but call or possibly even raise in late position. In a heads-up situation you would be perfectly entitled to go all-in with a reasonable expectation of winning the hand if it got played out.
Vary your play and if you find yourself in front in chips, be even more aggressive! Don’t be afraid to put in a big raise with no hand, your opponent will most likely back down unless he has a big hand.
The bottom line is this for heads up poker - attack or be attacked!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Article by Ian McIntosh of www.Love-Texas-Holdem.com Check out the site for the latest poker articles, information and news and get poker freeroll updates in your mailbox every week - for free!
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