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Heads-up poker is the art of playing against just one opponent. I say art because,

unlike ring games or tournaments, 🌛 heads-up poker truly is an art form.

In most poker

games, you will face many opponents and only be directly involved 🌛 in a small percentage

of the overall hands. In heads-up, however, you will pay blinds each hand and be put

🌛 into many difficult situations.

For that reason, you will need to learn to play poker

quite differently than you may be 🌛 used to playing in other formats of the game.

In this

guide to playing heads-up poker, we will tackle some main 🌛 concepts of such games, teach

you how to approach playing in and out of position, and give you a few 🌛 pointers to lead

you in the right direction.

Mind that this is only the first step towards becoming a

great heads-up 🌛 poker player, as it can take years to master, even for the best of

us.

Main Differences between Heads Up and 🌛 Ring Games

The obvious difference between a

6-max or ring game and heads-up is the number of players at the table, 🌛 and this one

would be obvious even to a completely ignorant bystander.

Since it’s only you against

your opponent in a 🌛 heads-up match, many things change quite drastically. First and

foremost, both you and the other player are in blind positions 🌛 on each hand.

The player

on the button also acts as the small blind, while the other player pays the big 🌛 blind.

Like in all other formats, the player with the button plays last on all following

streets but will act 🌛 first pre-flop.

As you are always in the blinds, and the number of

opponents is minimal, you have every reason to 🌛 play way more hands than you would in a

ring game. In fact, in many heads-up matches, it is correct 🌛 to play almost all hands

from the button and a very high percentage of hands in the big blind as 🌛 well.

While you

could previously profitably play various hands in position and wait to make a big hand

in a loose 🌛 game, you don’t have that kind of privilege in a heads-up match.

Instead,

you will be forced to play each and 🌛 every hand yourself and battle for every chip out

there with everything you got.

So how do you do that? Let’s 🌛 start at the beginning and

talk about preflop play and the way you should construct your button and big blind

🌛 ranges.

Playing from the Button in Heads-Up Games

Holding the button in a heads-up game

gives you a huge advantage. You know 🌛 your opponent has a random hand, and they are the

only thing standing between you and the dead money in 🌛 the pot.

For that reason, you

will need to start by making a raise with a very high percentage of hands, 🌛 much higher

than you ever did in other game formats. If you are wondering how much exactly, this

will depend 🌛 on several factors.

First and foremost is the way your opponent responds to

your raises. As a general rule of thumb, 🌛 you should be raising more hands against

opponents who fold a lot and fewer hands against opponents who fold infrequently.

If

🌛 they fold a lot, raise 100% of your hands.

If they fold more than average, raise 90% of

your hands.

If they 🌛 fold on average, raise 85% of your hands.

If they never fold, raise

75% of your hands.

However, something must be said 🌛 about how much you raise the button

before the flop since your raise size should depend on your raise frequency.

The 🌛 more

often you are going to raise, the smaller your raises should be, and vice versa. If you

are going 🌛 to raise 100% of your hands, a min-raise will suffice.

As your raise

frequency goes down, so too should your raise 🌛 size. Since you are raising a stronger

range, you can get away with raising 2.5x, 3x, or even 3.5x.

To test 🌛 the waters, you

can start by opening about 85% of your hands from the button and using a 2.5x raise

🌛 size. As you see how your opponent reacts to your raises, you can adjust your raise

size and your raise 🌛 frequency accordingly.

Playing from the Big Blind in Heads-Up

Poker

Playing on the button will give you an advantage and the ability 🌛 to play nearly

every hand in your range. However, you will still have to play 50% of all hands from

🌛 the big blind.

The question becomes, how often should you continue with your hand once

an opponent raises the button, which 🌛 is what they are going to do most of the time.

The

answer to this question will depend a lot on 🌛 the raise size your opponent uses. Against

min-raises, you will be able to profitably defend a wide range of hands, 🌛 while against

bigger raises, you will need to fold more since you are getting less favorable pot

odds.

However, you must 🌛 also remember that you should aggressively play a good chunk of

your hands in the big blind as well, 3-betting 🌛 the original raise instead of just

calling.

Since we know that even the tightest players out there still raise about 80%

🌛 of their buttons in heads-up poker, we will want to 3-bet quite liberally.

The wider

your opponent raises, the more hands 🌛 you can afford to play for either a call or a

raise.

You can use the following rule of thumb to 🌛 construct your 3-betting

range:

Against a wide opening range, 3-bet a polarized range of hands

Against a tight

opening range, 3-bet a 🌛 merged range of hands

A polarized range includes all your best

and all your weakest hands in the 3-betting range, while 🌛 a merged range contains the

strong and the semi-strong hands in your 3-betting range.

The overall 3-betting range

will depend heavily 🌛 on the raise size your opponent is using. However, against a

min-raise, which is fairly standard sizing, you should be 🌛 3-betting a lot.

Against a

formidable opponent who raises 80% of hands to 2x, you should be 3-betting with all the

🌛 big pairs, A8s+, AT+, QJ+, 64s+, and T8s+. All other gappers and suited hands can be

played as a call, 🌛 along with many off-suit hands.

If the same opponent was raising 100%

of all hands, you could switch your range to 🌛 include more bluffs, hands like X2s, and

X3s, while just calling with hands like K8s, 86s, 64s, etc.

The weaker your 🌛 opponent's

range is, the more you will want to polarize your own 3-betting range to include more

bluffs while calling 🌛 with medium-strength hands that still play well against the 100%

range of hands.

You will also want to think about your 🌛 3-bet size. Against a min-raise,

a 3-bet size of about 8x the big blind is recommended, and you should keep 🌛 upping this

along with your opponent’s original raise size.

Why Balance Matters in Heads-up

Poker

There is a lot of value in 🌛 balancing out your ranges across the board in every

form of poker. However, it becomes that much more important in 🌛 heads-up games.

In

tournaments or cash games, you only encounter the same players occasionally, and you

may even play with certain 🌛 players just once in your life. On the other hand, once a

heads-up game has started, you and your opponent 🌛 will quickly start to get history with

each other, which can lead to certain conclusions.

If you play a heavily exploitative

🌛 style of poker against an opponent in a heads-up match, there is a big chance they will

realize it and 🌛 start to counter you.

This is especially true if you are playing a

heads-up game against a player you know to 🌛 be a competent heads-up player, but it can

be true even against weaker opponents.

If you try to bluff every street 🌛 in every hand,

you will start to get called down quite wide. If you only bet when you have a 🌛 big hand,

you will not get value in such situations.

While you can still play exploitatively if

your opponent is very 🌛 bad and not aware of the situation, you should strive towards

balance while only exploiting to a certain extent.

For instance, 🌛 if you notice your

opponent likes to call bets a bit too wide, you can counter this by bluffing a 🌛 bit less

and value betting a bit more.

However, you can't just stop bluffing altogether, as this

will result in your 🌛 opponent realizing what you are doing and easily countering your

simple strategy.

Many of the best heads-up players in the world 🌛 swear by the GTO

approach and try to play the same way against basically any opponent, realizing that

playing in 🌛 an unexploitable way is the surest way to win in the long run.

While no man

can mimic the solvers to 🌛 perfection, a semblance of a GTO poker strategy does seem to

do wonders in the heads-up streets and is likely 🌛 the best way to beat anyone in the

world at heads-up poker.

Exploiting Players’ Tendencies in Heads-Up Poker

While the GTO

strategy 🌛 works very well in heads-up matches, an exploitative approach still has a lot

of merit, especially when you are playing 🌛 against less skilled players.

Playing at

lower stakes or in tournaments, you will often come across players whose game is far

🌛 from balanced, which you can exploit to a great extent.

Since you will be the only

player at the table, you 🌛 may be able to print EV from each mistake your opponent makes.

Once you spot a pattern of mistakes, you 🌛 can create perfect strategies to counter

them.

A great example of this is a player who c-bets every flop after they 🌛 raise

pre-flop or one who only ever c-bets with very strong hands.

In both scenarios, you can

develop a strategy that 🌛 heavily exploits their tendencies. You can bluff more against

the former and fold more against the latter, making extra EV 🌛 in both cases.

This is a

simplified example of how an exploitative approach can work wonders in heads-up

matches, but it 🌛 is one that actually happens in real games quite often.

Many players

might also fold too much to c-bets or 3-bets 🌛 and 4-bets before the flop, all of which

are exploitable tendencies.

Using your poker tracking software between sessions to look

for 🌛 such tendencies is the best way to prepare yourself to play a certain player you

are likely to face again.

The 🌛 Mental Game of Heads-up Poker

Technical and strategic

baselines are very important in any form of poker, and probably even more 🌛 so in

heads-up. However, heads-up can also turn into mental warfare at times.

With both you

and your opponent doing your 🌛 best to win every chip that's ever put into the pot, the

leveling wars are almost certain to happen.

As you 🌛 attempt to adjust to your opponent’s

tendencies, they try to adjust to yours. In other cases, your opponent might just 🌛 tilt

and start playing a different game than their baseline, which you should still look to

adapt to.

In either case, 🌛 heads-up poker will require you to remain focused and keep

your head in the game. Playing like a robot won't 🌛 get you far unless you can truly

mimic the solvers to a high extent, which is a very difficult level 🌛 of play to

reach.

Mental acuity and preparation will be key if you plan to make a career of any

sort 🌛 out of heads-up poker, so make sure you practice poker regularly and remind

yourself of what's important and what's not 🌛 at the tables.

Expect variance in heads-up

games just as you would in any other poker format, and be prepared to 🌛 go on downswings

and see your bankroll go up and down as you battle your way through the ranks of

🌛 heads-up poker players.

Read about proper bankroll management.

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