August 2003

Heads Up A number of players have been asking about heads up strategy as there doesn't seem to be much information on it. Sure, Sklansky's tables are useful in ring games and everybody is going on about patience and discipline being important but if you apply your ring game or tournament strategy to heads up play you will be a losing heads up player. Many poker players have little or no experience of heads up play. Few play short handed and even in tournaments deals are often done so there is no real heads-up challenge. This is an area where a little bit of experience can gain a significant edge. So it is therefore worth looking at and studying in more depth. There is a very easy way to beat a novice player at heads up. Raise every button and bet every flop. Sounds simple? Sure it does but the key to any heads up battle is aggression. An inexperienced player will simply give up too many pots and you will wear him/her down until you can take a free shot at them. As players become more experienced they will start to 'play back' at you so you must adjust. This was a strategy that Ram Vaswani applied on-line when he started out and he quickly won nearly $100,000. If a player bluffs a lot call until the river and then raise with your winning hand. You don't want to lose those additional chips as they are very likely to bet again. Heads up matches can ebb and flow. It is important to pick up the patterns. Very often it can be like a boxing match with lots of jabbing and moving about. The single biggest mistake an inexperienced player makes in heads up is to lose his concentration and mentally give up. This usually results in putting a HUGE amount of chips sometimes all of them in the pot without a proper hand. This could even be a total bluff on the river. Avoid this trap at all costs!

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