Heads Up Poker Strategy - Adjusting To Your Opponents

 Heads Up Poker Strategy - Adjusting To Your Opponents

Heads up poker, the purest form is of the game, is one of most lucrative game types for skilled players.

Heads up poker is a format where you must play the blind for every hand. You will need to play a lot of hands and in some cases even all of your hands.

It is a high pressure environment.

This allows a player to transfer their skills to weaker opponents each hand. This can lead to higher win rates than in full-ring or 6-max games.

As we attempt to learn from another professional player how to adapt to him and exploit his weaknesses, the key skill of heads-up poker is to be able to play well against them.

REVISING YOUR HEADS UP STATEGY

The winning player's head up poker strategy is composed of a flexible game plan, ready to go right away. They've established solid ranges which they adjust when new information becomes available about their opponent.

Playing against a former challenger lets you go back to where you were in your last encounter. Seeking ways to win. Just what I was doing in a recent headsup poker SNG tournament match against a Japanese poker coach. He had won 2-1 in previous bouts of HU SNG's. Akinori challenged me to a new challenge. Akinori was eager to get revenge, as the games would be recorded and posted on the Japanese poker training website.

I had planned to open 5% wider than I would against tough opponents. I now see that opening 100% of the hands would have been a reasonable strategy. This would allow me exploit his tendency for over-folding preflop, and allow me to 3bet at a low rate. He made some questionable folds in replay.

However, contrary to his open raises I didn't intend on folding much.

Akinori's tendency for being passive after flop, especially on the later streets, made me feel confident that I would be in that area. This is something that a lot 'TAGish’ players do when they reach heads-up. It also means they may be out of their comfort zone later on streets, where they might find themselves with more marginal holdings than usual. This will often lead to lots of river and turn checking.

My equity OOP would have a fair share of me if I had been more active on the streets. It is evident that some of my weaker out position floats did make it to the river, where they were able to steal some nice pots. (Q2, J9 and so on).

DEFENDING BLINDS HEADS UP - 3BETTING

Three betting a lot was part of the HU strategy for protecting frequently from big blind. Knowing How to Heads Up Bet