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Playing Heads Up

One of the most exciting parts of playing poker is when you get to play someone heads-up. For any players who are new and don't know what that means, it is when two players play one on one. When you play heads up with someone the strategy of your game completely changes. When I started playing I was unaware of this and it took me a very long time to figure out why it was so hard to play my opponent one on one. It was for this exact reason that I decided to write an article on heads up play. Like most of my other articles on strategy and techniques, the information and tactics I describe in this section are what I and many others feel are the best. Yet these tactics might not always be the wining ones and it is that part of poker that makes it so interesting to play. I will, however, try to make it as clear as possible on how to play heads up and on what techniques to use.


In a normal, multi-player game holdem, the best strategy to use is to put the most money in when you have a hand, and the least when you don't have one (this is describe in more detail in other articles). When you are in a heads up battle your whole strategy changes and the hands that you may decide to play will be targeted in a wider spectrum. The main reason why you play more hands in a one on one game is because there is only one other hand you are playing against and so your initial odds of winning, before the cards are dealt, is 50%. This is a very high percent compared to something like a 25% in a four handed game, or worse, 10% in a 10 handed game. Since your percent of winning is so good you want to play more hands and your betting strategies become much different then when you play a multi-player game.


Like I mentioned above, in a normal game you want to get the most money in when you have a hand and the least when you don't. This general guideline helps you to know that you should probably only raise when you have some very good hands, unless you like to bluff. However, this strategy does not work as well when you are playing an opponent heads up, especially when there are blinds. This is true because every hand you have some money in the pot from blinds, and if you just wait for a hand you will continually lose to your opponent who raises before the flop with a mediocre hand. To avoid this from happening you have to change your betting patterns. When playing heads up you tend to raise much more with mediocre hands then you would in a multi-player game. When I play heads up this is the table of cards that I usually play or raise with.

• Hands I raise with


• Suited connectors


• Two face cards suited or not


• Anything with an Ace


• A King and anything higher then 9


• Suited cards higher then 7


• Any Pocket Pair

• Hands I call With if it hasn't been raised


• Suited low cards not connected


• Low connectors


• Q and any card (except face cards)


• J and any card (except face cards)


• 10 and any card (except face cards)