Posted Tue Oct 25, 2005 12:40 am GMT by den9
im a alright poker player but when it comes down to heads up i cant win, i usually try to split the pot.
i always lose money when heads up because i get nervous when they start raising and i got no good pocket cards, or when they raise like 10 times the pot or go all in before the flop i always fold. i hate when they steal the blinds
what are some good tips on playing heads up?
sorry if this is the wrong place to post im new here
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Posted Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:18 am GMT by UrAteUp
Aggression is the key to heads up poker. I love heads up and I find I usually win when it gets down to heads up.
My rules for heads up is simple. If you got good cards push them, if not fold them. By push I mean raise the cost to see the flop. You can raise it by the min. or push even harder. If your in the SB and the other person raises with a min. raise then you might want to see the flop. If it looks good for you then play it. If not fold those cards. The best way to get good and heads up is playing small buy in 1 on 1 heads up games that some poker sites offer. I would also look online and in books for tips to help your heads up play.
Posted Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:58 pm GMT by jaf625
| den9 wrote: | | i always lose money when heads up because i get nervous when they start raising and i got no good pocket cards |
The first thing you have to realize is that in heads up you need to play a much larger variety of hands than you would against more players. Keep in mind that you're only playing against one other person, there's only one set of hole cards that are going against yours. Holding a queen or higher or any pocket pair is strong heads up, and you need to exploit that. I'd play middle suited connectors pretty strong too. And like was said before, agression is the key. If you have an ace or a king, thats almost always sufficient for a pre-flop raise. Part of being agressive is keeping the pressure on the other player. Make the other player make all the tough decisions instead of you. If the other player is raising huge pre-flop, do it back to them. Also, you'll want to play more hands after the flop too. Flopping any pair is strong. Don't be afraid to bluff either, its a lot easier when chances are you opponent has nothing. If you widen the variety of hands you play and play more agressively, things will start going your way heads up a lot quicker than you think.
Posted Tue Oct 25, 2005 4:46 pm GMT by Skribbles
Never call.
Raise, re-raise or fold.
Posted Wed Oct 26, 2005 2:16 pm GMT by tame_deuces
Repeat after me:
'My opponent got trash, sets don't exist, I always have the ace'
Stick with that and you'll win some, lose some, find memorable moments and have good fun. And then you can work on refining the edges later.
And I think calling has it's glory. When you are in the BB head's up it is always fun to call and then bet hard on the flop. Might get you into heaps of trouble.
And head's up you will most likely have to wing it and reraise/push with pure air in the pocket sometimes.
Well, and for a useful tip. Position is 80% of head's up play. Take full advantage of being on the button.
Actually, as you play alot of head's up you are likely to get a zen-likel finding of poker nirvana in how important being on the button is and how crummy it is not being there.
Posted Fri Oct 28, 2005 4:48 pm GMT by Jauron
You need to be able to take flops, if you can't do this, fix your game. Heads up is all about seeing and reacting to flops, you are not gonna win enough heads up until you are comfortable with flops. You are not gonna get AA to his KK, you are gonna have hands like 97 vs 10 6.
One thing I normally always do regardless of if I have the chip lead or not is limp the first few hands. Limp limp limp limp, I don't do this with huge pairs early, but everything else I limp my butt off. I want to see how they react to it. If he sometimes raises and sometimes lets it slide you know he's looking for hands. If he always raises you understand he's probably trying to control the action. If he always lets you limp he's either getting nothing or he's looking to trap.
Once you know that, the rest is much easier.
But I'm a guy who likes to take flops, raised pot or not. If I have the chip lead you can raise me up a little, it's gonna get called and I'll play it from there. If I'm short stacked I'm about half and half I might call a raise if you I don't think you'll let up. I hate getting my money in preflop heads up though, I'd rather take a flop and go from there unless I'm very short stacked.
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