Poker Tip Man Armen- "Heads-Up Play"

Heads-Up “Cash Game” and Two Man “Sit n Go”

    Playing heads-up poker is one part of the game the I enjoy most. I'm going to share some of my strategies the I have learned playing heads-up poker.

    The first thing you need to understand is how the cards flop. Since we are only using 12 cards out of 52; which is 23% of the deck, things change drastically compared to a full 9 handed game. The game becomes “high-hand” dominant. Like “ace high” and “king high” are winners most of the time. Kickers don’t make much of a difference when you have a pair. Hitting a pair is pretty much a winner. Flushes, trips and full houses become extinct. Straights are more common than trips!!! What? How could that be? Since we are only playing with ¼ of the deck, theoretically all cards should be dispersed evenly throughout the entire deck. If you shuffle the deck and take the top 12 cards, theoretically we should get one Ace, one King, one Queen...etc, three Diamonds, three Spades, three Clubs and three Hearts. Go ahead a try it yourself. Shuffle a deck a grab the top 12 and see what hands you can make using all 12 cards (try this at least 10 times). Did you notice a pattern? Did you get more than five of the same suit? I bet you didn't. Did you make a straight? I bet you did. How about trips? Not that many. As you can see, you can make a straight more often than you can make trips. Hitting a flush with only five or even six of the same suit is difficult, since they still need to align right and not be part of the burn or in your opponent's hand. Funny how math works, huh?

         “If A=B and B=C, then A=C”
      -Math Class, I think 8th grade

    Now that you know what it looks like to play with only 12 cards let's talk about the most important aspect of the game; position. When playing heads-up the small blind becomes the button so the small blind is last to act fre-flop and after the flop. I have made it a ritual to raise pre-flop on the button no matter what I'm holding (3X or 2X). Chances are, both players are going to miss the flop and you can just take it down with a continuation bet on the flop. If you get a call then use your skills and what you are working with to make the right decision on the turn and river. Be adamant about raising pre-flop on the button, this will expose your opponent's strength. Most importantly, it will get them frustrated. Once they are frustrated they will call you down with a marginal hand when you are holding the nuts or a very strong hand. When facing an opponent that raises every time on the button, I like to call them down with ace high early in the game as long as I'm not committing more than 20% of my stack. In most cases I take it down and totally break the opponent, since I called them down with only ace high. This forces them to change their strategy since they know you might call them down with ace high or even king high.

    You should change your strategy when playing late in a heads-up Sit N Go or heads-up in a tournament when the blinds are high and you only have 8 or less big blinds. I suggest pushing all-in with any ace, any king or pocket pairs. You can push with just about anything if the small blind just calls the blind. You can also push all-in on the button with absolutely nothing just to take the blinds if you're feeling it. Just be careful and pick and choose your battles.

    Poker is such a complex game and explaining it all can take forever and ever. I try to give you some key points that can give you an edge and let you evolve into a great poker player that plays like you and only you.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Like You

Image taken from pokerprofessor.comLink:https://www.google.com/search?q=heads+up+poker&client=ms-android-verizon&prmd=vsin&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXq7KzsJ_PAhVMMz4KHQwaCo0Q_AUICSgD&biw=360&bih=560#imgrc=TMIAzx3oO_hrHM%3A