In heads-up online poker (or live poker) play, it is a wining strategy that you need to incorporate as part of ramping up your aggression. Use Your Position to Your Advantage When you’re in position (small blind), you want to put the pressure on your opponent. As stated earlier, you want to be raising in position a majority of the time. In fact, the most common time that gameplay rule violations occur at the poker table is when I am down to heads up. This is because the rules for heads to head or one on one play in Texas Hold’em can be a bit confusing. According to heads up poker rules, the dealer posts the small blind and the other player posts the big blind. Heads up Texas Holdem Poker Strategy – Hello Alec 26. Categories: Strategy Published by: admin. Actually this isn’t the Heads Up poker match – It is the ending sequence of the match, however among the guidelines (not all) apply. Heads up Texas Holdem is likely one of the most enjoyable, difficult and misunderstood.
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Last week, we discussed three-handed strategy for a single-table sit & go. This week, we will tackle heads-up play.
It's important to be able to play the endgame effectively in SNGs. When playing poker online in a standard single-table sit & go, for example, the payouts typically have 50 percent of the prize pool go to the winner and 30 percent to the runner-up.
At this point of a SNG, the effective stack is usually under 10 big blinds or it will be in short order. The shallow stacks tend to make the game simple and relatively easy to play. Generally, you want to be going all in or folding. Which hands you do this with depends on the tendencies of your opponent.
Facing an Unknown or Balanced Player
When you are facing an unknown or balanced opponent, it is best to utilize an unexploitable strategy. One strategy that has stood the test of time is called the 'Sit And Go Endgame' system, or SAGE for short. It was developed and introduced by Lee Jones back in 2006 and is still relevant to SNG strategy today.
Essentially, SAGE is a shorthand memory trick that helps you determine if a hand is an unexploitable shove or call. Here is how you use SAGE.
First, you must calculate the Power Index (PI) of your hand. Number cards are valued at the displayed amount 2 through 10. Then jacks are worth 11, queens 12, kings 13 and aces 15.
To calculate your hand's PI, double the value of your highest card, then add the value of your lowest card. If you hand is suited, add another 2 points. If you have a pair, double the value of one of your cards, add the other one, then add another 22 points.
For example, with , you double the value of the jack (11 x 2) and add the 7, totaling 29. With , you double the eight (8 x 2), add the 7, then add 2 more for suitedness to total 25. With you double one of the sixes (6 x 2), add 6 more, then add 22 for being paired to total 40.
Once you've calculated the PI of your hand, use the chart below to look up the number of big blinds in the effective stack to determine if your hand has a PI high enough to play.
For example, when the effective stack is 7 big blinds, you must have a PI of 26 or higher to shove and a PI of 30 or higher to call. This means it would be recommended to open-fold (PI = 25), to shove but not call with (PI = 29) and shove or call with (PI = 40) based on our calculations above.
This shorthand is game theoretically optimal for effective stack sizes 7 BBs or below. It starts to break down for bigger stacks, so I am including a second short chart with the percentage of hands you can shove or fold 8-10 BBs unexploitably as recommended by Max Silver's SnapShove app.
SAGE Chart
| Effective Stack Size (BBs) | Shove if PI is at least | Call if PI is at least |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | Call Any Two Cards |
| 2 | 21 | 17 |
| 3 | 22 | 24 |
| 4 | 23 | 26 |
| 5 | 24 | 28 |
| 6 | 25 | 29 |
| 7 | 26 | 30 |
SnapShove
| Effective Stack Size (BBs) | Shove Top X% of hands | Call Top X% of hands |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 61.7% | 45.4% |
| 9 | 59.9% | 40.6% |
| 10 | 58.4% | 37.6% |
These are great defaults to use when you don't know what mistakes your opponent is likely to make. But when you know he is too tight or too loose, you can deviate from this baseline to exploit him even further.
Facing an Overly Tight or Overly Loose Player
SAGE would have you call a 7 BB shove with a hand like (PI = 30). This is great to know against a good player who is shoving hands as bad as (PI = 26), but not against a player who shoves too tight.
If you know this to be true about your opponent, you should call him tighter than SAGE suggests. If you can determine the bottom of his shoving range, just call him slightly tighter than that.
By the same token, the range of hands SAGE suggests to shove is profitable against a player who calls correctly. But if your opponent calls too tight, then you can shove even wider than the SAGE ranges.
Feel free to throw in a few more hands, especially those that contain big cards, but don't go overboard. There are players and situations where you can get away with shoving any two cards — but this approach can quickly become a slippery slope to Spew Valley, so be careful.
When facing a player who shoves or calls too loose, you can just stick to the SAGE ranges. The fact that he is getting it in with more garbage than you just improves the EV of every hand in your ranges.
Heads-up play is where the real money is in a SNG. But because of the short stack sizes, it can be one of the easiest parts of the tournament to play. If you utilize these tips, you should win at least your fair share of SNGs in the long run.
Next week, we'll wrap this series up with a discussion of sit & go bankroll management.
Also in this series...
Ready to start giving sit & gos a try? Put these tips into practice at partypoker.
Heads Up Holdem Poker
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Heads up is player versus player, a duel that sometimes turns out hazardous. It can also be poker on a very advanced level. If you want to win more than one out of two head to head combats in poker, you have to learn how to handle these situations with the right strategic approaches.
Chess teachers often say it’s a good idea to start learning from the “endgame” to develop a deep understanding for the game. Heads up is the endgame of Texas hold'em. Even that chess may not coincide fully with poker, playing against one player hand after hand will move you to the essence of the game, and you are being forced to conduct both the cards and the opponent.
First, you must understand that the values of starting hands are different from playing numerous opponents. The speculative hands that decrease in value in shorthanded compared to longhanded will decrease even more. And the power cards are going up in value even more.
All in starting hands
In heads up you are never far away from an all in situation, so you must learn which starting hands are reliable in these cases. A static, machinelike way of playing, is not recommended, but it’s good to have an idea about which cards you can rely on in general. Here are some guidelines.
1) Pairs are very strong in heads up – if you hold a pocket pair you will be a favorite against all other non-pair hands (with a few exceptions), and the chance both players holding pairs is 1 of 289.
2) A hand like K-4 off suited, normally worth very little against several players, is a short favorite against the average hand.
3) The worst hand in heads-up is 2-3 off suited because of its lousy all in prospects; it wins less than 1 out of 3.
When the opponent is short-stacked you should be much more willingly to call an all-in raise. How often depends on his stack in relation to big blinds. If he has only a few BB, you should be ready to call with almost any hand.
The table shows some typical situation in which two players get involved in an all in situation pre-flop.
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| Situation | Player 1 | Player 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Pair vs. dominated hand | 90% | 10% |
| Pair vs. lower pair | 81% | 19% |
| Pair vs. one over card | 70% | 30% |
| Two cards vs. one dominated card | 70% | 30% |
| Two cards vs. two lower cards | 65% | 35% |
| Two cards vs. two cards lower than its highest | 60% | 40% |
| Pair vs. two over cards | 52% | 48% |
Comments
Pair versus dominated hand - for example Q-Q versus Q-9. The queen in the weaker hand is blocked by the pair and isn't helped by another queen.
Pair versus lower pair - for example Q-Q versus 9-9. The exact percent numbers can differ some depending on different circumstances.
Pair versus one over card - for example K-K versus A-6. The primarily outs for the weaker hand are the three remaining aces.
Two cards versus one dominated card - for example A-Q versus A-J. The primarily outs for the weaker hand are the three remaining jacks.
Two cards vs. two cards lower than its highest - for example A-T versus K-J.
Pair versus two over cards - for example 5-5 versus J-9. The exact percent numbers can differ some depending on different circumstances. Actually, 2-2 can be underdog to T-9 suited plus some other suited connectors.
All in is one method, but there are more subtle ways to handle heads up matches. If you could choose, wouldn't you prefer to get rid of your opponent in a more surgical manner? It’s both fancier and less risky compared to putting all your chips in for an all in duel with luck as the judge. Poker is seldom about 100%, but you want to increase your chances to the maximum. How will you accomplish it? The answer is patience and acting deceptive.
You could reply to a raise with a big re-raise with the low pair after the flop. That works from time to time. But, if you can wait until you got something better, like a set, you can lure off an ardent player all his chips.
Poker is all about the situation, so you must be able to handle both methods discussed here. In heads up you need to know when to be aggressive and when to be patient.
Position
There are only two positions in heads-up. When you have the small blind you are in position - the last to act after the flop. This is the better position, and therefore you should play more starting hands.
When you are the big blind, you will be first to act post flop, which normally is harder. Therefore, you should play less hands from this position. But it is important that you don't let your opponent steal to many blinds from you, and the best way to counter raises from the small blind is to re-raise. Since you would prefer to win the hand instantly pre-flop, you could raise a bit more than when you raise when from small blind. By the same reason, it is also a good idea to raise when the small blind just call pre-flop.
Recognition of patterns and utilization of response
Like always, you should play the cards as well as the player. The guidelines above are mainly about which cards to play, especially in heads up, now it's time for the specialities of playing the player in heads up.
Bully the passive player and trap the loose-aggressive. Yes, this is fundamental and can be a very effective approach, but it's not always as simple as that.
As you are fronting only one player, it’s critical to learn his way of acting. Consequently, you better watch out for him to read your play. It’s not just about if he is a tight or loose player. To succeed in recognize patterns of your opponent, you must focus on the way he is betting – when and what sizes in different situations. Pay also attention to all cards that you see at showdowns and try to learn about his playing style.
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It's also important that you're adjusting your play after how the opponent is responding to your pre flop actions. If he in a majority of hand drops his cards to your raises, you should utilize this and raise with a higher frequency, even with hands that are normally not raising hands.
How does the opponent react when you limp in: is he constantly raising in the belief that you haven’t all that dangerous cards? This is something you can use for trapping your opponent. Continue to limp in with mediocre starting hands occasionally and fold if he raises too much. Sooner or later you will have a pair or an Ace with a good kicker, if the opponent raise after you limped in then re-raise. If the opponent show impatience you have big chances to win a decisive pot.
This is how you play deceptively. In general, you can slow play more hands – like two pairs and even a top pair depending on the circumstances – in heads up compared to situations with more players involved. It’s a highly effective way to make a profit against loose and impatient players.
To avoid that your opponent learn your playing style and exploit you, you should mix upp your play.
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