01-16-04, LearnTexasHoldem:
Heads Up Play...
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Answer: That's a good question. I'll add it to the list of articles to add but I wanted to give you a short answer now. When you are playing heads up or three handed, you have to play many more cards and much more aggressively then you normally would. Aggressiveness is what wins in those situations.
Now I'm not talking about when you are playing with 10 people and only two of you are in on the hand, I mean only two or three players are at the table. What you need to understand is that a good percentage of the time no one will flop anything and the person who is most aggressive will win in the end. You can't wait for "good cards", you are forced to play, bet and raise if you want to win. Since there are so few people some hands go down in value and others go up. Any hand with an Ace or King in it is a good start, pocket pairs are even better. So you would much prefer to have A3 then 56s.
One trick to help you play better is to remove the top card from the flop so if you had AT and the flop was Q-9-6 you would just boot the Q making the flop X-9-6 - that means you are still drawing to either your T or A. You will also have to play the player much more and a good portion of your wins will come from bluffing. The more aggressive your opponent is, the more aggressive you'll have to be with him. Calling in poker is generally bad but calling in headsup or shorthanded situations spells death. Your opponent will just run over you while you wait for your good hand.
Playing heads up is a totally different game then playing ring poker. It isn't so much about the cards anymore, it is learning how the other person bets and plays and then reading into that play so you can milk him. Since you'll be playing many more hands against that person you should have an easier time getting dialed into their game. If you find yourself heads up with someone who just keeps drilling you over and over then you may not want to play anymore since they will just be too strong for you at this stage. Let's say you are playing two blinds and every time it is your big blind he raises and unless you have a decent hand you fold.
Only when you have a really good hand you reraise. The guy will just rock you. What you have to do is play way more hands and when you do have anything reasonable, reraise preflop. You can't let him think that he can just raise you and you'll only call when you play. This answer is getting longer then I anticipated so I'll stop here... So the main things to keep in mind are: play more hands (many more), good hands are ones that don't need a flop to win (any A or pocket pair or two middle cards), reraise much more preflop, bluff more on the flop by just betting and continuing to bet, raise, check raise, etc.
And on a final note, if they check, you bet. If they check again, you bet again regardless of the situation. If they want to take the pot they can check raise and you can figure it out from there but you must take advantage of their weakness (remember they have no idea what you have anyway). And if they are capable of a check raise bluff you must be capable of a reraise bluff. =) You have to be one more level of aggressiveness then they are and apply it at opportune times (not very easy).
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