Heads up Strategy for No Limit Texas Hold’em It is just you and one opponent. Finish them off and claim all the glory! Heads up is where you get the best poker rush and your poker strategy will vary slightly. At this stage, you are playing the player more than anything else. Lets look at how you can do this successfully. Be Patient Unless you are running low on chips or are worried about the cost of the blinds, you can afford to be a little patient. Players often get impatient at heads up, especially when they have the bigger chip stack. If someone has 75% of the chips, they feel good about their chances, and they frequently get over confident. Double up your opponent only once, and you are back to a 50/50 split. That is why it is important to take your time when the context permits it. Being the Short Stack There are a few strategies you can go for when you are the short stack. If you can afford to, you can play tight and take your time, hoping that your opponent will get impatient and push harder and harder and eventually make a costly mistake. Typically what happens is they grind you down a little, then all of a sudden they double you up, and you are back to square one. That only fuels the impatience of your opponent, and those who rush things tend to make big errors. Take advantage of it. Your other option of course is to be aggressive by raising pre-flop and using continuation bets. The idea here is that you bet into your opponent before they bet into you. In doing so, you keep the pressure on them. You are betting that they will not hit the flop, and most of the times they will not. But the risk here is that once in a while they will hit the flop and they will bring a world of hurt to you if you do not back down. Sensing strength or weakness in your opponent is critical because it tells you when to make a move, and when to back down. Being the Big Stack Your job is simple: Be the bully. That means you will not let opponents see cheap flops. If they want to see a flop, force them to throw money in the pot. This works well when the blinds are expensive and the opponent is tight because they will often fold. This tactic really enables you to set the price of the game. I remember playing in a tournament where by the time I got to the heads up phase, the blinds were still ridiculously low. So no matter what cards I would get, I would always open with the same raise. There were no free cards ever. By doing this continually and consistently, I was also very difficult to read and this is another huge benefit at this stage in the game. Even if the blinds were low, it did not matter. I raised the price to play poker by betting each time. Position Still Matters If you are going to raise pre-flop, do it when you will act first on subsequent betting rounds. Let me explain to you why this works: Lets say both players have 10K each in chips and the blinds are $200-$400. Those blinds are expensive. So you start your hand in the SB position and raise to $800 total, and the opponent in the BB calls the additional $400. Right now, you have $1600 in the pot and you will be the first to act after the flop. The secret is simple: Your opponent will not hit the flop most of the time, and that means if you bet, they will likely fold. Bet at least half the pot when you use this technique. It is not a fool proof system as they may in fact hit the flop on occasion, but in the long run you will grind them down effectively this way. Meanwhile, their chip stack will decrease while the blinds will increase. That means they will have to be a lot more aggressive if they are to get back in the game. It is therefore critical that you keep them under pressure until their only viable option is to move all in or fold. At that point, you can slow down a bit and wait for a strong hand. Remember, they are the ones feeling the heat, not you. Try this strategy today on Carbon Poker!

Like our site? You can link to us by copying the HTML below and pasting it to your website or blog:
<a href="http://www.poker-freerolls.net/">Poker Freerolls</a>