HEADS-UP PART II--YOUR MIND IS WHAT MATTERS

HEADS-UP PART II--YOUR MIND IS WHAT MATTERS

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Part two of this three part article discusses how to deal with various types of opponents and situations you may encounter playing heads-up.                   

 

Huck Seed, winner of the 2008 Canadaian Open Heads-Up Poker Championship

ANY PAIR

If an ace is 52% or better to win,it only makes sense that any pocket pair is even more valuable.  You have to play heads-up in the mind-set that any pair is good until proven otherwise.  Remember the majority of hands heads-up are won by a high card or single pair.

Don't interpret this to mean you should get married to your hands.  Even if you have AA it's typically between 5-1,6-1 to win.  That's 85% to win pre-flop.  Other than the times your up against another hand with an A, 15% of the time you are going to lose.

I was being repetitivlely redundant on purpose.  Too many players think that AA will win 98% of the time.  I hate to burst your euphoric bubble, but it's going to lose 15% of the time. (I hope I got the message across by now).

You need to walk the thin line of being massively aggressive without getting married to your hands.  This is why heads-up poker is so read-based.

At a full table it's almost never a good idea to be calling large bets with ace high (no pair;no draw); the same play heads-up can be the correct play more often than not, depending on the other player and the reads you can get from them.

HOW TO DEAL WITH AGRESSION

What if the person your playing against has taken control and is the aggressor?  You have two choices to deal with someone taking control of the match:  out aggro them or become a calling station.  If you have read that your opponent is playing a strictly aggro game, you have to deduce if the player is willing to back down from a show of greater aggression or not.

If the other player has a strong reading on you, they might be willing to push on you any time you come over the top, knowing your only doing it to take a stand, not because you have a big hand.  Pushing against them every time they show aggression can work in your favour sometimes, but it removes all stategy from your game.  You will get stacked everytime they fall into a monster.  There are times when this can be a decent stategy.

Being a calling station is always a bad thing at a full table.  Playing heads-up it can be a very strong advanced strategy to deal with an aggressor.  If you are able to put the other player on a hand and can figure out the odds of that hand versus yours including letting them see fourth and fifth street, then you are able to defeat them by calling.

A true calling station is someone who is unable to get a read and who therefore won't fold in the face of certain defeat knowing only the two cards they hold.  (I really have to watch myself on this one..give me AK and I just hate to fold it even though I can see a three card flush on the table and the guy is betting his butt off.  Fold two pair??? :( )  If you are able to read the strength of your opponents hand, you can make them believe you are a calling station when in fact your only calling with the best hand.

You make them believe it's fruitless for them to bluff.  If they believe they can't bluff, it shifts the control to you, allowing you more manuverability.

The calling station approach is only adviseable if you are able to get a read that indicates your ahead.  If you truly are ahead, lots of people will argue that you should aim to get as much money in the pot as possible.  I think that advice is only relevant on a full table.  Winning heads-up is more about the mental game than the cards.  You want to get the person into a frame of mind in which they think about you as a certain type of player.  You can then understand and manipulate their perception of you.

Gus Hanseen: One of the world's most aggressive players.

Here are two reasons why I think calling can be a better option than raising in this situation: 

•  If the player has nothing, they will fold to your raise.  If they are trying to mow you down with aggression, and believe your passive enough to fold, they will fire one or two more barrels at you, allowing you to pick up two more bets.
• By just calling the river, you get to show them your weak although good hand.  This will make them believe your a calling station, or they'll start thinking they're outmatched against you and start playing scared.

As you can see, instead of trying to figure out how your opponent perceives you, there's a much easier course of action.  Figure out how you want them to play against you and feed them an image that will make them do exactly that.

STACK SIZES

Pro players often talk about the small-stack heads-up advantage.  What it means is this:

• If the small stack is pushing everytime they have any semblance of a hand, it forces the big stack to have to tighten up and play just the cards.  This allows the small stack to steal, and gain back control of the match.

The small stack can climb back to be even just by stealing blinds and any hopeful limps/raises made by the big stack.  Once the small stack gets back to even strength, they will retain control of the match, allowing them an easier time taking the lead than the original big stack.

This isn't true if the small stack got there by being outmatched and outplayed.  If the player isn't able to hold their own in the match, they're going to need a few good hands to take the win.

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