Texas Holdem Poker Heads Up
Playing heads-up poker is not the same as playing against five or six players
Texas Hold'Em Heads-Up Blind Structure. Ask Question Asked 10 years, 2 months ago. Browse other questions tagged poker poker-texas-holdem or ask your own question. Aggression is an important part of any form of poker but with heads-up it's critical. You're in the blinds every hand. If you buy-in for $200 for a $1/$2 heads-up match and fold every hand, you will lose half your stack in just 66 hands. In a full ring game, you would have lost $18-$21. Texas Hold'em Poker Odds Calculator. 100% up to $500. Poker Tournament Rules Poker Casinos World Series of Poker World Poker Tour European Poker Tour NBC Heads-Up WSOP Circuit. Texas Hold’em Heads Up Poker is a video poker machine that is spread in several Nevada casinos. These include Aria, Bellagio, MGM Grand and Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, as well as well as Peppermill Casino in Reno and Montbleu Casino in Stateline at Lake Tahoe. @IGTNews on Twitter for up-to-date coverage and announcements or check us out on Facebook: company, prod.
How to manage your bankroll during a game of Texas Hold’em is an important skill to have. If you don’t have proper management of your bankroll, sooner or later, you will go broke, especially during a heads-up poker match. There are several strategies to manage your bankroll and they can differ from each other; what works in one tournament might not work on a cash game. For instance, while playing heads-up games, there is a smaller edge to have, so you’ll experience larger swings.
There are a few factors to be taken into consideration to properly handle your bankroll in a heads-up game. If you are playing cash games or SNG, your win rate or ROI, your psychological tolerance and discipline are needed; however, defining how many buy-ins you need to play in heads-up competition is harder because every situation is different.
For cash games, the general rule of thumb is to have 10 to 50 buy-ins. If you are choosing to play higher stakes, then you need to replace your bankroll. Also, if you are a player who lives off poker profits, then the closer you are to 50, the better. An expert recommends an ideal size of 40 buy-ins to be comfortable playing cash games.
Sit-and-Go’s offer a different scenario; however, the main idea is the same. The higher the stakes, the more money you should have in your bankroll. For $5 stakes, the recommendation is to have at least 15 buy-ins, but for $50 stakes, then it is better to have around 35 buy-ins.
Also, a big win rate means that you are making more money playing poker or you are winning more often than average. If you are certain you are a good player, you can risk having a smaller bankroll in comparison to a rookie player.
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To many, heads up is the purest form of poker. Playing heads up forces players to utilize many different skills in order to be successful. Some of the many skills include the ability to read hands, bluff (in correct situations), adjust constantly to your opponents playing styles, and value bet thin.
Another important skill that heads up players must develop is hand selection. When first starting out, some players will play nearly every hand (even out of position). They seem to think that they need to over compensate for heads up play. Other players will not play nearly enough hands causing them to lose money due to the blinds and/or their opponent's steals.
Texas Hold'em Heads Up Blinds
But just like anything else in poker (some will say life too), balance is important. In regards to heads up poker hand selection, you must find a middle ground between playing too many hands and not playing enough. And to help with that, I have created a basic starting hand guide below.
HU Poker Starting Hands - On the Button (In Position)
The button in heads up poker is no different then the button in a 6-max or full ring game - you will have position throughout the entire hand.
Because of the positional advantage, the button is where you should have the widest hand range. Many players will start by opening 100% of their hands and slowly shave their range back to adjust to how often they're being played back at by their opponent.
At the bare minimum, I will open up every suited connector, 1 and 2-gapper, broadways and pairs. I will also open any ace, king and most of my queen and jack hands with a kicker of 5 and above (all queens and jacks if suited). Any suited ten-x hand is good enough for me to open as well. If you were to look at all of these hands in Poker Stove, my range would be in the neighborhood of 70% at minimum.
Keep in mind that your range should fluctuate somewhat depending mostly on your opponent, game flow and at times even your image. If your opponent is 3-betting you relentlessly, you should open less, folding out hands you can't defend to 3-bets with. A majority of the hands you open you should be able to defend or 4-bet. On the other hand, if your opponent folds a lot pre or plays fit or fold on the flop, you can widen your hand range, sometimes playing as much as 100% of hands dealt.
When facing a 3-bet, I will have a slightly smaller range. I will generally defend versus 3-bets with any pair, any broadway, any suited ace and about half of my suited kings and queens (like K9/Q8 suited and above). I also defend with some suited connectors and one gappers like J8s or T9s. It's really villain dependent, but this should give you an idea of where I start at least.
HU Poker Starting Hands - In the Big Blind (Out of Position)
When playing heads up poker, the player in the big blind will be the player who is out of position for the entire hand. This is a huge disadvantage and because of this, you should tighten up the range of hands that you defend with.
As a rule of thumb, I will defend any pair, any suited ace, A9 off-suit and up, almost all of my broadways and suited connectors/1-gappers like J8s and maybe T9s. Looking at Poker Stove, my hand range will be close to 35% or 40% out of position. About 10% of these hands (suited connectors, suited kings, some suited queens) I will 3-bet with preflop.
Again, it's important to realize that this is more or less a default hand range. You should be adjusting the hands you're defending with according to how tight/loose your opponent is. The tighter your opponent, the tighter the hand range you should be defending with. The looser your opponent, the wider you can defend.
HU Poker Starting Hands - Summary
It should be painfully obvious that your opening hand range in a heads up game is much wider than what it would be in a 6-max or full ring game. If your preflop hand range isn't this wide (or close), you're too tight and you should widen up as it is likely costing you money.
Texas Hold'em Heads Up Odds
At the same time, I hope that you noticed that none of my preflop ranges outlined above are set in stone. Starting hand ranges in any poker game shouldn't be. You should be basing your preflop hand ranges based on your opponents, game flow and image. Your exact hand range will always be fluctuating.
So while a guide like the one I posted above will definitely help you in becoming a better heads up player, knowing how to adjust for the different in-game variables will help you in becoming not only a profitable heads up player, but a profitable poker player overall.