Hold Em Authority - Texas Hold Em Strategy and advice for all levels of players

At one point in my poker playing career, I became obsessed with heads up sit and gos. I played and played and played, and as with anything that you do enough, patterns started to develop. There are a few things I can tell you that have worked for me. There are also a few things that worked for others against me, and I would like to learn how to incorporate these things into my game.1. Pay attention - Quick quiz: how many opponents do you have to pay attention to in a heads up sit and go? Answer? one. I’ll put a little disclaimer on this quiz, because you should be paying attention to yourself as well, but I don’t think you can consider yourself an opponent of, well, yourself. If you can focus on one person throughout a tournament, everyone but the best players will begin to fall into a pattern. If you care at all about the game of poker and your success in the game, you are more than capable of paying attention to your opponent for the half hour or so that the sit and go will last. Be aware, though, that if your opponent is capable of falling into patterns that can be caught, you are just as capable. This leads me to point number 2.

2. Mix it up - Giving your opponent an advantage in heads up play is the first step to losing. If you decide to bet the min every time you have top pair and bet twice the size of the pot when you have bottom pair, eventually your opponent will catch on and exploit your betting weakness. However, if you bet half the pot when you have top pair and half the pot when you have bottom pair, your opponent has to respect the fact that you could have any range of hands.

3. Loosen Up - You have to play more hands in heads up play, period. You have to play hands you would normally never dream of playing at a full table (or even a shorthanded table, for that matter). Suck it up and do it, or be prepared to watch your stack continuously dwindle throughout the match.
4. Be Aggressive (Later) - When the blinds are 10/20 and you have 1500 chips, folding some less than average hands isn’t going to kill you. However, when the blinds are 75/150 and you have 1500 chips, folding these hands can deal a large blow to your stack. If you are dealt 9 3 in the small blind, have the courage to raise it, or if you’re a real pussy, at least call. If you raise it the way you raised a real strong hand earlier, you might just get away with it.
5. Reraise - A raise doesn’t mean too much in heads up play - but a reraise still shows some serious strength. Any two cards can be raised with preflop because only one person is being forced to fold - not a whole table. Preflop reraising with a strong Ace is something I find myself doing quite often. It shows that you won’t be pushed around, and it also shows that you have a good hand, and your opponent will have to pay to play. Postflop reraising is an extremely powerful move, and when used correctly, can be a potent weapon in a poker player’s arsenal.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Intermediate Hold Em Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.