Written By: Learn-Texas-Holdem.com
Hold’em is the most popular form of poker in the world today, thanks in large part to the popularity of the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. Texas Hold’em tournaments are usually played with a number of tables, and sit and go’s with a full nine or ten player table.
However, short-handed games are also extremely popular. Many online sites offer heads up play at a variety of stakes. If you’re going to try to play heads up hold’em, keep these ideas in mind.
You Need to Play Almost Every Hand
In a full ring game, it’s a good idea to sit back and wait for big hands, occasionally taking a stab with an unusual holding. When it’s heads up, you need to play nearly everything.
If you have an ace in your hand, you are a big favorite to be a head of a single opponent. If you flop a pair, you are often in the lead. Requirements for starting hands and for continuing with a hand drop dramatically in heads up play.
You Need to Hide and Pick Up Tells
In a full game, it’s much easier to hide little quirks that may reveal clues about your hand strength. In a heads up situation, your opponent has nothing to look at but you.
You need to be very aware of any signals you may be giving. By the same token, it is very important that you be able to read the strength of your opponent, as a single mistake can mean the end of the game.
You Need to Be Aggressive
As you play, the blinds will get high, meaning the more aggressive player will be able to amass a lot of chips very quickly. It’s important to attack as many pots as you can, both to try to gather chips and to let your opponent know that he cannot easily run you over.
The heads up version of online texas hold em is an entity unto itself. If you haven’t done it much, you’ll probably need practice to be successful. You will probably find that the more often you play heads up, the better a feel for it you will have and the better your results will be.