Type of poker game
Heads-up poker is a form of poker that is played between only two
players. It might be💰 played during a larger cash game session, where the game is
breaking up and only two players remain on the💰 table, or where two players are trying
to start a game and playing heads-up while waiting for other opponents. It💰 is also a
necessary phase in most sit-and-go (SNG) poker tournaments; the single remaining
tournament winner will at some point💰 have to face only a single opponent.
Alternatively, heads-up poker may be played on purpose, either in a cash game💰 format,
or as a SNG, where two players play a winner-take-all tournament for a fixed,
previously agreed upon amount of💰 money. On larger online poker rooms and during certain
tournament series, one may stumble upon larger heads-up tournaments, usually in💰 the
shoot-out format. Usually, in order to ensure the fairness of the game, all players
finishing at the same level💰 of the tournament bracket will be paid out the same amount
of money, no matter what their finishing place is.
Strategy💰 [ edit ]
The rules of
heads-up poker are the same as in a game with three or more players, except💰 in
community card poker, the blinds are usually reversed in order to decrease the
positional advantage in matches between two💰 players of similar skill. Nevertheless, the
strategy employed tends to be vastly different from a multi-handed poker game. Since
only💰 two players take part in the hand, the chance of having the best hand is much
higher than in a💰 multi-handed game, which causes the game to become more aggressive
than normal. Bluffs for example become easier to pull off💰 in a heads-up game since it
is only necessary to bluff a single opponent in order to win the pot,💰 whereas in a
multi-handed game there is a greater risk of someone having a big hand that cannot be
bluffed.
The💰 heads-up limit Texas hold'em variation has been claimed to be "essentially
weakly solved" in January 2024 by the Cepheus poker-playing💰 bot.[1][2]
Tournaments [
edit ]
In poker tournaments heads-up poker is played as individual events and there are
also heads-up championships. Heads-up💰 poker tournaments are typically played as
knock-out tournaments. An example of a heads-up tournament is the National Heads-Up
Poker Championship.
