Explanation of Heads up
There are two different scenarios where we will find ourselves playing heads up poker.
1. We are playing 🏧 a heads up cash game. Either we are deliberately choosing to play 2-handed, or we are playing a ring-game where 🏧 the other players have either left or haven’t joined yet.
2. We have reached the final table of a tournament and 🏧 there are only two players left.
Note that a hand may often be described as “heads up” even if multiple players 🏧 were dealt into the hand. This might occur when only 2 players see the flop after all other players fold 🏧 preflop. “We saw a flop heads up after open-raising preflop and getting one cold-caller”.
Example of Heads Up used in a 🏧 sentence -> It’s often said that heads up cash games require more skill than short handed or full ring cash 🏧 games.
How to Use Heads up as Part of Your Poker Strategy
While many professional cash game players choose to play six-max 🏧 or full-ring variants, a subset of professional cash players make most of their money playing heads up games. It’s generally 🏧 believed that expert heads up cash game players have the potential to make more money than six-max and full-ring players. 🏧 This is due to the ability to direct all of one’s volume specifically towards playing weaker opposition. Ring-game players will 🏧 often be dealing with a mixture of skilled and non-skilled opponents whereas if a heads-up player decides his opponent is 🏧 overly skilled he has the ability to walk away from the game and select new opposition.
Exact strategy adjustments for playing 🏧 heads up will depend on the poker variant, but here are some general guidelines.
1. Preflop ranges will typically be looser 🏧 when playing heads up. While a ring game player might often elect to play 20-25% of his holdings, a heads 🏧 up player will usually enter the pot with closer to 60-70% of starting hands.
2. Made hands on the later streets 🏧 are typically worth more in heads up games. For example in Hold’em, holdings such as Ace-high may be strong enough 🏧 to win a fair share of pots postflop. The same hand in a tight full-ring game is barely worth anything.
Deliberately 🏧 only targeting weak opposition when playing heads up is colloquially referred to as “bumhunting” and carries a negative connotation. Exclusively 🏧 targeting recreational players is considered bad for the poker ecology, but it’s also hard to argue with the business sense 🏧 of refusing to play strong opposition. So, while playing only weak opponents is excellent for making money, it is looked 🏧 down upon by some portion of the poker community.
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