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Heads-up limit poker is a great choice
in the world of poker variations. If you
haven't tried this form of wagering, you
don't want to continue missing out! Here
are some tips to help you make your
experience great.
Heads-up limit poker makes you use your
knowledge about every human aspect of
the limit poker game, especially
aggression, hand selection, bluffing,
trapping, reading, value betting,
folding, and pot odds. Below we'll take
a look at each of these points in more
detail:
Use Aggression in Head-up Games:
The weak types will often find
themselves plowed over at heads-up
tables. After all, there are really only
two ways to win a pot: you can show the
better hand or your opponent folds. This
makes the impact of aggression on
winning enormous. The whole point of
using aggression in heads-up poker is to
cause your opponent to decide he wants
to fold more hands than you do. That
leaves the pot sitting there for you.
Aggressiveness in both betting and
raising pays very well with huge piles
of chips coming your way at the heads-up
table.
Selecting Which Hands to Play:
Play those hands which are really worth
putting money in the pot over when you
do have the best hand. Then, simply
avoid wasting money on bets when you
have a bad hand. Too often, heads-up
limit players let the competition get by
without paying to see flops or they let
the small blind limp in. In heads-up
poker, you must raise when you hold
Aces, Kings, Face/kicker, middle-high
suited connectors -- even pocket pairs.
Always raise for value, of course; but
even when you don't hit your draw, go on
and play it out. This type of aggression
will really start to build your
bankroll.
Bluffing the Opponent:
In heads-up limit games, it will be
quite often that neither you nor the
other player hit on the flop. This is
the where bluffing and aggression skills
combine to allow you to grab the pot
even in situations where you have rags.
When the turn comes, the important
action begins and you can make things
really happen here with a check-raise
bluff or a raise following the
competition's action. If the opponent is
actually faking the attack, you can
catch him with his own trick regardless
of what you hold. Watch for subtle
patterns or timings on the part of the
competition that can help you identify
what their plan could be; this is
absolutely crucial to successfully using
this tactic. Every once in a while, you
should simply toss one out there just to
see what happens. If you get do caught
in your bluff, you can switch to a tight
style for a while, then draw your
opponent in for the kill, playing on
that loose image to your advantage.
Trapping the Opponent:
In scenarios when your competition
believes you are bluffing, trap him and
take his money. A check-raise
combination, backed up against yet
another raise at the turn which get
called, then added to a river bet gets
you at least twice the big blind and
probably more. You could fold on the
flop if the pot is un-raised, 4 times in
a row if you pull a trap every seventh
hand. When playing against a really
aggressive competitor who loves to run
you over with his betting, sit back and
let him do all the work, then you can
pound him with check-raises and raises
when you do have a winning hand. You
can, financially, afford to fold when
you hold no decent cards because your
traps will make up for the loss. If you
have an A high hand or low pairs, you
can afford to call down to showdown if
necessary.
Reading your Opponent:
The ability to get an idea of what the
other player may hold at the heads-up
limit poker table can be an extremely
powerful tool. Reading another person is
not easy and it requires skill but it is
not that complex. It is simply the
process of looking for patterns in
behavior that are anomalies. Does the
competition check-raise? Are strong
hands when the person makes moves? Does
he normally bet low pairs? What does he
do with holding draw hands? You need to
play for quite a while with a person to
determine this, so raise frequently on
the flop or call to see the turn so you
can figure out what's really going on in
his or her mind. Since there are only
three choices for action: bet, check,
call but by adding a raise or calling
the flop, you want to increase those
options from 3 to 9: bet-bet, bet-check,
bet-call, check-bet, etc. Pay extremely
close attention to the competitor and it
will really pay off in learning to read
heads-up players.
Value Betting:
Betting for value in Heads-up poker
means getting in a raise at the turn and
a river bet, ensuring your opponent must
pay to see a showdown when you have a
strong hand. Even when your hand is
weak, you can always gain some fold
equity. When the competition is playing
loosely, grab equity from the bet with
an A-x calling your bet. Many times, a
player will check at the river when
holding a winning hand because they
think you might have one that's better
than theirs. In heads-up, there are just
not a whole lot of successful draws, so
an opponent who sticks right with you
all the way to the river is probably
calling with a middle or low pair; most
likely he does not have a monster hand.
Get that extra bet in so you can take
even more of his money; there's no
reason to be afraid of doing this.
When to Fold:
There are times that folding is the
sensible option. Get out of a hand if
you have nothing and folding will save
you a sizeable bet or two. There are
times when being willing to fold when
you're sure your opponent isn't bluffing
is a lot like extracting an extra bet of
your own since you avoid losing more
chips than absolutely necessary. In a
ring match it is very hard to fold with
some of the big pot odds; at times there
are twenty big blinds or more in the
pot, so winning only 5 percent of the
time makes this call correct. In
heads-up, the pot is more likely in the
3 to5 big blind range, making it
sensible to fold if you know you can't
win. Once the pot is really big, it
becomes harder to fold at critical times
such as the river, given the pot odds.
The keys to success are folding early
when you have nothing and folding when
you're in trouble; don't wait until late
when you find that you are
over-committed to that pot.
About Pot Odds:
Pot odds are just not that important in
heads-up games because you will hardly
ever call because of the pot odds. Play
those flush draws and straight draws
aggressively, no matter what the odds,
because aggression provides huge value
and folding equity. Even when you have
an inside straight draw, it can work
well for you when you decide to bet if
the action is checked to you or if you
are first to act since your opponent
just might fold to you. If you happen to
miss the draw, continue your attack in
hopes the opponent will fold; of course,
you might hit your draw and win up with
a well-disguised hand to use for
trapping.
In Closing:
Playing one-on-one matches seems to some
players to be very difficult at first.
Even the well-seasoned player of other
types of poker who is just starting
heads-up may find the transition
challenging. It is a skill that becomes
valuable in the long term because
tournament poker players benefit and
non-tournament limit players at times
find themselves in games that are
short-handed.
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