There’s a double entendre for Hold ‘em heads up: it’s the all-in game. When played correctly, heads up play can be very profitable. However, it’s a fact that most people lose money heads up. sloppy play, bad beats, and bad decisions are there to result from a general lack of direction.
Don’t be aware of how easy it is to make these mistakes. Yes, it’s easy to get completely committed in a heads up, but with a few simple changes, you can save yourself a lot of money. Let’s look at some tips and a strategy below in case you just want to get it over with.
Never call just with a bad hand. This is the worst thing you can do. What’s worse is that you get a free card that you should not have been playing.
Establish your hand range. If you’re playing well, you want to force players into calling you with hands like Ace King, Ace Queen, pocket pairs, and suited connectors. If you’re losing, you want to limit your opponents’ range of cards to Ace Queen, Ace Jack suited, King Queen suited, Jack Jack suited, and Tens or less.
Many Hold ‘em heads up players think pocket pairs are invincible. Well, of course they’re not. You can take a free card when you hit the set, and you can play these cards in many different ways. Definitely don’t play them every time, and definitely not all of the time.
Let’s say you’re holding 6-7 and the flop comes 8-9-3 with two clubs. If everyone checks, what are your odds of hitting the flush on the turn? There are only two cards, eight clubs, and four flush cards left. roughly about 11:1. Draw four cards, and you’re odds are about 18:1. This is good enough to call and see the turn if you want to keep gambling.
However, if someone has raised, you should probably fold. Why? Because the odds of hitting two pair, even with the best hand, are usually low. You’re playing for the straight and your odds of hitting it are about 18%. You’re better off getting out now.
If you raised, and someone re-raised, you should probably throw your hand away since you can’t afford it if you miss the straight. 18% odds are good odds. You can’t afford to lose an all-in wager against someone who made a single chip raise.
Another benefit of early exit signs is that it lets you observe your opponents. If you’re planning to bluff on the flop or turn, you can get a read on your opponents. If they have the skills, they probably aren’t going to call you. If they do call, the chances are they don’t have the goods. This lets you make a prudent decision based on your observations.
There’s also the risk of giving free cards. Sometimes you can get very unlucky and your Reds, or Kings, or Queens, won’t make the straight. If you’re making a smallish bet on the flop, and a stronger hand like a high card flops, you give away a free card. However, if you’re playing against very good players, and no free cards were given to them, you still have a good hand.
The thing about these smallish bets is that they’re still money. If you make a lot of bets, you’reoading up quite a bit to test the water with. Sometimes, you can get quite a bit of money out of your opponents, and you don’t want to blow it playing a risky game.Smallish bets aren’t dangerous to large bets, so if you can sense that your opponents are making a lot of smallish bets, you can take advantage of it. They may be fishing for one of the two types of hands – big cards or bottom pairs – and when they hit the flush they’ll most likely win.
However, there’s a new batch of danger out there. Online, poker players are battling a new enemy. It’s not the dreaded computer opponent; it’s the dreaded EV alongside an EV enabler.
One of these figures popped up on poker forums over the last couple of years, and blogs and articles have tried to tie them into EV theory. The term evaporates once you understand that it stands for Exploitable Vickering, which is when a player evades the bidding process by Knowing situations. Some afapoker forums imply that knowledge of the EV concept is core to becoming a solid poker player, although it seems a bit bold to rely on such a theory in a game that relies on guesswork and reading of faces.
