Making A Stand Heads-Up
One of the hardest transitions for players to make in poker is going to playing against multiple opponents to heads-up. Whether it’s a large tournament or small Sit & Go, the typical player can’t make the needed change in their game in order to maximize their chances of winning once the play reaches heads-up. An aggressive player will call or raise with any two cards, while timid players will end up folding anything non-premium, giving away a fair amount of their chips in the process.
When you’re heads-up, you need to adjust your hand selection so that it is almost completely wide open. Against just one opponent, practically any two cards you hold will at worst be a slight underdog unless the other player has a large pocket pair, which won’t be a situation that comes too often while heads-up. Calling the big blind with 8-5 offsuit is easy, but calling a raise with this hand can be very difficult, but at the same time you can’t let your opponent push you around endlessly, eventually you need to take a stand.
For beginning players that find themselves in a heads-up situation against a more experienced opponent, I highly recommend looking for good opportunities to push all-in. It eliminates the other player’s choices of moves, leaving them to simply either call or fold. If you notice the other player is raising you constantly pre-flop, re-raise him all-in with practically any A-X combination, and especially hands like KQ. Making moves like these will hopefully slow them down on following hands, allowing you to finally see some flops.
