Victoria Coren 

More aggression, less patience: how to play heads-up

Victoria Coren on poker: Last week, I beat the world champion in a heads-up game. How did I do it?
  
  


Last week, I talked about the importance of playing strongly around the bubble of multi-table tournaments, to pick up vital chips, regardless of your hand. If you struggle to move chips without good cards, heads-up poker is a good way to practise and build up the muscle.

It was a proud moment for me, last week, when I played heads-up in a $10,000 tournament against the world champion of poker, Peter Eastgate, and beat him. In my demonic online practice sessions, I managed to win seven $500 heads-up matches in a row. Unfortunately, having beaten Eastgate, I stayed on to play Juha Helppi and the crafty Finn knocked me out after a four-hour marathon.

Nevertheless, with a world champ scalp under my belt, here are my heads-up tips.

With only two cards out against you, always assume your opponent has nothing. You have the button (good position) every other hand. You should raise from the button, with anything, about 75% of the time – more, if the cards happen to be good. Any picture card is good. Any ace or pair is huge.

Because you have position so much of the time, you don't want to play out of position if you can help it. A good opponent will raise regularly from the button and you should not be calling these bets.

Most of the time you should fold, some of the time you should reraise.

Reraise a decent size: if your opponent is going to play a pot with positional advantage, make him pay for it.

If the blinds approach a tenth of the average stack, your reraises must be all in. Your opening raises could also be all in, with anything. It's a good way to practise for all those tournament situations where aggression is more important than patience.

Victoriacoren.com

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*