I would recommend that everyone add heads-up sit and go’s to their repertoire of poker disciplines. You often hear the expression play the player, not the cards. We all know what that means, but do we all do it? No, we don't. That's why poker can be very profitable, because players can overvalue their cards and lose a lot of money with them. The heads-up SNG forces you to play the player, because oftentimes you get dealt complete garbage. If you wait for aces, then you are going to get blinded away into nothing.

Not only will the heads-up SNG teach you how to play junk hands and size up your opposition, there are also a number of other reasons why they should represent part of your poker portfolio:

First, they offer great experience for two poker scenarios a lot of players tend to struggle with: blind vs. blind battles – when two players are forced into a hand with each other with marginal hands, and when you find yourself heads-up in a SNG or a tournament. The first time I got heads up in a large tournament I managed to win it, despite having only 10 percent of the chips when we started, which I attribute to the fact that I have always played a lot of heads up SNGs.

The biggest reason to play a heads up SNG is the quality of opponents…they are usually pretty poor. A lot of weak players join heads up games because they are trying to recover a losing session quickly, and they consider a heads up match to be a coin flip to get their bankroll back in order. This means that you will often be up against losing players, players on tilt, and people and players playing above their bankroll. If you are playing in a $200 heads up match, there is a good chance you will be up against someone who should be playing only $50 games.

You also find yourself up against players whose only experience of heads up play comes from watching their World Poker Tour DVDs, who don't realize that when a player goes all in with king high they are doing so because they only have four blinds left. Because the blinds are low in a heads up SNG, you don't want to go broke or get involved in a big pot early with a nothing hand or small pair.

The early stages of a heads up match are all about observation. View it as a non profit exercise, where you are prepared to give up a few chips in order to learn something about your opponent. I like to raise the first hand regardless of what I have to see if my opponent is prepared to call with any two cards. This will help me later on when I want to know whether to value bet or slow play a big pocket pair.

On the flop, I would advocate calling a small bet even if you have no hand or no draw, simply to see how your opponent reacts. Does he fire a bet on the turn, or does he shut down? You might hit a pair on the turn, or a scare card might appear which you can now represent as a successful draw. I'd even make a case for calling a small bet on the river when the blinds are low, just to see what your opponent has and memorize how he/she played it.

In the middle to late stages, get aggressive. Raise pre-flop and continuation bet the flop. Most hands miss two-thirds of the time, so unless you are in against a total donkey/maniac, you will win more pots this way. If you are in against the donkey or the maniac, it’s simply a case of biding one’s time and waiting for a big hand in which to trap them.

Tighten up later on if you have a noticeable chip lead. A short-stacked player has to over commit to imperfect hands, and you are going to need something solid with which to take them out. A chip lead is easily lost in a heads up match. Seeing as you are obliged to get into an all in showdown at some point, the momentum can change rapidly when the blinds get bigger. Likewise, you have to start playing like a maniac and putting the pressure on your opponent when you are low on chips.

A heads up match can be a great way to make money. But even if you simply break even with them they are worth playing, because they equip you with a range of skills you can take to a full or short-handed table.

Finally, they are worth doing for the simple reason that every now and then a moron at the table will challenge you to a heads up match. They wont know what hit them.