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Heads-Up Limit Hold’em – Part 1

Heads-Up Limit Hold’em – Part 1

I play a lot of heads-up limit hold’em. In fact, it probably accounts for about 30% of the hands that I play on a day-to-day basis. A few forum members know this and have asked for help with their heads-up game. Unfortunately it is probably more difficult to give advice on this form of holdem than any other. Any hand in isolation is virtually meaningless. The correct play in any given circumstances it almost always dependant on what you know about your opponent and how similar hands against them have played out previously in the session.

So instead I decided to write a series of articles on the subject. In the next three months, I will discuss heads-up limit hold’em in detail. Next month we will be looking at fundamental winning strategies, including how you need to adapt your play from what you are used to at longer-handed games. In the third and final part we will look at the different types of opponent you are likely to face and how to adapt to them.


However, in this article we will be looking at the more fundamental question. Should you be playing heads-up limit hold'em at all? In order to answer this question, I will go through the pros and cons of the game and hopefully help you determine if it is something that you would like to try. It is certainly not a game that is right for everyone.


Reasons to try heads-up limit


1. Exploit bad players
These days it can be tough to find really bad players at anything other than the lowest limits. If you find one, then playing them heads-up can be the best way to maximise your expectation and take their money most efficiently. After all, if you are playing 6-handed then a bad player's losses have to be divided up amongst you and four other players. If you play heads-up then everything they stand to lose, you stand to win (minus rake of course).

2. Lots of money to be won
As a result of the above, heads-up play can potentially be very profitable. In fact, if you find yourself in a good game and catch some cards, then you will probably make many times what you could hope to make in a full ring or even a 6-max game in the same number of hands. A bad opponent will probably get several opportunities to make mistakes each hand and you will profit from each mistake. I remember once winning over 100 big bets in two hours at one table playing heads-up. Can anybody remember doing that in a full ring game?

3. Fast and action intensive
If you're one of those people who find full ring games to be a bit dull because they are too slow and you aren't involved most of the time, then you will probably love heads-up play. You will be putting money in the pot most hands, and the hands fly past very quickly indeed. Depending on the speed of your opponent, you will probably get through a couple of hundred hands per hour.

4. Take advantage of your aggressive tendencies.
Very aggressive players tend to do very well in heads-up games, sometimes even those who have quite big holes in other areas of their game. You only need to make one opponent fold to win any pot and this is easier than you think, especially if your opponent is slow to adapt. If you are naturally a very aggressive player, maybe even too aggressive for full ring or 6-max games, then heads-up play might be for you.

5. It will improve your full ring game
You will find that playing a lot of pots heads-up will improve your overall game significantly. In this day and age, lots of full ring and 6-max pots are played heads-up and a player with lots of heads-up experience will often be able to win more pots than he is entitled. Obviously you can't blindly transfer you heads-up mentality to full ring games, but your blind play will improve and you will develop a good instinct for when your opponent can be pushed off his hand.

6. It will make you more comfortable when games start to break
If you can play 6 handed and you can play 2 handed, then from there it is fairly easy to fill in the gaps and work out how to play 3, 4, or 5 handed. This will make you more comfortable when games start to get short and more confident to stick at it in a breaking game where you know you have an edge.


Reasons to be wary of heads-up limit


Of course, there are two sides to every coin. As appealing as heads-up limit could be to some players, there are also a lot of reasons you might want to steer clear of it. These are summarised below.


1. Radically different from full ring games
We discussed a few paragraphs ago how playing short-handed can help you with your full ring game. Likewise, being a good full ring game player will obviously give you a head start when playing heads up. However if you try to take your full ring game and simply transplant it into heads-up play without making the necessary adjustments, then you will almost certainly come unstuck. In next months article we will discuss this concept further.

2. Huge swings
It's possible to win a lot of money in a short time playing heads-up, but consequently it's possible to lose a lot too. Heads-up games are extremely swingy and a bad run of cards can do a lot of damage to your bankroll, confidence and psyche. If you are really scared by variance and downswings, then you should probably stay clear of the heads-up tables.

3. Rake-fest
You will usually end up paying more rake if you play heads-up. Rake is capped a lot lower than for a longer-handed game, but on a per-person basis it still works out to be more. This makes it very important to make sure you have an edge in any game you play or you will just be shuffling money back and forth and paying the house for the privilege.

4. Finding a good game is paramount
Game selection is an important and often underrated skill in poker. However, game selection in heads-up play is everything ! You can be a great player, but if you are playing against a better one you will lose. Or you can be a bad player, but still win if you manage to get a game against a worse one. Some winning poker players are quite blasé about game selection and will just sit at random tables assuming they can win, but you simply can't do this playing heads up.

5. Difficult to assess your opponents
Although game selection is of paramount importance, it can be difficult to execute. Given a few orbits at a full-ring game you can usually separate out the good players from the bad, but at heads-up limit there is a thin line between insanity and genius. A poor player can easily look like a good player over a small number of hands if he is catching cards and getting lucky when timing his bluffs. Likewise a good player can look bad if he is getting unlucky and his timing is off. Poker Tracker stats are not terribly helpful because, as we will see next month, there isn't really any correct style for heads-up limit, it is all style and opponent dependant.

6. Tough to multi-table
Heads-up games have the advantage of being very fast-moving, but if you are a habitual multi-tabler, then this will obviously mean that you won't be able to play as many tables. I find two heads-up games simultaneously to need a lot of concentration and any more than that virtually impossible. Obviously some players will be able to manage more than others.


Hopefully reading this article has helped you to ascertain whether you would be like to play heads-up limit hold'em or not. If you decide it is something you would be interested in trying, or if you already play and are interested in improving your game, be sure to read next month where we will be looking at how to formulate a winning strategy.
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