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Are you aiming to go far in Heads-Up tournaments? Learn these basic strategies today and before you know it you’ll be going further and further

Heads-up Poker tournaments are now one of the most popular forms of poker. They are considered to be a great test of skill and there are normally large sums of money involved.

Here are some helpful heads-up strategies:

Blind Levels and Starting Chips
• Before playing a tournament check how many big-blinds they start you with. Can you play a solid game early on or will it be necessary to start mixing it up from the start.
• What is the length of each level? Online this is not so important; however in a live game when the level goes up evaluate your chip position to see what style will work on that level.
Opponents
• Suss out your opponent, see if you recognise the style they are playing. Determine if they are capable of sudden changes and if you can identify them, do they have a certain betting pattern?
• If your opponent is extremely aggressive see if you can trap them with things such as sets and oddly flopped straights.
• If you have a big hand let your opponent bet into you. It is not uncommon to find yourself flopping on a big hand and check-calling a flop bet to discover a push on the turn.
Starting Hands
• As you will be playing a large amount of hands it will be necessary to relax your requirements for starting hands. If you have an ace, any pair, any two big cards or almost any suited connectors they are good hands to play.
• However, it is important to know when to give up on a hand. The flop becomes essential, most of the time you will abandon a hand if it doesn’t connect on the flop.
Knocking opponents out
• Occasionally, if you have an enormous chip lead it is ok to call a short stack with almost any two cards in the hope of knocking an opponent out.

• However, be careful with this strategy. If it goes wrong you can very easily put the other player back in the game. They will nearly always be short but this can often be rectified (from their point of view) in one or two hands.
Heads-Up tournaments are fun and you will often find it is possible to win a lot of money of inexperienced players, however, always do so with caution!