Poker Game Review - Heads Up

Heads up strategy is one of the most crucial areas in poker - how you play will determine whether you win or lose the pot.

This strategy can be applied to any type of games because whether you are playing solely heads up or a mulitplayer game you will arrive at a situation when its one against one.

I. Last Position Play

A. If you are second to act when all the cards are out and your opponent bets:
1. Call if your hand is not worth a raise but has a better chance of winning than the pot odds you are getting. Your chances of winning are the sum of the chances that your opponent is bluffing, plus the chances that your hand can beat his legitamte hand.
2. Raise if your opponent will still be the underdog after calling your raise. Raise also as a bluff if you think it ill work often enough to have positive expectation. Also consider raising with what appears to be a calling hand if your opponent is capable of throwing away a better hand than yours for one more bet.

B. If you are second to act when all the cards are out and your opponent checks:
1. Bluff if you think it will work often enough, remembering that a bluff does not tend to work as often in second position as it might in first position.
2. Bet your hand for value if you are a favourite to have the best hand, even when your opponent calls your bet. Don't bet in close situations to avoid a check raise.

II. First Postion Play

A. If you are first to act when all the cards are out and have a very strong hand:
1. Try to check-raise if your oppponent will bet and call your raise more than half as often as he will call you when you bet.
2. Come out betting if you don't think a check-raise will work often enough to be profitable or if you think you can win three bets when your opponent raises and you reraise.

B. If you are first to act and have a bad hand:
1. Bluff if you can get away with it often enough for the play to have positive expectation.
2. Otherwise check and fold if your opponent bets.

C.If you are first to act and have a hand that is favourite to win if called but not strong enough for you to try a check raise:
1. Bet if your opponent will call with more hands than he will bet with if you check.
2. Check and call if your opponent will bet with more hands than he will call with.
3. Never check and fold.

D.If you are first to act and have a hand that is a small underdog to win when your bet is called:
1. Bet if your opponent will call with more hands than he will bet, as long as some of the hands he would have bet, had you checked, would be worse than yours. Check and call if you think your opponenet will check behind you with a significant number of hands better than yours but might still bluff with some hands you can beat.
2. Check and call if your opponent will bet with more hands than he will call with, as long as your pot odds make it worth caliing when he does bet.
3. Check and fold if your opponent will almost never bet a hand worse than yours.