My Heads-Up Poker Lesson

So, I sat down to play on an online poker room last night and looked for the first time at heads-up sit n gos, and I decided to try my hand at them. I sat down at a $20 table and waited for an opponent who fancied their chances. I didn’t have to wait long, as after 30 seconds or so someone sat down opposite me. I'm not sure if I remember his username exactly, but I think it was tredt. A quick high card for the dealer button and it was heads-up poker time!It was at this moment that I realised I didn’t have a clue what my strategy was going to be, or how I was going to play. I’ve never played a heads-up sit n go before, my only heads-up poker experience to date has been at the end of regular sit n gos and my one-time glorious multi-table tournament victory (but that’s another story!). In those situations, the blinds were very high in comparison to stack sizes, so there wasn’t a great amount of skill involved, it was more a case of us both getting hands and getting our chips in pre-flop. Playing a dedicated heads-up sit n go though, with starting stacks of 1500 and opening blinds of 10/20 was a different story altogether.Let's get this heads-up started - my opponent had the dealer button, and the cards were dealt for the first hand. I have J2h, and tredt raises out of the small blind to 80 chips. I don’t fancy J2h for a 4xBB raise, and the first hand is his as I click fold and throw my junk in the muck. No problem, it’s only 20 chips, onto the second hand. I get dealt A3 on the button – aces are strong in heads-up poker, and it’s my turn to raise. I make my usual 3xBB raise to 60, and he thinks for a few seconds before making it 200 to go! I can’t really justify putting in 140 more with my rag ace, which is probably dominated, so I reluctantly fold and tredt adds more chips to his stack. Ok, next hand in the BB again and I get QTs. He makes the same raise as before and makes it 80. He’s not winning this one pre-flop – I’m liking my hand here so I put in 60 more chips to see the flop. Ace of hearts, jack of hearts, three of clubs - not exactly the flop I was looking for. I’m first to act so I check to him and wait to see what he does, and he decides to charge me 140 chips for the privilege of seeing the turn card. I’m a bit flummoxed, and I decide I have to fold – there’s just nothing I can do here.This carried on for a while – we saw one or two flops, but I didn’t really get the chance to do much. I felt completely out of control in this heads-up match – my opponent was so aggressive, and didn’t give me room to breathe. Before I knew it, I was down to around 800 chips and had won one pot (he folded to my pre-flop raise). I was beginning to realise that this guy can’t have a hand every time – he MUST be betting and raising with nothing quite often – and he’s absolutely dominating me! I decide that I’m going to play the next hand as if I got dealt Aces, whatever happens…The blinds are up to 15/30, and he raises to 4xBB (again...) from his small blind and puts in 120 chips. I have 48c but it doesn’t matter because, in my mind, I have two red aces. Here we go – I move the slider up to 330 and click the raise button. I was finally making a move right back at this guy - it felt so good!What did not feel good however, was when 3 seconds later, he re-raised all in. Argh! I was facing a decision for all my chips, and unfortunately I did not have those two red aces – I had a very miserable looking eight-high. I’m forced to fold and I’m left with a stack just shy of 500 chips, which is dwarfed by his 2500 stack. No time to feel sorry for myself – it’s on with the next hand, which for me is K4. I raise to 90 from the small blind, and he sets me all-in for my last 400 chips. I decided it was time to make a stand – he can’t have a hand every single time, and playing heads-up poker there’s a good chance my king-high is ahead. I pluck up the courage and call off my entire stack with K4 off-suit, which is not something I enjoy doing, but it proved to be a good call as he flipped over T4 (was this guy even looking at his cards!?). The flop helped no-one, unfortunately the turn brought a nasty looking ten, and the river paired both our 4s, giving him two pair, the tournament, and my $20.I may have only won one hand, but I feel like I’ve learned an awful lot about heads-up poker. I’ll know for my next heads-up game that I can’t just wait for good hands. In fact, I have to almost ignore my cards and concentrate on playing my opponent. So thanks tredt – you may have my $20, but I'd say that’s a reasonable fee for a comprehensive lesson in heads-up poker. Next time we meet, you’re going down!

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