The Endgame: Heads-Up in No Limit Tournament Texas Holdem Poker
[ Poker endgame strategies for Heads-Up Texas Holdem. ]
by: Graham Easton
Many players fail when they play “Heads-Up” in Texas Holdem Poker. The reason for this is that they rarely practice their endgame.
The game is no limit Texas Holdem Poker, and you’ve made it to the end of a tournament. You’re playing “Heads-Up”. The one thing that never ceases to amaze me is how people rarely practice this part of their game, indeed it’s usually an after thought. “I’ll deal with the end if I’m lucky enough to get there”.
The reasons for poor play are easy to see. Most players never get to Heads-Up in major tournaments and in poker as in all other things in life, practice makes perfect. I’d like to start by recounting a common problem, and one I witnessed last night at the 7th www.Texashold-empoker.com monthly $1000 Texas Holdem Freeroll for members. When the tourney got down to the last 2 players the respective chipstacks for first and second were $300,000 for the chipleader and $120,000 for the shortstack. Blinds at this point in the game (originally a field of 327) were 15,000 and 7,500 respectively. The chipleader, as was to be expected, played the part of the bully raising each and every hand (as you should). The second stack, and ultimately second place in the tournament was waiting for good cards. Obviously you can’t do that in this position because if you lose a few blinds there is no coming back. In the end he folded every raise - even at the end. The game ended with small stack now on 18,000 folding a blind of 15,000 because he felt he couldn’t win with whatever cards he had. What was all the more amazing about this really poor play was that the guy who came last was in all other respects a good Texas Holdem player. I played with him throughout the first half of the game and he forged ahead on our table becoming table chip-leader early on. A position he maintained that until the final table.
Heads-Up Strategy
Enough about what not to do, what about your strategy? Well first of all you have to accept that the dynamics of the game have changed, and so must your play. Earlier, when sitting among 9 other competitors you must be cautious of other people’s potential hands. In heads up this doesn’t really apply. The obvious statistic is that you are a 50:50 chance of winning - far better than normal. It also means that if you hold a King or an Ace then you are odds on favorites to win the hand.
Blinds at this point in a major tournament will be huge and well worth stealing. Typically you won’t find it too easy to steal short of going allin pre-flop and I would suggest that is the way to play A or K hands. If you’re called you are probably ahead, and if not, you’ve just gained by adding a couple of significant blinds to your pot. Whatever you do, you should be raising every hand. A raise each hand (even with 2,7offsuit) will more often than not cause your opponent to fold his weak hands rather than take the chance with something lousy. Conversely, if someone bets at you (especially when you are big blind) then you should call it to see a flop. Hit anything on the flop and you should be allin. There are two times to consider a fold, when you are small blind, you have low mismatched cards, and have been going allin successfully for the prior couple of hands. The act of folding makes it look like your allins were considered plays with high cards or significant pairs. When you wade back in with the next significant raise or allin play it’ll create the illusion of a strong hand. If your bluffs are called, you still have a 1 in 3 chance even with your 2,7 against say AK. It goes without saying that if you come up against AA, KK, or QQ you will probably lose. This possibility should be dismissed however because each is a 220/1 event and your average heads up match lasts 10 hands or less.
It’s time to review the game described at the start of the article. It’s fair to say the big stack had the right strategy, but it’s always easy to push people around as the significant chipleader. The correct play with 120,000 in chips against 300,000 is to allin each of at least the first 5 hands. If the chipleader calls and loses (almost a 50:50) then you become chipleader at 240,000 against 180,000. That’s a psychological blow that your opponent may not recover from and he’s likely to want to conserve chips having just lost a big allin. Once your ahead you can be more selective about your opportunity, and given the standard of Heads-Up play around it’s quite likely you’ll be given the time to make a play on your terms. The only time where I would call the blind or slow play is with what should be the winning hand no matter what - the AA, KK, QQ situations that you rarely get heads up. If you follow an aggressive allin strategy as described above the sudden switch to simply calling the Big Blind will be misinterpreted as weakness and will in all probability be met with misplaced badly timed aggression.
Finally I’d recommend you practice at a home game against your friends. Alternatively there are a number of low value Heads-Up games that you can join (2 player Texas Holdem Poker tournaments) offered by most of the online rooms. All that remains is to wish you good luck at the tables.
About The Author
Graham Easton is the author of this article. He is the webmaster at www.texashold-empoker.com and has a track record in large Texas Holdem Poker tournaments with fields of 300-1500. He has made it to Heads Up 5 times in the last 15 tournaments (1 in 3) he’s played winning $9,090 from $430 buyins in the 5 months October 05 to Feb 06.
Identify Your Opponent to Maximize Value at the Texas Holdem Poker Table
[ A nice review of different Texas Holdem poker playing styles. ]
by: Graham Easton
Texas Holdem Poker players have varying styles of play and different levels of experience. If you can quickly identify the type of player you are up against and their skill level you can use this knowledge to alter your playing style and maximize your opportunities.
There are many types of Texas Holdem Poker player, and, of course, many levels of experience between those players. Texas Holdem the card game is similar to pushing spaghetti around a plate – some will get more, others will get less and the house always takes a slice. The statistics of cards over time dictate that we all have the same opportunities. The key to maximizing our potential gains is to quickly identify your opponent type and skill level. If you can correctly identify your opponent then you will be able to alter your playing style to maximize your win, and just as significantly, minimize your loss.
Let’s review the various playing styles that you will come across in an average Texas Holdem Poker cash game. Players will either be:
• Rocks
• Tight Players
• Calling Stations
• Maniacs
And within these styles you will find a range of aggression that goes from passive to aggressive. What follows are some strategic hints and tips to help you play against each form of poker player in an online environment.
Rocks
Rocks are the most common type of Texas Holdem Player. They are the easiest to beat and usually are inexperienced new players who think the game revolves around the cards that are dealt. It’s also the most natural playing style and so you will come across them regularly. These are the people you should look to play against. Controlled aggression is the way to proceed. Bet at these players when flops look ugly and they’ll most likely fold. If they re-raise you in return, step aside and let them take the hand, coming right back at them next round. A rock who has been sitting folding the last 20 hands, only to come out betting, is the easiest read of all. If you can’t see them coming then I’d suggest you take up a different game.
Tight Players
Tight players are usually battle hardened. The difference between a tight player and a rock is that they understand the need to come out more often, with the occasional bluff here and there. More importantly they usually use the time spent sitting out, to identify opponent characteristics in order to play their weaknesses. The best of all players sit in this category – Tight Aggressive No Limit Texas Holdem players need to be identified early on and avoided at all cost. Find one and you should re-examine your table selection (yes you should move table). Real life examples of this type of player would be Howard Lederer and Erick Lindgren.
Calling Stations
Calling stations present an interesting playing style and are the second most common type you’ll find in online poker. By definition fairly weak, these players rarely take the initiative and thereby have to rely on the luck of running up against an aggressive player while holding the nut or near nut hand. More often than not these people will lose because they are:
1) Playing their cards and not their opponent
2) Have no initiative
3) Regularly rely on card catching strategies
It’s worth pointing out at this stage that card catching is a bad idea in almost any circumstances (except as part of a semi-bluff play).
Maniacs
Maniacs are a rare breed of player seldom seen in low limit or tournament Texas Holdem Poker games. They have no fear of losing, indeed it’ll look like they want to, and it is this that sets them apart from most players online today. Difficult to play against, these opponents rely on your fear of losing your stack to gain chips. Often seen with large chip stacks relative to the table, Maniacs will bet large regularly, and whatever hand you choose to play, it is likely that you will have to be prepared to go all-in with it. No card catching against these opponents – if you try you will be punished.
The identification of Maniacs is easy, as is your assault on their playing style. Clearly the weakness these players have is that they are susceptible to large pocket pairs (AA, KK, QQ, even AK). The difficulty is that you will likely have to wait a good number of cards before you get to play such a hand. Maniacs are far from stupid (they often evolve in experience terms from Rocks or Calling Stations that have read Doyle Brunson’s Super System books and progressed from there. To hit them properly you have to either get lucky early on with the big pair or play enough cards so you are not identified as a waiting Rock (obviously you don’t want them to get out of your way when the time is right).
If you beat an aggressive Maniac once, you’ll find they go on Tilt really easily, which provides further opportunity for the brave. I recall hitting one for $800 from $200 in 3 hands because he went all-in 3 times in a row with no cards at all. He incorrectly judged that I would fold rather than re-stake my entire winnings on each of the next 2 poker hands. Fortunately for me they were fairly solid starting hands in the circumstances but I can tell you it’s not easy going all-in pre-flop for $500 with just King Jack. I’d be mad to do that in any other circumstance but I felt I had a good read on the player type and his hand which turned out to be 92 unsuited didn’t stand up.
Hopefully you’ll observe playing styles and look to pick off Rocks and Calling Stations. If you come up against a tight (particularly Tight Aggressive) player, with no other easy to beat players around, you should move on. I’ve been at many tables where the poor players have lost and left, the good ones remain, and one off those triggers the table’s break up by saying “no easy money here, the only winner will be the rake, lets move on.” If you’ve not had this said to you, or you’ve not made the statement yourself then consider that you may be a fish.
About The Author
Graham Easton is webmaster of www.texashold-empoker.com. He has a track record in No-Limit Texas Holdem Poker Tournament play of 1 win, 4 second places and a 10th out of his last 20 large online tournaments in fields ranging from 300-1500 players.
