Heads up tournaments are a valuable tool

Lets talk about the value of heads-up play. I’m going to make a few points, and leave them for you to ponder. I feel this is a valuable game option for a lot of reasons.

Cheating. If you’re playing heads up, there can be no cheating. You are putting yourself less at risk than you would be in any other multi-player game. There is no possibility of collusion against you because you’re only playing against one person.

Tournaments. Who has ever won a tournament? Who has won a tournament and is terrible at heads-up play? I feel that in order to win a tournament, you have to be a good heads-up player, and not just for the time when it’s down to the last two people. When you’re at the final table, how many hands are one-on-one? You see few ‘family pots’.

Mind-set. As human beings, it is our nature to look for the one-on-one fight as opposed to the 8-on-1 fight, and it’s when you win that so called ‘fight’ you just want to pump your chest out and strut around. I think that increasing your skill level in heads-up is a GREAT confidence booster. It makes you play better poker.

I’m not going to sit here and say you will make a killing heads-up. You may, or you may not, but I like the options it provides. Who plays sit-and-go’s? Do you like sit-and-go’s but they sometimes take forever? Play a heads-up sit and go. Will cost the same to play, but will take 1/3 (at least) of the time. Also since you are playing for money on a sit-and-go it will give you the final table mentality. Also you can play a heads-up game on a regular table. Just look for the heads-up tab. I would not recommend doing this through, if you were going to play heads-up for money, do it on a sit-and-go, that way there won’t be the rake that takes you out of the bets. Plus, with a heads-up sit and go, you are limited to only losing your buy in for that particular game.  We all have our preferred sites. Some sites offer heads up for as little as .50 cents. This is a great opportunity to get that final table for the first place experience.

I hope I have shed some light on the value of heads up play and I hope that you will all give it a try if you haven’t already. I know that on Ultimate Bet (my preferred site) their heads-up sit-and-go’s range from $5 to $5000. That is for all games, Holdem, Omaha and 7-stud.

I want to thank a dear poker player friend of mine for this article. We share the same feelings on the subject so I felt it appropriate to share with you to help enhance your game.