Poker 1v1 Strategy

Poker Tournament Tip 1: Steal a Lot, But Don’t Go Overboard. “Open small and often.” This phrase. We talked to experts about the best two-player board games including Patchwork, Codenames: Duet - The Two Player Word Deduction Game, Twilight Struggle Deluxe Edition, Hive: A Game Crawling With. If none of these boxes are checked, get up and find a more profitable table (unless you feel like putting your poker strategy to a test). If you play online poker, make sure you take advantage of the table statistics provided by most poker sites. Choose an online poker table with a high average pot size and a high percentage of players seeing a.

• Poker 1v1 Strategy Game
• Poker 1v1 Strategy Games

Whether you are a multi-table tournament expert, a Sit’N’Go grinder, or a shorthanded cash-game shark, adapting your game heads-up can be quite tricky. You don’t have to play HUSNGs or HU cash in order to know that, there are many other ways you can end up playing Head2Head. Maybe you want to increase your ROI and are aware of your heads-up leaks - doesn’t matter the type of game, single-table tournament, MTTSNGs or just plain ol’ MTTs. Hopefully you will eventually play heads-up for the win - or maybe you are sick of waiting around for some seats to become available and you want to start the action by opening up a cash table, in all cases you have to approach poker differently than you usually would at a shorthanded or a full ring table.

Head2Head is a different card game filled with many ups and downs, variance on steroids, and a great deal of money up for grabs. Here are some basic adjustments you ought to make when playing against a single opponent.

Loosen Up!

The first and most important adjustment you have to make is loosening up. And by up, we mean way up. It doesn’t matter if you play a boss-like 30/25 at your usual games, these sort of stats are nitty to say the least in a heads-up play. In fact, you have to play somewhere close to 70% of your hands and even more when in position to optimize your chances of winning.

Position is even more important during heads-up play as it gives you countless opportunities for bluffing, pot-controlling, and value-betting. Remember that the small blind is king, you will have position over your opponent the entire post-flop play so don’t be afraid to open up what you would otherwise consider junk in your usual games. This means things like suited three-gappers, small suited one-gappers or Jack-rag.

And to further convince you about the dramatic shift you have to make, consider what the heads-up players usually say to newbies:

While you can't take the saying perfectly literally, think of the strength of the two hands in play. Only four random cards are dealt before the flop. There is a high probability that both players have a weak holding, which leads us to our next section:

Bluffing Is Mandatory

Indeed, there is no turning back. The nit play has no place in heads-up, so you'll have to mix it up and bluff a decent amount of time. Why? You guessed it, because the opponent will usually have a weak holding, some kind of a marginal hand that can’t stand pressure.

Don’t be afraid to double- or triple-barrel if necessary while at the same time keeping in mind the opponent in front of you. Is he the type of player who can call three bets with Ace- of King-high? Be sure to have a plan and only bluff on favorable boards and cards. Will he fold a bottom pair to pressure? Then use this weapon and kill you opponent at the heads-up poker table. Either way, you’ll need some serious soul-reading skills in order to crush your foe.

Again, we can’t stress enough about the importance of position: use bluffing in position when you are last to act and you have gathered as much info as possible, then open up your small blind aggressively. Yes, that’s right, AGGRESSIVELY!

Aggression Is Key

Playing passively can hurt you a lot in a heads-up game. Don’t just complete the blind and call post-flop. There is a lot of dead money in the pot - in many cases not even contested - and the only way to get the goods is to bet and raise like you've got the nuts.

Also take into consideration the rake which is sky-high in heads-up cash. Why? Because there is a lot of action involved and a lot of hands that are defended, many times even turned into a bluff. If you play passively, you will not only lose to your opponent but also to the House. You can’t give up that many pots anymore because all those pots will come back to haunt you in the long run. In other words, don’t play like it’s your usual 12-table niting-down grind, not paying that much attention to the way your opposition is playing.

Heads-up play requires your full-commitment on the poker felt, that’s why you won’t see many heads-up players - tournament or cash - playing more than two to four tables. So go out there and play poker like it was meant to be played, pushing your opponent’s buttons, making him tilt, and forcing him to spew away money, another major plus for being aggressive.

Heads-Up Play: The Purest Form of Poker

All the above adjustments and recommendations make heads-up a both loved and hated poker variation. Loved because of the action and hated because of the high variance. Many even say that heads-up play is the purest form of poker. Why? Because to really be a crusher, you have to be an expert at how to play your whole range on a variety of boards. This usually requires a lot of experience, not to mention excellent hand-reading skills.

In Head2Head, playing the top range is not enough anymore and bluffing becomes a must. Versus good opponents, you have to play balanced in order to survive and you also have to adjust and re-adjust your strategy on the go as the meta-game changes.

How do you adjust heads-up? Be sure to leave a comment about your head2head play below.

One of the newest casino table games popping up in casinos across the country is the 'Texas Hold'em Bonus' game. Simply, it pits each player against the dealer in heads-up hands of Texas Hold'em poker. Whoever has the best five-card poker hand at the end, wins.

As in Blackjack, you only have to beat the dealer's hand to win, not the other players at the table. If you're familiar with how to play Texas Hold'em, it should be a snap to understand & sit down and play. Here are the basic rules.

Texas Hold'em Bonus Table Game

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 15 minutes

How to Play

1. To start playing, each player puts up an ante wager, and have the option of putting up a bonus jackpot wager as well.
2. Each player and the dealer are dealt two cards, face-down. These are the hole cards.
3. If you want to play your hand, you put down a bet that's exactly twice the amount of your ante. In other words, if your ante bet was $5 and you want to play, you have to put down exactly $10. If you decide not to play and fold, you lose your ante bet.
4. The dealer deals three cards face-up in the center of the table. This is also known as the flop. These three cards are community cards, meaning all players can (and will) use them to make their final five-card hand.
5. Players now have the option to bet again, and can only bet the same amount as the ante (so if the ante was $5, the bet is $5 this time). Or players can check, which means they don't bet. You don't have to bet -- you get to keep playing whether you bet or check.
6. A fourth community card is dealt face-up. This is also known as the turn.
7. Again, players can bet or check. The bet is again the same amount as the ante bet. This is the last opportunity for players to bet. Again, you don't have to place a bet here to keep playing.
8. A fifth and final community card is dealt face-up on the table. This is known as the river.
9. The dealer turns up his/her cards and shows what the best five-card poke hand the house can make, combining the dealer's hole cards and the community cards.
10. Player by player, the dealer will turn over each player's hole cards and determine the best five-card poker hand. To make the best five-card hand each player can use one, two, or none of his hole cards in combination with the five face-up community cards.
    The dealers are trained to pick out each player's best hand, but you should also be able to tell what your best hand is. Make sure you know what beats what in poker.
11. The dealer determines if the player's hand or the dealer's hand is higher.
12. If the player has the higher hand, he/she wins. The house pays 1-1 on all bets, and in some cases, the ante as well.
    If the player loses, the house takes all the bets & the ante, too.

Bonus Jackpot Wagers

• If players have made bonus jackpot wagers, the dealer checks to see if the player's two hole cards win a bonus. This bet is independent of the five-card poker hand, and may be a winner even if the player's hand is a loser.
• Usually, if a player has any pair in the hole, that is a winning bonus hand. Other hole card combinations that usually win bonuses are A-K, A-Q, and A-J. Each casino has slightly diffent hands that payout, which should be posted at the table.

Poker 1v1 Strategy Game

Tips

Poker 1v1 Strategy Games

• Don't play this game as you would a regular game of Texas Hold'em. Since you are only playing the dealer, you can play almost any two cards.
• The only hands that you should probably make a habit of folding are unsuited, unconnected low cards both below seven, such as 2-7 or 3-6.