Make Money as a Heads-Up Poker Tournament Specialist

Most professional poker players agree that heads-up poker is the truest, most raw form of the game. Most newbies and intermediate players think it’s all about luck. While luck can play an important role in any individual heads-up tournament, skill wins over the course of time. In this article, I’m talking about 2-player heads-up tournaments, and playing them to make long-term real money online poker profits. This article is focused on how to win, not how to play a short-stack or how to defend against bad luck. I’ll talk about those aspects of heads-up poker tournaments in another article.

Fishy Poker Sites & Tournament Fees

For players who are looking to make consistent profits with heads-up tournaments, it’s very important to play at the right poker websites. Some sites have very stiff competition, while others are much weaker. In general terms, the biggest poker rooms have the fishiest players because they’re constantly signing up newbies. Sites that do less marketing and have stagnant player numbers tend to have the same players grinding it out against each other. The average skill level tends to be higher which means these players are tougher to beat.

When you’re playing a large number of tournaments every day, tournament fees can really add up. Some sites have a 10% or higher tournament fee, while others are as low as 5%. This makes a significant difference to overall profits in the long run. For example, in £20 heads-up tournaments, some sites charge a £2 fee while others charge £1. If you’re playing fifteen matches a day for five days a week, that adds up to a difference of £75 per week, or £3900 per year. That equates to winning an extra 195 matches.

Also, some sites have a 10% or higher fee for low-stakes tournaments, and lower their fees as the stakes get higher. For example, you might find that poker site A charges £.50 on a £5.00 match (10%), but only £1 on a £20 match (5%). This doesn’t mean you should jump into £20 matches before your skill level is ready for it, but it means you should shop around every time you’re ready to move up.

How Time and Advantage are Related in Heads-Up Poker Tournaments

If you’re down to heads-up in the World Series of Poker Main Event, time doesn’t matter a whole lot. When millions of dollars are at stake, who cares if you have to sit there for 6 hours? However, when you’re playing heads-up tournaments exclusively, time plays a critical role in your hourly win rate. This should have an impact on how you play.

For example, let’s say you just sat down at a $20 heads-up SNG tournament, and are 7 hands and 4 minutes into it. Your opponent has already shown the ability to raise with marginal hands, and he comes in for a big raise pre-flop. You hold AJ os and suspect him for a hand in the range of K 10 os. You’re a 60/40 favourite. What do you do? Depending on how sure you feel about his hand, this might be worth a shove. If you feel strongly that you’re a 60/40 favourite, you should be more likely to shove now than you would be with a 60/40 advantage 30 minutes from now. The reason is because with such a small amount of time invested, a 60/40 advantage gives you a chance at a quick win – as the favourite. If you did this all day long, you’d be a big winner at the end of the day. However, if you’re 40 minutes into a match, you have more time invested now, and should be looking for a greater advantage. The longer a match goes, the more important it becomes that you ultimately win.

Early Match Strategy

The first thing to know about how to make consistent wins at heads-up poker tournaments is that it is much less about the cards you hold, and much more about how you play. I’ve won hundreds of heads-up poker tournaments without holding a ‘big’ hand at any time during the match. Heads-up is much more about aggression, bet sizes, accumulating information, and the misinformation you give your opponent. If I had to put numbers behind it, I’d say that quality heads-up poker is 75% psychological, 15% cards, and 10% luck (or bad luck). Until you can fully understand this, you cannot make consistent wins in heads-up poker tournaments.

While every match should begin with aggression, it should be controlled aggression. Many new heads-up tournament players bet way too much early in a match, making them susceptible to bigger losses than they need to take. For example, with blinds of 10/20, why raise to 100 if 40 will do the trick? Did you test your opponent to see if he’s willing to fold rags for a raise to 40? What about 60, or 80? Did you even try? Secondly, you’ll learn more about your opponent if you know he’s willing to fold to a raise of 40 or 60. If you know what you’re doing, this information can be used to your advantage. You can use this information to make lots of small raises, picking up a lot of small pots with little at risk.

Make your opponent earn your respect. This means that you should be forcing the action with controlled, constant pressure. If he continues to fold for small raises pre-flop, he’s yours for the taking. When he finally calls or comes over the top, you know he’s likely to have a real hand. He could be tired of getting run over and making an adjustment, but you won’t know that until several more hands have been played. So, when he finally fights back, let him take that small pot and get right back to your aggressive play. If he continues to fight back, now you can figure he’s made an adjustment and is playing weaker hands.

On the other hand, if you get a player who is ultra-stubborn and loves to call or re-raise all the time, he’s the ideal candidate for a trap. This doesn’t mean you wait for a monster, folding every time he raises. It means that you know he’s playing weaker hands, and that weaker hands made by you will take down nice sized pots. You cannot afford to fold every hand, or you’re giving him too much information. Against a player like this, we have to be willing to play weaker hands, and to play them more aggressively. Early in a match against these types of players, be willing to go all-in with smaller advantages than you would against more conservative players. Conservative players will only call or raise with big hands, but ultra-aggressive players are more likely to call when they’re weak. Small advantages in quick matches can turn into a nice hourly win rate.

Finish Him Off

I could write pages and pages of heads-up tournament strategy, but the point of this article is to give newer players a starting point. In general terms, you want to control the action. As blinds get bigger, you should be using information that you collected earlier in the match to win more hands pre-flop. Keep your bets controlled, but aggressive. The idea is to grind him down and wait for your opponent to get frustrated and make a mistake.

A lot of players don’t know how to finish off their opponents, playing too conservatively when they have the chip advantage. Keep the pressure on and force your opponent to tell you when he holds a real hand. If he has rags, force him to fold by grinding those important blinds out of his stack. With the short-stack, your opponent is usually waiting for any ace or pair to shove, and often any king, queen, or a hand like J, 10. The smaller his stack, the more hands you should be willing to call him with when he shoves all-in. If the situation is telling you that he has a big hand, and he has enough chips left, thank him for giving you this information and much your rags. Them, get right back to applying pressure the very next hand. Pressure is the key to heads-up, as it forces your opponent to give you information.

Late in the match, keep in mind that a hand like 7, 4 os is only a 2:1 dog against a hand like J, 10 os. If your opponent holds something like Q, 7 os, and you hold K, 3 os, you’re a 3:2 favourite pre-flop. When your opponent is severely short-stacked, you should be calling his all-in with almost any two cards.