Chris Fergusons Guide to One on One Poker

Eight things to learn (and love) about one-on-one No-Limit Hold ’Em–By Chris Ferguson / 2000 WSOP Champion & Five-Time Bracelet Winner Today: Tip #8

YOU SHOULD BE THRILLED WHEN YOU get the opportunity to play heads-up. For one thing, if you are at a tournament, that means you must be doing pretty well if you made it to the last two players. In addition, heads-up is the most fun, challenging, and potentially profitable form of poker.

Heads-up, you get to play every hand. Even when you fold, you immediately start the next hand. If you love action or tend to get bored at full-table games and play too many hands, this is the game for you. You actually get rewarded for playing a lot of hands heads-up; you could be training as a heads-up specialist and not even know it!

Playing against a single opponent challenges you more than anything else in poker. It’s personal. Your success or failure depends on what you learn about the other player and what they think they know about you.

Here are eight pieces of advice to help you learn to play winning heads-up No-Limit Hold ’Em:

8. When you or your opponent is short stacked compared with the size of the blinds, your strategy should change.

When the shorter stack is 12 times the big blind or less, you should move all in or fold. At less than 12 times the big blind, the next bet puts you to a difficult decision: If you bet 25 to 30 percent of your stack and your opponent re-raises, you could have to fold a hand where you had substantial equity, even as a big underdog. And if you fold, you will be surrendering a substantial portion of your stack. By moving all in, it puts your opponent to a decision.

Even if your opponent has the better hand and calls, you are assured of seeing five cards. You still have a chance to win the hand and double up, compared with being crippled after making a difficult fold.

It doesn’t matter whether it is you or your opponent who is on the short stack. If you have the big stack, the same considerations apply and you should move your opponent all in or fold.

The all-in move is particularly important in heads-up play when you are in the big blind. You will be out of position for the rest of the hand, which is a huge disadvantage. If you can get all in, you negate that advantage.

About the only time you will ever see me limp in from the small blind is when the shorter stack is between 12-18 times the big blind. The reasoning is that a small raise here makes it too easy for my opponent to move all in on me, negate my positional advantage, and give me a tough calling decision with my marginal hands, while an all-in raise by me makes it too easy for my opponent to wait for a big hand

7. Your play should not change if you are ahead or behind in chips.

Some tournament poker books say that you should be more aggressive when you have a big stack and more timid with a small stack. Even if this makes sense in a conventional tournament situation, I have seen it applied to heads-up play, and it’s just wrong.

The reason you play timid with a short stack is to move up in the money. If you are the short stack with three players remaining, you play timid in hopes that the big stack takes out the second biggest stack. If you are the big stack, you play aggressively because you are counting on your opponents folding in hopes that the other will take you on and get eliminated.

In heads-up, it is winner-take-all. You make money by surviving only if you survive to win. You should play no different if you are ahead or behind in chips.

6. After the flop, you have to learn from your opponent and adjust.

Playing hand after hand against the same player, you are going to learn how they play. You have to pay attention and make adjustments. This is much more important than at a full table. You could spend a whole day with a player at your table in a full-table tournament and learn less about him than in 15 minutes heads-up.

You will face so many situations where neither you nor your opponent has a strong hand after the flop that you have to learn to interpret your opponent’s bets, calls, and checks. Is he capable of bluffing after the flop? If he bluffs, will he give it up if you call or is he capable of firing two or three barrels? Does he overvalue his hands? Will he bet too many times with marginal holdings? Is he too timid? Does he check and call with his strong hands? Does he try to get really tricky? You need to know all these things to take advantage of your opponent.

5. Don’t be paranoid about giving free cards and potential draws.

Avoiding giving free cards is one of the reasons why you need to be aggressive in a full-table game. With just one opponent instead of a full table, it is less likely that you are facing suited cards and less likely that your opponent has the suit on the board. You don’t have to bet big to chase away a draw, and you don’t need to be paranoid when that third suited card gets there. You can be more willing to give a free card. Be more inclined to give free cards when you’re not sure if you’re ahead, and when giving free cards is less likely to turn your winner into a loser.

4. In the big blind, let frequent limpers limp.

If you get opponents who limp a lot and you think they’re raising only with their strongest hands, then you can fold marginal hands to these raises. When they call, I don’t mind encouraging calls by checking behind. If you raise a lot behind, you might encourage them to mix up their play. Even if they are not playing straightforward, I don’t mind checking behind a limper because I’m out of position on the hand.

I get a potentially huge advantage this way. If we both play the same amount of hands and they always limp on their button and I always raise on mine, I’m playing pots in position that are 21/2 times as big as the pots I play when I’m out of position.

3. You have to mix up your play in the big blind.

You have to be able to call a lot in the big blind. You are out of position and, unless your opponent is telegraphing the strength of his hand with his raises, frequently unsure of where you are in the hand. On the earlier streets, you have to keep your calls and bets from defining your hand.

Naturally, you’d like to re-raise (or raise the limper) with your strongest hands, but you can’t always do that. You have to throw in some calls, and you have to occasionally put in an extra bet with your medium-strength hands.

2. Preflop, you should raise or fold from the small blind.

In full-table games, I always advocate raising or folding, never limping. Generally, the same reasoning applies heads-up. First, if you are putting money in the pot, it is because you have a positive expectation in the hand. So put more money in. Or fold if you don’t have the odds. Second, with two random cards, you have the best hand 50 percent of the time. But if you raise and your opponent folds, you win 100 percent of those hands. This is most meaningful when you have an opponent who plays too tight. Third, you have a positional advantage for the last three betting rounds. You want to play larger pots when you have that advantage. Fourth, you want to give out as little information as possible. If you either fold or raise by the same amount (I recommend raising it to about 21/2 times the big blind because you want to encourage marginal calls when you have position), your opponent can’t put you on either a calling hand or a raising hand. If you fold, the hand ends right there.

1. You have to play a lot of hands.

The biggest mistake players make heads-up is playing too few hands. How many hands should you play? In the small blind (where you have the button and act first before the flop but last on every subsequent street), you should play about 70 percent of your hands. In the big blind, you should play 70 to 80 percent. If your opponent has raised, the percentage of hands you should play is based on the size of the raise: about 80 percent if they double the big blind, and 70 percent if they triple it.

What are the top 80 percent of hands?

Jack-anything is always playable. Ten- and nine-high are playable if they are suited or if the unsuited card is high enough to make a straight combination.

And remember, you are frequently raising with these hands in the small blind!