My goal is to create the simplest strategy possible, without giving up too much EV. The heads-up poker format has long persisted as perhaps the ultimate test of a poker player’s skill. 00, 6-handed online cash game. dsvw56 I'm a Taurus. You can see that the betting frequency (betting of 2 into a pot of 6) is quite close to 100%. It is called heads-up. Cash Game. This is a hand grid. Both cash game and heads up sit n go players experience obscene variance due to the aggressive play necessary to grind down opponents. When raising from the button, anything from a minimum raise up to 4x can be an effective. HU tourney strategy will get you killed in a cash game, where the blinds are low relative to the stacks, and a player can reload at any time. You can suggest new topics for the podcast on. If the open-raiser is from any position other than the Cutoff, you should fold. Cons of a Cold-Calling Range. Summary of Heads-up Play. As the game progresses, you can employ an effective push-fold technique to gain your rival’s chips. Some pros, in fact, play heads-up poker almost exclusively. Hero. Bluff and semi-bluff less often multi-way. Some words reference or allude to sexual acts and innuendo, drugs, alcohol, tobacco and other. The squeezer wins a fairly sizable pot without seeing a flop. After you 3-bet and get called, you will retain a range advantage on the vast majority of flops. Pre-flop encounters are subject to a lot more variance – a lot of heads-up play boils down to coin flips (pair v overcards – 99 v AK, unless your opponent is some LAG maniac who 4. Doug Polk: You’ve got to 3-bet a smaller size more because you’re basing more of your 3-bet strategy around commitment. By “low stakes” I’m talking about $1/$2, $1/$3, and $2/$5 cash games. Then there was an over-correction by some players, who would continuation bet (c-bet) almost 100% on every flop. Thus leaving yourself vulnerable in this spot is like shooting yourself in the foot – there is no way to be a winning poker player. Playing no higher than $50/$100, Frabb has netted $907,270 and won at a rate of 7. the reason heads up players are so goddamn sick is because they see (and play) far far far more hands than a 6max or full ring player. Having showdown value means that checking behind will never be too bad of an option on most board textures. Top Pair Top Kicker is a one pair poker hand with the highest-ranking card on the board, accompanied by the best possible side card. By “low stakes” I’m talking about $1/$2, $1/$3, and $2/$5 cash games. If an opponent is conservative, a player should consider an aggressive. The first and easiest part is the pre-flop strategy. Unlike any other app in the App Store, The Preflop Advantage Cash Edition is the only app with 6-max and Heads Up preflop GTO solutions built from a. Yet, Sit & Go dynamics differ, with game speed and variance. Pot odds to call from the button are 3-to-1. In this case, you can start off with either a check or a bet. Here you can find over 500 poker strategy articles across all skill and experience levels to help you improve your game both in live- and online poker. In practice, it’s more than fine to round this up to 100% (unless you’re against an aggressive player who will attack your check back range when the straight completes). If allowed by your poker site/room, we recommend keeping the preflop raise charts up while you play (until you memorize them). This is due to a couple of reasons. by Uri Peleg Advanced Cash Game Strategy by Alex 'Kanu7' Millar Advanced PLO Mastery by Dylan Weisman & Chris Wehner Mixed Games Course by Jake Abdalla Redline Rocketship. The added players change many of the game dynamics and one of the most prevalent changes is the level of aggression. We previously discussed the top-20 starting hole cards, button strategy and how to count outs. Virtually any type of poker can be played heads-up. The rapid-fire progression of the game is enough to make even the most cold-blooded poker player slow down and take a breather. Step 2: Perseverance. The proper strategy here is very simple: Fold. Push/fold should be utilized when your stack becomes short — around 15 big blinds (bb) or fewer. That’s the best scenario and the rewards for effective heads up poker strategy. 1. Alex hasn't been playing much poker in recent years, but he returned to the spotlight when he created the Advanced Cash Game Strategy course here on Upswing. You will get dealt the button every other. Reese won all the money. During the Full Tilt era, he challenged players like Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey at the. Chris Edwards • 19,306 Views • on 29/10/13. As we saw in the introduction, this is not the case. Against a player with a tighter open-raising range, we should tighten our continuing range. We must call $5. 5 Stack-to-Pot Ratio. Pokercode Cash Game coach Steffen Sontheimer playing online cash games Cash Game Strategy Tip #8 - Lean Towards Checking Rather Than Betting In Multiway Pots Out Of Position Because they don’t happen as often as heads-up pots, multiway pots are some of the least explored spots in Texas Holdem , making players make more mistakes and incorrect. These can be: Double-Ups – In these games, managers are looking to double their entry fee ($2, $10, $109, etc. Q: How many hours of video content will the HU Course contain? A: Between 20-25 hours. Players that usually play cash games rarely play heads up, and even the. Long downswings are possible in all game. Just why, From a basic heads-up strategy standpoint, an aggressive player will win more hands than a player who only has good starting hands. by FTR Poker Admin | Nov 12, 2023 | SNG Poker Strategy Articles. Hero is dealt X X in the Cutoff. Don't Be The First Player To Limp. The entry fees are then combined (minus the tournament fee) to create the prize pool that the players are playing for. With $5 million+ in online cash game winnings, the true End Boss of Heads-Up No Limit Hold'em over the last decade is undoubtedly Doug Polk. The button in heads-up has a few defining characteristics that make it unlike any other position in poker: The button also posts the small blind. The flop is J♠ 7 ♥ 6 ♦ and the Big Blind checks. Additionally, shoving ensures that you will avoid an awkward spot postflop if an ace hits on the flop. Heads-Up Cash Game Poker Strategy Position is Paramount. This strengthens your calling range, which allows you to more effectively exploit his high-frequency c-bet strategy. Play super wide pre-flop (Follow charts) 2. Playing a low pair without deep stacks. Play super wide pre-flop (Follow charts) 2. Imagine you 3-bet from the Small Blind against a Middle Position open, and that Middle Position player calls. The focus for this video series is on the theoretical understanding of the game. Heads-up poker sees you play a single opponent in either a cash game or sit and go (SNG). To buy chips at the table, you can generally just put the cash on the table and tell the dealer you want to buy chips. Again, poker is a game of skill, and strong players with the best poker strategy will almost always win over a long period. A loose-passive player limps in Under the Gun position. We differentiate the matches from the cash games – in a ‘match’ (or heads-up Sit N Go) the buy-in is fixed and each player assigned chips, the blinds. Excellent poker book rated 4/5 on. Let’s first become familiar with the common poker starting hand notations you’ll often see in articles from the Upswing Poker Strategy section and elsewhere. , around 100 big blinds), 3-bet pots in the later stages of tournaments, or in single-raised pots in which the big blind defended with less than 15 big blinds. For example, they may raise to 2bb from every position except. You sit across the table from 1 opponent and your job is to beat ’em. Simplifying major decisions. Kristy Arnett Editor. Step 2 : Check the Payout Table. Well first off, live cash game win rates are typically measured in terms of big blinds won per hour (bb/hr). I made the final table of the ‘JP Masters’, eventually finding myself heads-up against breakout poker star and WSOP Main Event 8th place finisher Jack Sinclair. Different beasts. We may not be able to eliminate variance but we can certainly change how variance is felt. The result is 95 interactive charts that give Lab members the ultimate tool for preflop strategy. 2: SplitSuit Poker: Hand reading skills for all game types: 8. . Recognize When Someone’s Making a Mistake. To start off, I’ll focus on a relatively obvious live poker tip that might as well be the “Golden Rule” to beating $1/$3 and $2/$5. That probability goes up slightly if one of the aces and one of the kings share the same suit. I made the final table of the ‘JP Masters’, eventually finding myself heads-up. Most players only make it to a heads-up match. 50, the big blind calls and you see a flop that looks like this:Welcome to Upswing Poker. Here is an 82. It is named this way because the player who decided to take the initiative preflop has continued seizing the initiative on the following street. It’s not uncommon to. It might be played during a larger cash game session, where the game is breaking up and only two players remain on the table, or where two players are trying to start a game and playing heads-up while waiting for other opponents. Cash Game vs Tournament Heads-Up. Run It One – the biggest video library. 36 percent favorite to win. What is Rake in Poker? And Should Rake Impact Your Poker Strategy? What is Rake? Rake refers to the scaled commission taken by a casino to pay for its operating costs. In a cash game, the player with the larger stack can bust the one with less. There are still a lot of profit-making opportunities in Heads-Up poker. Budget all-in-one cash game, MTTs and live training: 8. Your range will be unbalanced, but that doesn’t matter because these players don’t know how to exploit it as a strong player would. Narciso regularly writes poker articles sharing tips, strategy, news and experience with gambling enthusiasts. In this case, we need to have 70% value combos and 30% bluff combos. The first thing about playing against loose-aggressive opponents that you need to know is that having position on them is absolutely vital. We need to call 1,600 chips to play for a total pot of 8,640 chips. How to use our Heads Up HUD to exploit your opponents using stats and reads. Note: The Postflop Playbook is the revamped version of Upswing's most popular course, The Postflop Game Plan, which over 49,323 poker players have gone through. It is based on the probability that a player will have the best hand after the cards are dealt. Hopefully, we have extinguished these burning questions to your liking! Note: Learn step-by-step how to become the best player at the table when you join the Upswing Lab training course. 3. It’s different from Texas Hold’em and more difficult to master, but those who take the time to learn good strategy stand a better chance of making a profit playing PLO poker. Let’s use our step-by-step process to figure out if you can. Here we outline the basic strategy considerations for Heads-up Pot-Limit Omaha and highlight the most profitable. Heads up poker is revered to such an extent that a few of the top poker cash game players have standing challenges open to play heads up against anyone, at any time and for any amount. Most of what you learn about poker strategy – big concepts like hand reading, value betting, and hand classes – will apply in both formats. You should leverage this advantage by c-betting with a large percentage (sometimes 100%) of your hands. The flop comes . His reasoning was sound, since he or course had a. For anyone who plays serious games, this is a huge deal and make it a fun and exciting game compared to no limit games which are often somewhat boring and monotonous because people take so long to make basic decisions. NOTE: We’ll be going over cash game examples, but this same process works for tournament hands as well. These are the top 10 poker cash game strategy tips that will help you win more often and become a long-term winner in cash game poker. In the good old days, a 4-bet meant Aces and Aces only. Tour Start here for a quick overview of the site Help Center Detailed answers to any questions you might have Meta Discuss the workings and policies of this siteA $2/$3 No-Limit Hold’em cash game might feature a $40 minimum and $300 maximum buy-in. As you would expect, there is a lot to cover with all of these topics and the content delivered over 20 hours of video. 5 big blinds, raise to 2. A consequence of this is that. 3-betting gives you a chance to pick. Use Video Speed Settings to Your Preference. We may not be able to eliminate variance but we can certainly change how variance is felt. Ante refers to a mandatory bet required of all players before any cards are dealt, which encourages action by incentivizing players to be aggressive. This lesson on check-raising from the big blind marks episode #1 of the new Upswing Poker Level-Up Podcast. Best Heads-Up Omaha Site – Top Pick – Pokerstars. I wasn't keen on the high variance of hyper turbos, so I. So, 1640 / (1600+7040) = 18. Know Short-Stacked Strategy. SB shoves. 2. This includes both single-raised pots and 3-bet pots. The tree starts from the first preflop decision, at which point a player has 3 possible decisions: fold, call or raise. The flop comes A♦ J♦ 8♣. You should 3-bet with fewer strong hands. And now he's revealing his entire strategy in The End Boss System. This strategy doesn’t work as well in a low-stakes cash game, however. The Dealer goes first before the flop and the Big Blind goes first after the flop. The concept is completely tied to mathematics due to the limited stacks of players. vs RFI and 3-bet ranges from all positions. This includes both single-raised pots and 3-bet pots. Since you only have a single opponent the chances of an over-pair winning the pot are greatly increased (along with hands like top 2-pairs) while the chances. Prepare for Variance. The player on the button posts the small blind. Heads-Up Favors the Bold, Not the Cowardly. You'll get a lot more help that way too. Small Blind/Button – Raise First In Chart (+50 Big Blinds) Big Blind –. Learn more about heads-up hyper turbo strategy with my Beginner’s Guide to Heads-Up Hyper Turbo Sit & Gos. Hole cards are kept face down throughout the game, and can only be seen by the player holding them. The low variance approach worked well for @frabbxd. Pocket nines can be called from the Cutoff or earlier when facing a raise from the earliest positions (UTG-UTG+2). i might have 50k hands in a month playing 6max, a heads up player will see maybe 300k hands in a month (idk i don't play HU). The Advanced Solver Ranges cover: Raise first in ranges for all positions in a 6-max game. The truth is, yes, playing deep-stacked does change things in poker. At the heart of APT is its "Poker Training Game" that allows players to play online against sophisticated "virtual" opponents in cash games (full ring, six-max. If you both have 100 blinds, there’s no 3-bet size where you can take away an opponent’s ability to 4-bet. You are playing a $0. by Uri Peleg Advanced Cash Game Strategy by Alex 'Kanu7' Millar Advanced PLO Mastery by Dylan Weisman & Chris. Ranges Are Wider and Its. Use them to bluff-catch. Open-raising too tight. 00 cash game. Heads Up SNGs, especially Hyper Turbo with extremely fast. 1. It’s that simple. $100/$200 Heads-Up. But his heads-up skills also translated to massive success other game types. When there’s a straddle (or a third-blind) in the game you’re playing, make the following adjustments to your pre-flop strategy: Use a smaller open size when the pre-flop SPR is low. Intermediate. A fundamentally sound preflop strategy sets you up for success in all subsequent betting. 5 blind raise with antes in the pot (and no callers), the. The bygone poker boom era of the 2000s left us with memories of epic heads-up matches involving Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and other top players of the era. On the felt, the result was firm and resounding: Polk proved the superior performer in their $200/$400 heads-up match. Unless you’re specifically in the Big Blind or on the Button, the optimal strategy when facing a raise is to mostly 3-bet or fold (and rarely call). Doug decided to make a fairly loose call in this spot, but there are several good reasons why: Now, time for the tips. In heads-up, you will be playing 70 to 100 percent of hands in position and around 60 to 80 percent of hands. In fact, about half of my poker play is in the cash game format, although it is primarily at $10/$20 no-limit and higher. Given the wide ranges you should value bet much lighter than in regular games. Whether their motivation was driven by a love of competition, money, or working towards mastery of a unique skill-set, successful HUHT players are incredibly passionate about whatever aspect of the game is most important to them. 1. $25 to $50 dollar buy-ins, so comparable stakes to what I've been playing in. Both blinds elect to fold, leaving you heads up. As always, you should start by playing a solid preflop strategy, then adjust after gauging just how splashy the game is. Raise wide over their limps if their limping range seems weak, tight if their limping range seems strong. The Playbook is a more polished course that teaches an overall more modern strategy to help you win in 2023 and beyond. Each player in a Texas Hold’em game is dealt two hole cards. The correct 6-max poker strategy is to play looser than you would in a full ring game (open 20% of hands) and make more bluffs. The 10 questions in this quiz are based on Upswing’s cash game content from the past year. But many players struggle with is knowing when to overbet and how much to overbet. If we use too large or too small of a size, our opponent will have an easy decision with most of his hands. Try not to be afraid of playing. Deuces Cracked also has some great videos for HU strategy, but they're not as dedicated to this format as CR. What’s more is that each of these games allows you to use skill to win. Note: Level-up your poker strategy with the 10 Laws of Live Poker. You can get squeezed out of the pot if a player behind wakes up with a 3-betting hand. For games with more than 2 players, push charts are applicable for SB open-shove ranges and call charts are applicable for BB calling vs. The big blind raises to $35. His first lesson in the Lab went up last month. Thinking about what players have in the form of a range is valuable because it allows you to think about all of the possibilities of a hand. And while the bottom-25% of starting quarterbacks in terms of salary are usually overly risky,. Good 1/2 Live Cash Game Win Rate Before I begin with the 1/2 live cash game strategy though let's talk about what sort of win rate or profits you can expect to make in these games. EXPERIENCE playing poker one-on-one. For example, suppose an opponent is only opening a 12% range (pictured below) from middle position (MP) and you are on the. When playing heads-up No Limit Hold'em poker, you need to modify the strategies that you would use at larger tables. But longterm, a better player will continuously create more profitable scenarios and in the end, always come ahead of the weaker opponents. Deeper stacks also tend to happen often in "fast-fold" style online poker games as well such as Zoom on PokerStars. Poker Tournament Tip 1: Steal a Lot, But Don’t Go Overboard. It is a common misconception that short stack poker induces a simpler, more profitable experience for the beginner. Congrats! You did it! You’ve endured through days of that tournament, survived the land mines, circumnavigated all the bear traps, and scaled the chip counts. Even the most basic of heads-up cash players in micro and low stakes games recognise you need to open raise frequently. When facing a 2. Here’s a situation you’ve probably faced many times. If both cards in each hand are the same suits (like A♠ A ♥ versus K♠ K ♥ ), pocket aces become an 82. Short Deck Course – best for Short Deck Holdem. Heads Up Poker Strategy: How to Play Deep Stack and Short Stack in 2022. Again, poker is a game of skill, and strong players with the best poker strategy will almost always win over a long period. It might be played during a larger cash game session, where the game is breaking up and only two players remain on the table, or where two players are trying to start a game and playing heads-up while waiting for other opponents. You can click any of these poker tips to jump straight to a detailed explanation that will help your game. Monitoring your stack size is one of the most crucial elements of the tournament poker play and beginners often don’t pay it enough attention. Spot #2: 3-Bet Pots (On Ace-High Flops) Similar to 4-bet pots, the driving reasons for using tiny bet sizes in 3-bet pots on Ace-high boards are: Tight, value-heavy range. If one ignores the wider than average HU ranges, the ideas explored in the course are applicable to any 2-way situation, whether in a heads-up table or at a full ring. The reason why is that the shorter we get, the lighter we can get our stack all-in for value. 2. Don’t miss the special Grand Tour streams every Thursday at 10am GMT on the PokerStars Twitch channel. 5. 45 big blinds per 100 hands. A nice flop to c-bet for value with Ace-King. Two players may also play heads-up poker to start a cash game, hoping that other players see a game has started, and join in. Download Article. Equity refers to the share of the pot that belongs to a player if there were no more actions to be made and the rest of the cards are dealt. Tip #2 – You have to keep studying. It’s an amazing hand to balance the good hands in your 3-bet. This is especially true when you have position on your opponent. There is a smaller edge in heads up games so you'll experience larger swings. It does not matter greatly by the time you are heads-up who is at risk of busting. If you check, you will then look to bet on the turn and river (on most run outs). After almost a decade of dominating heads-up games, Alex turned his attention back to 6-max cash games. “Every battle is won before it is ever fought. Reply. An elite training course for serious cash game players. If you normally raise to 3bb, jack it up to 4bb. Suppose you’re playing a $0. Australian poker pro Matt Kirk, a. Good 1/2 Live Cash Game Win Rate Before I begin with the 1/2 live cash game strategy though let's talk about what sort of win rate or profits you can expect to make in these games. But if the Cutoff is the one who opened the action, then you should 3-bet with Jack-Nine suited every time. For example, let’s say we bet $75 into a $100 pot. Recognizing when a player has become especially short-stacked is key. Choose hands that play well when the pre-flop SPR is low. For example, if you go all-in preflop with Pocket Aces and another player calls with Pocket Kings, there is. Heads up poker is a very profitable type of poker. 3-betting reduces the average number of players in the pot. If you’re going to play poker, you have to. Tip #1 – Always bet when you flop any real draw. Both players start with relatively short stacks (between 25-50bb depending on the site - for example, PokerStars will have. There, you can find heads up cash games from stakes as low as. Take a look at this short example: Player A stack size: $50;Knowing who has more chips to start a hand can affect strategy greatly when playing heads up. Read on for 7 actionable tips for building fantasy basketball lineups that trounce your competition in cash games. 3 folds. Narciso also writes for reputable gambling portal Casino City Times,. Founded by Doug Polk, Ryan Fee, and Matt Colletta in 2015 with the goal of helping poker players get better at the game they love, Upswing Poker has grown from a blog offering free. Either we are deliberately choosing to play 2-handed, or we are playing a ring-game where the other players have either left or haven’t joined yet. Hero is dealt in the HiJack. As the big stack, attack the middle stack and consider protecting the short stack. In the first part of our introduction to Heads-Up Hyper-Turbos (HUHT) we outlined the pros and cons of this format and dispelled its two most common myths, being a luck-based or all-in preflop game. I am unable to decide, other than big drawing hands, when to bluff raise after flop. Players left to act can call with high equity hands that would fold if you 3-bet. Also, because many of the best cash game grinders will choose to play fast-fold tables, the ratio of good players to bad players should be lower at regular tables. Consider the four possible outcomes of a squeeze play, and what each one means for the squeezer: All players fold. 5 blinds or less. Suppose you’re on the button with $200 in a $2/4 full-ring cash game. 5 blind raise with antes in the pot (and no callers), the. Advanced Cash Game Strategy Example Hand . This is the more theoretically sound strategy that might be a bit tougher to execute. Advanced Cash Game Strategy by Alex 'Kanu7' Millar. A consequence of this is that. How to Play Heads-Up Poker: PREFLOP. Player Type #4) The ABC. Widen your value range and go for a big bets (anywhere from 66% to 105% pot) and double barrels very often to extract value immediately. For a guide to beating short stack poker players, check out the "Crushing Shortstackers" concept video. 01/13/2021 Updated 09/20/2023 4. Heads Up Strategy Poker Simply put, you can play all hands in heads up. Heads Up is a Party Game Turn your back to the TV, and guess the word or phrase on the screen behind you with the help of your friends or family. Three cards are dealt to each player, including two face down “hole. 2nd – $201,428. This time on the daily fast, I use an exploitative strategy in heads-up hyper-turbo tournament against an aggressive villain. There are several high stakes pros who make their living by playing heads up, and they can do that in a number of ways. Imagine you open-raised in the hijack and the button called. 4. Nitty Preflop Tendencies and How to Exploit Them. Tip #1: In heads-up 3-bet pots, always c-bet unless the board is low and connected. As more players enter the pot, the equity of your range decreases. Ace-Five doesn’t have much showdown value, which makes it a good semi-bluffing hand when you have outs to improve to a straight or flush. Cash Games: Many pros cut their teeth in heads up cash games, playing both No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha on websites like partypoker. When the preflop raiser has fewer than 60 big blinds in their stack, you should be less inclined to 3-bet suited connectors, particularly low ones like 65s or 76s. Cash & Tournament Veteran. (Regular) Knockouts are the same as above, except that the bounty is worth only 20%, meaning. by Uri Peleg Advanced Cash Game Strategy by Alex 'Kanu7' Millar Advanced PLO Mastery by Dylan Weisman & Chris. Reese. 1. Position is Vital. 8 million in. To help you do that, you are about to read 3 tips that will help you dominate after calling a preflop 3-bet. 25BB open has to pick up the pot less than half of the time to show an immediate profit. 50 HUNL. It is expected to last for four days to allow for the exchange of 50. The course focuses on heads-up strategy,. The most common are 50/50s and Double-Ups. The blinds in a cash game stay the same throughout. Heads-up No-Limit Hold’em (HUNL) still produces plenty of marquee matchups. For example, if you have a 5bb/100 win-rate in a $1/$2 cash game, you win $10 per 100 hands on average. Heads-Up River Example In this hand, Hero has A♦Q♦ on the button in a Vegas $1/$2 NL cash game. Short for Heads-Up Display, a HUD is a tool used in online poker games to track and display opponents’ poker statistics in real time. Any pair is good until proven otherwise. Cash: Standard: Get: 100BB Heads-Up GTO Charts Use these preflop charts when playing heads up 100bbs deep against tough opponents with no ante. Tip #2: Pay close attention to effective stack size. Hero bets $18. Take a look at AK’s equity vs one, two and three random poker hands: A 3-bet will usually force some players out before the flop, making it more likely that you will win the hand. As always, you should start by playing a solid preflop strategy, then adjust after gauging just how splashy the game is. Poker is essentially a game of playing your cards against those of your opponent. In a 9-handed cash game, the standard open-raise size is usually around 3 blinds. John Kim is a professional cash-game player and instructor for CardRunners. Reasons to Play 'Heads Up' Tourneys. Crush Live Poker – best for live games. Re-raise bluffing post flop in heads-up cash game I am struggling with Post Flop bluff raising, to a bet, playing heads-up cash game. The flop comes Q♠ T♠ 8 ♦. It's been said that players. The essential takeaway here is that it’s possible to dramatically increase winrate by being willing to add heads-up action to our grind.