Beating Texas Hold’em heads up SNG’s
In this article, I’m going to talk you through my strategy that I practiced on pkv poker for Texas Hold em, heads up poker, and specifically heads up SNG’s.
I’m going to talk you through the poker tips that you need to understand for getting started in this game from adjusting to players, what to look for in your opponents, how to play the later stages when you’re shorter stacked as well as show you where to watch our free heads up poker videos
- What I will cover
- Why heads up SNG’s
- How to study heads up videos
- My small ball style
- Spotting and beating different player types
My complete heads up poker course Why heads up SNG’s? To some, heads up poker is the purest form of Texas Hold’em poker. In a heads-up poker match, you get to pit your strategy against one other player and look for ways to exploit each other’s style to see who’ll come out victorious. In a heads up poker match, most hands are contested with neither player having much of a hand, most of the time.
In order to be successful in these games, you’ll need to formulate a solid strategy to look to counter your opponent early on. My heads up SNG poker coaching is here to help you put the pieces of the puzzle together. Below I’m going to talk you through the skills and the heads up poker strategy that you will need to develop in order to beat heads up SNG’s (HUSNG’s). Spotting & Beating different Player Types
A loose/ passive player is the type of opponent that limps in with most of their hands, doesn’t raise often (beware when they do), and hates to fold.
If you want to know exactly how to beat this kind of player and see some sample matches to see my heads up strategy in action then read more here A loose/ aggressive player is an opponent who nearly always raises pre-flop in position, punishes a lot of limps, re-raises a large amount your button raises, and often bets frequently post-flop, especially if you play a hand in a way that looks weak.
If this kind of player is frustrating you then read this article on how to adjust to them with example videos included.
A tight/ aggressive player is a thinking player and often a winning or at least break even player. These guys are often very aggressive in position and play a lot more passively when out of position.
If you would like to know how I beat this kind of opponent then read about my strategy here
Tight passive players like their calling station cousins like to limp with a lot of their hands (again beware of raises as they are nearly never bluff). These guys are really waiting to hit hands before continuing and as such matches can last quite a long time.
If you want to know how to completely crush these guys then read this article which covers beating tight players heads up
Have You Ever Tested Your Poker Knowledge? If you’re wondering if you really need poker coaching then try my quick If you’re wondering if you really need poker coaching then try my quick 10 question heads up SNG test
Heads Up Poker Course
Find out all about my complete heads up poker training course which includes a mixture of PowerPoint study videos as well as live one to one training with me, over Skype.
One thing that really sped up my learning curve and helped me develop a winning strategy was something that I call active learning.
Active learning involves stopping the poker training video just at the start of what looks like an interesting hand. Now take your pen and paper and write down how you would play the hand but also write down ‘why’ you would play it that way. Often you can make the right move in a heads-up poker game but if your reasoning is flawed then your overall strategy will likely fail.
As soon as you’re happy with what you’ve written down then continue playing the video to see what the coach did. If your play and reasoning behind it match what the coach says then move on to the next hand. If your play and/ or logic is different then at this point try to understand why.
If you’ve been racking your brains trying to come up with a correct answer but still just don’t understand the logic then make sure you go to the poker forum and post a question about it which will give the coach as well as other players and students a chance to respond which should help develop your understanding of the game and thus improve your skills (active learning!).
Even if you only watch half of a poker video in this way, you will likely learn ten times as much as just having the video playing whilst not paying 100% attention.
My small ball heads up poker strategy
When watching my Texas Hold’em poker training videos you will notice that I personally play a more limpy style of poker preflop than most. What I do pre-flop is not the most important part of my game plan. The most key things to focus on are understanding how your opponent is playing, developing reads, and spotting that all-important online poker tells them adjusting to them well post-flop which counters their strategy.
