Heads Up Poker for Multi Table Tournament Players

If you regularly multi table poker tournaments, your goal is obviously to be the last man standing and to collect all the chips. In order to do that, you have to overcome the final obstacle of a heads up poker match at the conclusion of the final table, and this can be one of the hardest challenges of all.

For many tournament players, this area of the game is unfamiliar ground, and irrespective of whether you begin the heads up play with the larger or smaller stack of chips, there is no getting away from the fact that you will have to make a decision in every hand.

If you find yourself thrust into this situation in an online game of poker, most of the advice you will read in the seconds between hands in that you need to become more aggressive. Inasmuch as this is true to a degree, it does not mean going all-in every hand to steal your opponent´s small blind.

Remember that the order of your deliberations should still remain position-opponent-cards, and making your betting decisions in that order:

Position – If you are paying small blind, you have position on every round of betting after the flop. Use that situation to your advantage and do not let the big blind get a free card (or cards) whenever possible. It is okay to fold as well, particularly if you are ahead in the game – you don´t want to be wasting chips on hopeful hands.

Opponent – Keep putting your opponent under pressure with small raises. You may have already been playing against them for some considerable time and know how they will react. Use this knowledge to your advantage and try to drain their chip stack by chipping away at it.

Cards – Most players will automatically widen their starting hand selections, but tight players need to widen theirs more than most. Top heads up players suggest that you should be involved in as many as 60-70% of heads up hands, and it might take some relaxation of the discipline that got you as far as this in the tournament to emerge victorious.

The best advice for players who have aspirations of winning multi-table poker tournaments is to play some heads up Sit ´n´ Go tournaments to gain experience of being in this position. Although you will be beginning each game with an equal number of chips as your opponent, the knowledge you will gain from the exercise could be invaluable.