Heads-up strategy

	It’s a matter of trying to suffocate the short-stack rather than trying to crush them. You could end up throwing them a lifeline

The Caribbean Classic in St Kitts was my last big live tournament for the year and although I did not get a result, it was an excellent trip which I thoroughly enjoyed. Unlike some of the younger pros, who seem to want to play poker the whole time, when I’m on a tropical island, I’d much rather be unwinding on the beach than grinding away at the side games – so it’s fair to say that I returned feeling pretty relaxed.

In terms of tournaments, 2006 was a good year for me. Okay, it wasn’t my best ever, but I finished in profit by going deep in Barcelona, claiming a third-place in a WSOP event and had some big online cashes in the multis. Whilst I consider cash games as paying my wages (you can often find me playing as ‘Virgin Ace’ on the Virgin Poker Omaha tables), tournament wins are always a bonus and live tournaments give me a chance to meet up with other players on the circuit, which is always enjoyable. This article will be my last on tournament hold’em, from next year we’ll be looking at pot-limit Omaha cash games. So to finish off this series, we’ll be taking a look at strategies for playing heads-up at the end of a tournament.

Pure Poker

Heads-up is considered by some to be the purest form of poker and you’ll often see big name pros settling scores over heads-up limit hold’em matches. Personally, I don’t think that limit in any variant is the purest form of poker; it’s overly-dependent on the cards and you can rarely push players off the hand with your betting. However no-limit heads-up is as good an example of ‘pure poker’ as anything else, providing you are deep-stacked. Given that you are going to be playing almost every hand, your decision-making has to be spot on.

If I have an approach to heads-up, all things being equal I like to come out fighting and play aggressive, hoping an opponent will roll over. My default style is probably consistent, controlled aggression; lots of small raises pre-flop followed by betting the flop and the streets as appropriate. These days most players play right back at you and if you can’t fight fire with fire (my first choice) then you need to decide when to sit back and trap them. If you’re getting run over, then back off and let them be aggressive; only commit your stack when you have the best hand.

When playing heads-up at the end of a long tournament your style is often dictated by the blinds. When a final table gets down to the last two it’s often the case that the antes and blinds are huge and there’s not really much room for skill – this is very different than if you were playing deep. For example, with the crapshoot final tables of TV tournaments such as the WPT, it is quite common to see both players heads-up with only around 15 times the big blind each. Obviously there is still an element of skill involved in playing short stacks like this, but there is a much, much bigger luck factor than if you were playing with 200 x the big blind. Okay, say you have 10 x the big blind and a big-stack opponent is constantly putting you all-in, you have to be selective – but you can’t afford to wait. A cold deck can kill you in this situation and yet the dilemma comes because you have to make a stand sometime. Whilst you can afford to fold maybe once, you will need to push in the next couple of hands. Any more than four folds and you will need to double up just to get back to where you were, so really you have to pick a hand and go with it before then. Just remember, any two cards can win, so sometimes you will just have to have a gamble.

If your opponent has a big chip lead over you – but you’re not particularly short-stacked compared to the blinds – you still can’t afford to let yourself be ground down. At the 2002 WSOP in the final heads-up against Robert Varkonyi, I fancied my chances despite starting the battle with around $1 million to Varkonyi’s $5m in chips. I had more experience and thought I would be able to play him after the flop and chip away at his lead. My rough plan was to keep him at the table for as long as possible as I thought the longer the match went on, the more of an edge I would have and the pressure would really start to get to him.

In the end, Varkonyi got the run of the deck and played his cards well, but in hindsight I should have been more aggressive. A few hands in, the blinds were at $20,000/$40,000 and Varkonyi made it $80k to go from the button. I called with 8♦-9♦ and checked a flop of K♦-3♦-2♥, to which Varkonyi made another bet of $80k. I then called this pretty standard half pot continuation bet with my draw. The turn came 3♠ – no help for me, but probably no help for Varkonyi either, who bet another $80k. I tested him by following his bet with a $150k raise with my flush draw. At this point I was following my plan of controlled aggression and felt I had too many chips to push all-in on the draw. Basically, I could afford to raise and see where I was at and still get away from my hand. A raise here would also disguise my flush draw and might let me get better value from a river bet if I hit the flush. But once Varkonyi called this raise I knew he had something big and there was no chance to win this pot if the river was blank. In the end, a Q♥ fell on the river, we both checked and he showed a pair of Jacks to take down a big pot.

Fighting Back

Some might say I should have committed to raising all-in on the flop in this hand, but my strategy was to avoid big pots with marginal hands. My raise on the turn was as much about gaining information as winning the pot there and then. I also wanted to ensure I survived the hand with enough chips to use if another opportunity arose. I have to admit that Varkonyi was difficult to read, so I had to make most of my decisions based on his bet size rather than any tells I had picked up on him.

In the next hand I decided to go up a gear. I called his pre-flop raise of $90k with J♣-8♣, only to pick up another flush draw on a flop of Q♣-4♣-4♣. After I checked, Varkonyi bet $50k – a pretty small bet, which gave me the chance to re-raise all-in and play this flush draw more aggressively. I didn’t put Varkonyi on a hand as strong as even top pair at this point, although I realised he must have at least a Queen when he called. Sure enough, Varkonyi showed Q♦-10♠ and I needed clubs to survive. The turn brought a 10, which gave Varkonyi two pair, but also gave me further outs with a gutshot, which proved irrelevant anyway when the river came down and was a club, giving me the flush. Unfortunately, it was the 10♣ – completing Varkonyi’s full house and ending my tournament in second place. At the time I felt I had to make a stand at Varkonyi, but looking back now perhaps I could have held on and looked for a better spot. If the situation had been reversed, for example, if I had $5m to Varkonyi’s $1m, I would have certainly tried to keep putting pressure on him by winning the small pots and grinding him down.

The key to heads-up is to remember position. A good way of looking at it is to treat the button like the serve in tennis; you have the advantage and hands played from the button are yours to lose. With position I’ll be looking to call or make small raises and take every pot away at the first sign of weakness. I don’t think you need to keep pushing and bullying too much, with a big stack you are looking to keep away from big pots (unless you are pretty sure you have them beat) and make sure you don’t double your opponent up – it’s a matter of trying to suffocate the short-stack rather than trying too hard to crush them. You could end up throwing them a lifeline.

If I am playing as the big blind, I’ll be selecting my starting hands a little more carefully as I’m at a disadvantage, but even so, aggression is still the key. With only two players in the hand it is obvious that there will be more bluffing and less made hands, so you have to base your decisions on your knowledge of your opponent. After playing a whole final table, you should have a pretty good idea of what that player is capable of, so use this to your advantage and put them on a hand when you consider your options.