Heads up and short handed poker is much different then your normal style of poker. Much like cash games you need to see more hands and become more aggressive. Way to many times I get to the end of a long free poker tournament and the player with me just seems to give up. I start off aggressive with any Q+ or good low blind hands like J7 off suit. Although these hands are often a waste of money; here they are more often then not the best pre-flop hand.

Remember that you have to be prepared in heads up & short hand to be ready to gamble almost everything that hits on the flop & even occasionally if nothing hits.

Keep your opponent guessing while keeping an eye on his normal bet range. If anything should seem off from what he/she is usually doing its ok to lay one or two down now and again. Also in heads up A high is most often the best hand on the flop.

If your opponent decides to try and switch roles with you by betting back even bigger or frequent my best advice is to let him/her. Switch roles and see if he/she is as good at catching the awkwardly high/low bets as you were. You may find you need to switch roles with the opposing player a few times before you get the result your looking for but eventually they will break down.

Heads up is also a place where you will see a lot of bad beats. Most often this is because both players are seeing a wide range of hands and neither can really put one another on any set hand pre-flop. Just don’t put all your eggs in one basket unless that basket has steel re-enforcement. Although hands like AX or K9 are very good at this stage of the tournament they are nothing to be going wild over. They are still a good 30% with just about any hand.

Good luck in all of your poker and free poker.

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