Dealing with Aggression in Heads up Poker

Facing aggressive opponents in full ring games can be quite difficult, but perhaps even more so when you are facing one in heads up Poker. Often, a player will just end up being intimidated and self destruct. But there are actually ways that you can beat aggressive players.

If you are behind your opponent, then the proper heads up Poker strategy is to play aggressively as well. Keep in mind that because it is one on one competition, the blinds will be coming in very rapidly, so you should not allow yourself to fall back behind. With this in mind, you should be striving to develop the skills to make quick decisions.

Although it can be hard against aggressive players, the fact that you are behind and yet initiating the action will often give them pause.

If you are ahead however, and you want to extract money from an aggressive opponent, a good heads up Poker strategy would be to call all the way to the latter stages. The reason is that if your opponent thinks that you will not fold to his hand, then he will realize that a bluffing tactic will not work.

One of the problems with raising early with a strong hand in heads up Poker is that your opponent will likely just fold, realizing that you have him beat. By calling however, you allow him to bet some more, allowing you to get more money into the pot.

Of course, this heads up Poker strategy is to be employed only if you are certain that you have the winning hand. Calling and putting more money into the pot when you are uncertain if you hold the nuts is very risky, especially in a game format such as this.

Finally, remember that any strategy that you decide to apply and use in heads up Poker will depend on how you read your opponent. Very rarely will you find weak opponents in this kind of game, and more often you will encounter the aggressive ones.

However, in time you will learn to read them and after several games get an idea of what kind of hands they play with. This is in fact, one of the benefits of playing one on one; you will only have one player to read and decipher, unlike in short handed games.

By developing and applying the appropriate skills for heads up Poker, you will learn how to manipulate the other player and increase the odds of you outwitting him for the pot.