3 MISTAKES To AVOID When Playing HEADS-UP [Poker Strategy]

Learning how to play heads-up poker is crucial to increasing your win rate drastically. It is where the most money is won or lost in a tournament and it can be extremely profitable with huge edges available!

Remember that you will win if you consistently make less mistakes than your opponent. Your goal should be to make the minimal amount of mistakes that you can.

In this poker strategy segment you will learn:

- Heads-Up Preflop Strategy
- Postflop Tips To Gain An Edge
- How To Keep A Winning Mindset In Heads-Up Poker

When you are playing heads-up, you have to play a ton of hands, especially if you are in a tournament where there is a big blind ante in play. If you are just trying to wait for a good hand to try and stack your opponent then you are going to get run over preflop.

You don’t have to be perfect, focus on good fundamentals:
- Only raise or fold from the BTN
- 3-bet With A Linear Range
- Call 3-bets Often In Position

The 3 biggest mistakes that I see poker players make when playing heads up are:

1. Playing WAY too tight preflop!
2. Continuation betting too OFTEN!
3. Not Check-Raising ENOUGH!

Watch this poker video to find out the reasons behind these mistakes and Jonathan will teach you how to fix them!
On this Poker Coaching channel we cover a weekly poker topic to help improve your poker strategy!

0:00 - Intro
0:58 - Mistake #1 - Playing WAY Too Tight Preflop
2:15 - 100bbs Deep Button Raise First in (RFI)
3:19 - Playing the Big Blind vs A 2.5BB Button Raise
6:05 - Facing A Big Blind 3-Bet
8:50 - Facing A Button 4-Bet
10:11 - Mistake #2 - Continuation Betting Too Often
12:18 - Example #1 - Marginal Hands Want to Play Medium Sized Pots!
13:59 - Example #2 - When To Bluff
15:46 - Mistake #3 - Not Check-Raising Enough
16:41 - Example #3 - Check-Raising
18:16 - Example #4 - Check-Raising (2)
21:20 - Bonus Tips - Heads-Up Mindset Mistakes
23:26 - Summary Of Mistakes To Avoid When Playing Heads-Up

In order to take your poker game to the next level it is vitally important you learn all the nuances of the game.

Do you know what ranges of poker hands you should be playing from each position? When should you 3-bet, call or fold? When is the right time to make a hero call or a huge bluff? Do you know how to play preflop, flop, turn & river effectively and how should your poker strategy change depending on the street? What difference does it make if you are playing multi-way vs heads-up?

#pokerstrategy #headsup #highstakesduel

[PokerCoaching]

What do YOU think is YOUR biggest leak when playing heads-up? 🤔

[thomasroman]

Thanks Jonathan, your coaching is great. I've been watching this only for a few weeks but already it's made a big difference, from simply RFi instead of open limping. Awesome.

[Bigfacts]

Thank you Jonathan! I’ve been waiting for some heads up content, this is great

[sungod]

How much tighter does the range have to be with only 25BB starting stacks instead of 100BB? And how much do the 3-bet and 4-bet sizes change?

[JanneOksanen]

The problem with heads-up is that by the time you get really good at it nobody wants to play you anymore.

[lucianozaffaina]

20:43 I don't agree to the size of the raise here. 50 Is a really small raise size that makes me pot committed and gives draws the odds to call . Given the size of the pot and the stack (only 182 left) I think I should push all-in here. If you disagree can you answer please?

[highheatrichie]

Thanks :) great info! Definitely need to be a little more loose when those bids go up in heads up even if I have a bigger stack lol 😂

[HELLnnan]

Fantastic video. Specially your advices in the end about the swings we accept on signing up.

[Ma-pzkl]

really good video and your tone is funny. thanks.

[EFFZeon]

Rarely do we play HU with 100BB. I would rather learn short or mid-stack (under 40BB) HU strategy than deep stack.

[jelk]

How were these ranges created? These don't seem like solver ranges.

[kirilllosik]

Great content! Thank you so much for sharing. Looking forward to seeing more content about NL Holdem HU cash poker from you!

[Levi-oidg]

so when would you cbet? with good draws and top pair+?

[henriksenlaw]

In 30 plus years the only heads up no limit Holdem I have played is maybe 3-4 times in tourneys.

[kerbalspaceprogramgermany]

why gto wizard recommend limps from bb from 5, 5 and above ? no offense.

[quidproquo]

Check raising turn … if it exists haven’t found too many(after calling flop bet in a 3 bet pot)

[gwoody]

Why are Pocket Aces folding more often than other paired hands/unpaired hands in the 4 bet call and reraise ranges?
I would assume AA is a 100% in any preflop situation.

[Sacmater]

What percentage should we be flop c-betting. 6 max I´d aim for something like 70%. Tune it down HU?

[connorcrump]

What would be a good preflop range for the BB when the SB player limps?

[theNfl_Esq]

Been finishing in the $ 80% of the time on BetOnline nightly big tournament and Sun big tournament. However I have 2 top 4 finishes, same w 5 n6 but can never get in the top 3 or win the tournament. Payoff difference between 4 n 1 is 3k and 21k vs 6k in the big one. What could I be doing wrong? Also I play w BB as my indicator instead of chips. Should I be rfi 2.0x or 3x or? I usually rfi 2.2x. Thanks for your input. It’s bc of your channel I’ve improved so much and honestly if I had not lost a few flips or gotten drawn out on I’d have even more big wins. Also never bought in for mote than 2 bullets except 1x th