More Heads UP SNG Strategy

Heads up sit and go tournaments (SNGs) can be incredibly profitable but they are also difficult to master. Once you have a little poker experience under your belt, heads up SNGs are a good way to make money and improve your skills. Heads up poker is a high stress, high reward game.

The constantly rising blinds and difficulty of having to play the same opponent in every pot makes heads up SNGs intimidating to new players. If you take the time to learn them properly, you can make a lot of money. Anything that is difficult rewards those who work the hardest and tackle those challenges head-on.

If you’re new to poker, I wouldn’t recommend you jump straight in to heads-up SNGs. Poker itself is a complicated game as it is, and heads-up SNGs only make it even more complicated. But if you’re bound to play heads-up SNGs, you’ll be glad to know they are great for clearing poker bonuses and building the bankroll. Speaking of which, the current Ultimate Bet referral code will get you a $1100 bankroll-builder bonus (sign up below).

Basics Heads Up SNG Concepts

These basic concepts are the key to winning at heads-up poker. If you master these concepts, you will become a dangerous (and wealthy) poker player. It’s easy to read through these basic concepts, but it’s completely different to actually implement them. When you play in your next heads-up SNG, make sure you actually think about these concepts.

1. Hand Reading

Hand reading is not some mystic art that requires you to read souls and watch your opponent’s heartbeat through his neck. The art of hand reading is nothing more than a collection of information, processing of that information and then assigning probabilities to likely holdings.

Information is where everything begins. When you play a hand of poker against an opponent, you need to gather every piece of information you can find. Betting patterns, recent history, the cards and opponent’s statistics all provide you with information about how your opponent plays and what he is likely to have in his hand.

We could spend a lifetime talking about hand reading here so we’ll have to keep this part fairly basic. In short, you can narrow down your opponent’s likely holdings by comparing his betting patterns to the community cards. There are eventually five community cards that you get to see, and you only have to guess about the two in your opponent’s hand. Think about what two cards could possibly make your opponent make the same string of bets, raises, checks and calls given the current board.

Next, consider your recent history with the opponent. Have you gotten into a big hand lately? Did he just show you a big bluff? Have you pushed him out of several pots lately? Think about those things and consider how they may affect his mindset.

Next, think about how your opponent likes to play. Does he slowplay big hands regularly? Does he always bluff in certain situations? You may not be able to answer these questions during the course of a single SNG, but it helps to think about them anyways. If you play online, make sure to take notes on every player you compete against. Spend enough time at the heads-up SNG tables and you’ll start to see certain names on a regular basis.

2. Changing Gears

Being able to change gears on a dime is a critical skill in all forms of heads up poker. As you and your opponent play against one another, you will both quickly catch on to each other’s tendencies and basic playing style. The key to winning is to be able to change your playing style multiple times over the course of a single match.

You and your opponent play every single hand against one another, so it’s easier to get a read on each other. If you can change your style up and counter your opponent’s style, you will always be one step ahead. Being able to change gears serves two purposes: it helps you counter your opponent’s playing style and it helps you stay unreadable.

For example, if you start out playing a normal, tight-aggressive game and your opponent plays an extra tight waiting game, you can change your style to super-aggressive and steal his chips. As soon as your opponent readjusts and starts calling you down, you should change back to your normal tight-aggressive game.

The actual process of changing gears isn’t difficult. The difficult part is knowing when to change gears. You have to watch your opponent closely and look for subtle signs that he is changing his playing style. As soon as you catch on, you can then change your own playing style. The player who changes gears the fastest is almost always the winner.

3. Tournament Adjustments

So far, almost everything we’ve talked about can be applied to all forms of heads up poker. People who compete in heads-up SNGs also have to deal with constantly rising blinds and the lack of rebuys. If you run out of chips in a heads-up SNG, you are just out of luck. You can’t buy back in and try to win your money back.

The constantly rising blinds affect heads-up SNGs in two ways. First of all, they force you to continually stay active so you can stay afloat. If you sit down and fold away, hoping for a strong hand, you will be demolished by the blinds. If you want to win heads-up SNGs, you have to actively take chips. Whether it be by stealing them with raises before the flop or by bluffing at every small pot you see, you need to constantly add chips to your stack.

You can use the “changing gears” section from above to help stay afloat. When you want to steal blinds, you can turn into an aggressive stealing machine. Come in with a raise every single hand and take those blinds like they are candy. When your opponent adjusts to you (he will do so quickly), you can slow down for a while, hit a real hand or two, and then go right back to your aggressive style.

As far as having a limited chip stack goes, there’s not a whole lot you can do about that. I would recommend you pass up on small edges if you think you have a skill advantage over your opponent. So if you have a pair of fours and your opponent shows you AK, it might be wise to not get it all-in even though you are a slight favorite.

If your opponent is more skilled than you, you can give yourself a fighting chance by going all in with small advantages and stealing pots by pushing all-in with big draws. That way, you have the power of aggression and being the first one in the pot. You might get called and lose, but at least you go down with a fight and not a whimper.