Part two of this three-part article discusses how to deal with various types of opponents and situations you may encounter heads-up.

In Heads-Up Part 1: The Cards You Play, we started exploring what makes a strong heads-up starting hand, and what level of aggression is necessary for success. To be successful heads-up, you must have internalized these key points from the previous article:

1. You need to be as aggressive as your skill level will allow, without becoming reckless. This aggression level is ideally above that of your opponent.
2. The strength of your hand is determined greatly by the value of your highest card; making a hand with any ace a very strong holding.

Once you have both of those ideas embedded into your gulliver, you will be able to take the advice in this article, using it to build your own winning heads-up style.

Any Pair

If any ace is 52% or better to win, it only makes sense that any pocket pair is even more valuable. You have to play heads-up in the mind-set that any pair is good until proven otherwise.

Remember, the majority of hands heads-up are won by a high card or a single pair. Having any pair puts you ahead of all high-card hands. Any pair is good until proven otherwise. (You'd think it would be the other way around, since the game comes from Texas and all.)

Don't interpret this to mean you should get married to your hands. Even if you have AA, it's typically between a 5-1 and 6-1 favorite to win. That's 85% to win pre-flop. Other than the times where you're up against another hand with an ace, 15% of the time you're going to lose.

I was being repetitively redundant on purpose. Too many players seem to think that AA will win upward of 98% of the time. I hate to burst your euphoric AA bubble, but it's going to lose around 15% of the time. (I hope I got the message across by now.)

You need to walk the thin line of being massively aggressive without getting married to your hands. This is why heads-up poker is so read-based.

At a full table, it's almost never a good idea to be calling large bets with nothing but an ace-high (no pair, no draw); the same play heads-up can be the correct play more often than not, depending on the other player and the reads you can get from them.

Part two of this three-part article discusses how to deal with various types of opponents and situations you may encounter heads-up.

In Heads-Up Part 1: The Cards You Play, we started exploring what makes a strong heads-up starting hand, and what level of aggression is necessary for success. To be successful heads-up, you must have internalized these key points from the previous article:

1. You need to be as aggressive as your skill level will allow, without becoming reckless. This aggression level is ideally above that of your opponent.
2. The strength of your hand is determined greatly by the value of your highest marked card; making a hand with any ace a very strong holding.

Once you have both of those ideas embedded into your gulliver, you will be able to take the advice in this article, using it to build your own winning heads-up style.

Any Pair

If any ace is 52% or better to win, it only makes sense that any pocket pair is even more valuable. You have to play heads-up in the mind-set that any pair is good until proven otherwise.

Remember, the majority of hands heads-up are won by a high card or a single pair. Having any pair puts you ahead of all high-card hands. Any pair is good until proven otherwise. (You'd think it would be the other way around, since the game comes from Texas and all.)

Don't interpret this to mean you should get married to your hands. Even if you have AA, it's typically between a 5-1 and 6-1 favorite to win. That's 85% to win pre-flop. Other than the times where you're up against another hand with an ace, 15% of the time you're going to lose.

I was being repetitively redundant on purpose. Too many players seem to think that AA will win upward of 98% of the time. I hate to burst your euphoric AA bubble, but it's going to lose around 15% of the time. (I hope I got the message across by now.)

You need to walk the thin line of being massively aggressive without getting married to your hands. This is why heads-up poker is so read-based.

At a full table, it's almost never a good idea to be calling large bets with nothing but an ace-high (no pair, no draw); the same play heads-up can be the correct play more often than not, depending on the other player and the reads you can get from them.

Stack Sizes

Pro players often talk about the small-stack heads-up advantage. What it means is this:

• If the small stack is pushing every time they have any semblance of a hand, it forces the big stack to have to tighten up and play just the cards. This allows the small stack to steal, and gain back control of the match.

I've watched, and been part of, many heads-up sessions where the small stack climbs back to being even just by stealing blinds and thanks to any hopeful limps/raises made by the big stack.

Once the small stack gets back to even strength, they will retain control of the match, allowing them an easier time taking the lead than the original big stack.

This isn't true if the small stack got there by being outmatched and outplayed. If the player isn't able to hold their own in the match, they're going to need a good hand or few to take the win.

By now you should have a solid understanding of how strong your pocket pair and any ace hands are heads-up. You should also have a fairly decent idea of the massive amount of aggression you should be playing with.

In the final part of this article, I will discuss how to use this aggression and hand knowledge to break your opponent. I'll give you an example of one of the heads-up game plans I use, and show you how to use it as a building block to create your own.