News / Imper1um / 10 March 2009 / Leave a comment

The single most important concept to understand when playing heads up is position. If you do not understand the importance of position and how to use it to your advantage you will be an easy target in any heads up game.

"The most common mistake you will see low stakes players make is simply defending their big blind far too much"

Conversely, positional mistakes are the most commonly seen and easy of mistakes to take advantage of when playing heads up, and at the lowest stakes exploiting a player's positional mistakes is the fastest way to profit.

The long and short of position when playing heads up is that you cannot win consistently playing large pots out of position. The most common mistake you will see low stakes players make is simply defending their big blind far too much. It is a constant uphill struggle for these players, as they are consistently putting in more money, in worse spots than their opponent - clearly a recipe for disaster over the long run.

The reason low stakes players make such an elementary mistake is simple - they are there to gamble and see flops - folding is a boring thing to do compared to getting involved in a hand. Do not fall into this trap of mindless curiosity - the range of hands you consider playing out of position should be radically different from those you play from the button, even if it feels boring having to chuck a larger percentage of hands away than you do on the button.

The next key point about position that has to be understood is that positional advantage shrinks as the stacks get shorter. Position is only relevant if the player out of position has to make numerous decisions out of position - clearly if they have enough chips for an all in on the flop position is no way near as important. You have to adjust your style when the stacks get short to a less position based one, looking instead at the dynamics of each hand in terms of history and your specific holding. This stage of the game is much more about re-stealing and bravery - the player willing to gamble and attack as hard as possible will usually triumph if the game is still going on when the blinds get very high.

Focus on consistently staying in position until the blinds get high in heads up sit and goes - the simple fact that your opponent is overly curious will usually give you the vast majority of their chips long before the nature of position starts to change with the shortening stacks.

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