Playing Heads Up Poker For Profit - Know Your Odds

By Author: Ben Sleuth
Total Articles: 26
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The ranking of hands in heads up games change when compared to 6 max or even 9 handed games due to the fact that the odds that your hand is up against a hand that dominates you are vastly reduced. Firstly lets look at the top 20 starting heads up hands. These are: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99, 88, AKs , 77, AQs, AJs, AK, A10, AQ, AJ, KQs, 66, A9s, A10 and KJs. As you can see pocket pairs increase in value simply because the chance of both players being dealt pocket pairs is 16/1 x 16/1 = 256/1. You will note that high card combinations have greater value in heads up simply because most showdowns are won with weak holding such as a pair or even ace or king high. 72 is no longer the weakest hand in heads up play as weakest hand is replaced with 32o. Remember high cards rule in heads up play!

Another important fact is that 2 out of 3 hands where your opponent does not have a pair he will not improve on the flop. We will discuss this further in future articles when we delve more into the actual playing of heads up poker and the importance of position. The odds of being deal a specific pair such as AA is 220/1 so from this ...
... we can calculate the chance of AA v KK as being 220/1 x 220/1 and the chances of lets say AA v any pair are 220/1 x 16/1.

We can in effect gauge the strength of our starting hand in heads up play by comparing it to a random holding for our opponent. Using this data we can say that the chances of winning when pushing all in with the following hands pre-flop are, with AA 84.93%, KK, 82.12%, QQ, 79.63% , JJ, 77.15% and AKs, 64.47%. Even K4 wins pre-flop 50.23% of the time and the weakest starting hand 23 only wins 29.24% of the time which reinforces the rule that high cards rule in heads up poker. Any hand which includes an ace is a very strong!

So the above gives you a good insight into the odds in heads up poker and in my next article we will move on to how to play the game and how you must learn the importance of position in heads up play. I can�t also stress the importance of experience in playing heads up poker and all players have to serve their apprentice by starting at a relatively low level to learn the games. For those just starting out to develop their skills as I said in my last article find a soft site with a bonus and if possible rake back and use this site as your training site. Having a decent bonus and rake back means that even if you are not a winning player when you start your heads up sng poker career you will still most of the time end up in profit and profit is our main goal. Check my signature for a site that gives you both a bonus and rake back as it is one of the softest online with plenty of players willing to donate their bankroll to you.
Ben Sleuth's writes about playing poker for profit for sites such as PKR Rakeback He has published many articles for online gaming sites. He gives great advice on using bonuses such as the PKR Bonus which can add a vast amount each year to your poker winnings.