Nowhere in the world of online poker is "playing the man" more important than when it comes time to play heads up. Whether you play poker tournaments and you get to the final table or you play poker heads up games, it is important to have some sort of knowledge in order to come out ahead. To put it quite simply, heads up poker games are completely different than regular games. You have to play them a different way, and some people are not cut out for the challenges of heads up. Here are some ways to change your poker strategy around when you get to a one on one situation.

The first thing that you need to realize is that you have to play poker aggressively in heads up situations. Aggressive poker has to be a staple of your game at all levels, but when you are heads up, you can play aggressively with a lot of different hands. You don’t have to sit around and wait for a hand because chances are that the other guy doesn’t have anything. One of the big questions is how do you bet a flop that looks to have missed both your hand and your opponent’s hand? If you have raised before the flop, then you owe it to yourself to fire at this type of board every time. Often, if your opponent has missed, he will have to fold his hand. If he’s a savvy player, he will raise you and you can fold, thus losing the minimum.

When you first get into a heads up match, you need to start figuring out how your opponent is going to play. You will need to play poker aggressively, but if your opponent is overly aggressive, then you can sit back and wait. Sometimes in these poker games, you have opponents that fire at every pot, regardless of their hand. In this situation, it can be best to sit back and wait until you have the cards. Then when they start betting, you don’t need to raise them. You need to turn into a calling station and allow them to continue betting into you, especially if they are first to act.

The thing about poker tournaments like this is that you have to think counter intuitively. The opportunity to bust a player completely in heads up poker is what you’re aiming for. You can sometimes do this by betting aggressively with the best cards and hoping that he’ll make a move on you. Sometimes you can do this by winning every little pot where neither player has anything. Sometimes, though, you have to be willing to do the most difficult thing in poker strategy. You have to willing to completely change your play and allow your opponent to do the betting.