Heads-Up Rules for Texas Hold’em Poker

• Small And Big Blind Poker
• Big Blind In Poker Mean
• Poker Big Blinds
• Poker Big Blind Small Blind

Our goal is to provide a complete guide to beating heads up tournaments in a simple format. These games are easier to quantify than almost any other poker game, and we have included starting hand charts, push/fold charts, information on adjusting to different types of players, and lots of useful information for handling different blind levels. Heads up with 7-9 Big Blinds Finally, we reach a spot where the stack depth is shallow enough to revert to a shove or fold strategy. BU chooses between these two options and BB will either call or fold. The most important position at the table is the big blind. You’ll be seeing flops the most often from this position over your poker career. It also happens to be the most challenging position at the poker table. Which means this crucial spot can also be one of the most profitable, in terms of gaining an edge over your rivals. Very few players properly understand and execute the right.

Heads up Texas Holdem is one of the most fun, challenging and misunderstood variations of holdem. The thrill of playing a friend or foe in a battle of heads up holdem is unmatched in all of poker. Is he bluffing? Does he have the nuts? Should I value bet my second pair? Well, I will not get ahead of myself just yet. Before you can play Texas Holdem heads up against an opponent, you have to know the rules, right?

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Small And Big Blind Poker

Texas Holdem Heads Up Rules – Button Position

Without a doubt, the single heads-up rule that creates the most confusion is who has the button and who has which blinds?

The first thing that confuses people is that the rules are different if you are playing at certain online poker site or playing live poker. It doesn’t make any sense, but some online poker rooms started setting the blinds backwards from what was generally accepted in live heads-up poker games for decades. I am going to explain the heads up rules for live poker for the sake of simplicity. The following Heads-up Texas Holdem rules apply to both tournaments and cash games.

Proper Preflop Head-Up Blinds Setup:

Heads-up Button Position and Dealing:

• The button has the small blind when playing Texas Holdem heads up.
• The person who is the dealer has the button and also posts his/her small blind. This means that the other player (without the button) is the big blind.
• The small blind acts first on the first round of betting before the flop (pre-flop).
• The dealer (button) deals the small blind the first card, and the second card to the other player (big blind). Deal the 3rd (total) card to the small blind and the last card to the other player. This leaves each player with two hole cards and the first round of pre-flop betting can begin.

Heads-up Pre-flop Betting:

• The small blind can fold, call or raise.
• If the small blind just calls, then the big blind (non-button player) can either check and see the flop, or raise.

All Other Rounds:

• The flop is dealt (3 cards).
• The person who was big blind pre-flop is first to act on the flop. (In case you forgot, this is the player who does NOT have the button – the button acts last on all streets except pre-flop.)
• The player who is first to act can bet or check. If that player checks, the button can then bet or check.
• If both players check, then the dealer deals the turn.
• Repeat the betting sequence for the turn and the river. (the 5th card)
• After all rounds of betting are complete, both players show their hands and the person with the best hand wins!

Now wasn’t that fun?!? If you think you got the hang of Texas Holdem heads up rules or you would just like to practice for free or for real money, I would suggest downloading Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt is the poker room I rate the highest for heads up play. There are at least one hundred Texas Holdem heads up tables available 24/7.

In heads-up online poker, you have a small and a big blind, which switches person each new hand. If you are the small blind, you are first to act pre-flop. Normally you either open or fold. You open a big % of your hands and some really bad hands you fold. If the small blind raises, the big blind has to make a decision. You can either fold, call or re-raise. If you call, we usually name it ‘defending’, because you are defending your big blind that you already paid. The question is, what hands should you defend and what not.

First of all, I’d like to say that every situation is different, so there is no rule of thumb. This is because every villain plays either more aggressive or more passive than the other. But there are some things you can keep in mind when you have no information on the villain. For example, you can act differently on how many big blinds your villain opens on the small blind. This usually ranges from 2 – 3 big blinds. This is easy mathematics; if your villain opens 2 big blinds, you only have to chip in 1 big blind more. This means you can defend a wider range of hands. Then again, if your villain opens 3 big blinds, you should tighten up that range, because it’s more expensive to see a flop. Sometimes your villain opens 2.5 times the big blind. Then you should find a way in between those two ranges.

Here are some examples:

• From now on I will call the small blind, SB, and the big blind, BB
• For each example imagine we’re playing a 0.25/0.50$ heads-up game. The SB posts $0.25 and the BB posts $0.50. The pot is $0.75

Scenario 1 (2x BB);

SB raises to $1.

SB is risking $0.75, to win $0.75.

BB should defend at least $0.75/$1.50$ so should defend 50% of his range.

Scenario 2 (2.5x BB);

SB raises to $1.25 (2,5xBB).

SB risks $1 to win $0.75.

BB should defend at least $0.75/$1.75 so should defend ~43% of his range.

Scenario 3 (3x BB);

SB raises to $1.5 (3xBB)

Big Blind In Poker Mean

SB risks $1.5 to win $0.75.

Poker Big Blinds

BB should defend at least $0.75/$2 so should defend 37.5% of his range.

Poker Big Blind Small Blind

This is some easy mathematics you should keep in mind as big blind pre-flop. You should also keep in mind whether your villain raises a lot of small blinds, or not so many. When your villain raises almost 100% of his small blinds. You can start thinking about widening your range a bit. Because he gets dealt bad hands as well, which he is also opening. But also keep in mind that if your villain raises a small percentage of his small blinds, that you should tighten up a big, because he will often have better cards when you don’t tighten up.

So all in all, defending is not as complicated as it sounds. The things you have to keep in mind are:

• How aggressive or passive is my villain pre-flop on the small blind?
• Is he opening a lot of small blinds, or is he not?
• How many big blinds is he opening to?