When playing heads up, you might occasionally toss away 8-3 offsuit or similar garbage preflop after just a few seconds of consideration. And you must always be ready to dodge opponent’s punches and to throw punches of your own. You are always in action, either playing a hand or being dealt another. Much like in a boxing match, your “head” must always be “up” (pun intended). In heads up poker, there is no waiting around for the next hand. Then you wait patiently for a minute or two or more until the next hand comes. You are under the gun and thus first to act before the flop, and you look down at 8 ♠ 3 ♦. In a full-ring game, you are likely folding the majority of your hands, even if you play a relatively “loose” style in which you are seeing many flops.Īmong those hands you fold are a number that involve what are essentially trivially simple decisions. Heads up poker, whether in a cash game or tournament, requires both players to pay attention and make meaningful decisions - often several of them - every single hand. The simplest and most obvious reason is that in heads up poker, there’s nowhere to hide!

There are a number of very logical reasons why this is true.

New poker players tend to favor full-ring (nine-handed) games or perhaps six-handed games over heads up poker.