What kind of strategy do you guys use when playing Heads Up?

[Kurn]

To quote something Greg Raymer posted on 2+2 before he became famous, "the biggest mistake you can make heads-up is to fold preflop too often."

Note that is the exact opposite of good full-table poker.

HU at the end of a tourney is a bit different from just playing HU. The following ideas are more valuable shallow-stacked at the end of a tourney.

Randomize your play, but don't fold in position preflop more than 2% of the time. Be aggressive. If you complete from SBB and he checks the flop, bet. If you flop a pair, any pair, bet. Raise in position more often than not.

OOP, you find out soon enough what kind of player you're facing. How he plays in position will help you define what his postflop actions mean.

Randomize your play. You know, there's a stupid concept newbies have in hold'em that loses them money at full tables that is absolutely the way and the light HU - ANY 2 CARDS CAN WIN. Play with that as your mantra at a full table and you'll go broke. Play with that as your mantra heads-up and you're on your way to winning (of course, you have to know how to play postflop for this to work).

HU at the end of a tourney, no player who understands that the two most relevant factors in these situations are aggression and luck is as much as a 3:2 dog to the best player on the planet. A player who does not understand it is a huge dog to any player who does.

[eejit101]

my game aint bad HU, but it needs improving.

I play anything and everything. Make some weird raises. Raise/reraise/rereraise/push. whatever. I go with instinct

[Akverno]

i usually play pretty tight for the first 10 or so hands. Only raise with good cards at this stage and test the water with my opponent. See if he is a careless raiser or if he plays passive, find out what size bet he folds to. Yadda yadda yadda. Then about the time that the blinds go up I start mixing it up like crazy. All of it is based off of my opponents, but at the low limits I generally play at it is quite common that I'll raise with any hand that is better then 50% to win and almost any suited connector. I try to play most of my pocket pairs pretty hard, even the low ones. I make an attempt to raise almost any ace that I have and show when the guy fold after I've made my pair, then occasionaly I'll mix it up and check the BB when I'm holding a weaker ace and generally trap the guy after it falls.

But mostly I agree with everyone else here, mix it up a lot and try to focus on each heads up completely so I can get a good read on a player. See if he is willing to bet that bottom/second pair. See if his betting pattern dictates which pair he is betting or if he's betting a draw. I try to shy away from the all in pre flop battles because I can generally out manuever my opponent fairly easily after the flop.

End of tournament heads up are completely different generally you both have small M's and are forced to play far fewer hands. I try to maximize my aggression pre flop, not so much by pushing a lot, but more of the min-3x bb raise range. I try to stick to raising with hands that play well heads up, any Ace, any pocket pair, decent Kings, and any combo of QJ10. Then of course I fast play any pair I hit because each pot you take down gives you a huge advantage.

Slow playing, hardly ever do it, need to be an extreme lock. Generally when I flop a crazy straight or a set with a harmless board. Plus, I hardly ever check after I've been betting so it looks weird.

And that's generally how I play heads up.

[studiopet]

Modifications/corrections - see above.

[Reel Deal]

Don't really have anything to add to what has been said but I will point out there is a very good section on HU play in HOH vol. 2