Playing heads up in Texas Hold'em is very important in being a winning poker player.
This article gives great advise to winning heads up.

How many times have your AA been cracked online? Would you want to know how to get your AA the most money possible? Here is the best way to get the most money out of your AA!

Online:
In online play as you may know, people are very aggressive and people play a lot of different hands. People will play hands anywhere from 9 T suited to 5 6 suited to AK or better, or worse in that case. To avoid hands like the 5 6 suited or the 9 T suited, against your aces, which is only 73% advantage here are the steps that you need to take:

(All scenarios are in tournament play with 5x the starting chips of the tournament. For example: if you started a tournament with 10,000 chips, you would have 50,000 chips for these examples.)

Early Position: (first to act-third to act, not including the blinds)
1. Always limp with AA. If blinds are 200/400, in online poker, people raise with mediocre hands like 9 T or even 5 6 suited to 1200 or even 1600 chips. If another person calls the 1200 or 1600 chip bet, that means the pot would be 3000-3800 chips, I would put in a raise of 5000 more chips (pushing in a bet of 5800-6200), this bet would put pressure on your opponent to either fold or move in.
2. If you put in that raise of 5800-6200 and a person calls, you have to figure that the person has to have a pair in the whole, or a hand like A K, A K suited, A Q suited, and so on.
3. If the flop comes all unders such as, 10d 6s 4c, you have to figure you are winning in the hand so a check here would be the play. This would be the play because now you gave your opponent the thought that maybe you have a hand like A K suited or A Q suited. You give your opponent the shot in trying to steal the pot, but of course we know, your not going to fold this hand.
4. If the flop comes a rainbow such as, Kd 9h 4c, you would want to bet at this pot, with a bet of the pot. If you bet at this pot, you will get an all in if your opponent has a hand like A K or even K Q suited. A check in this position is not the correct play because you could let your opponent see a free card, which your opponent could hit a better hand. If you bet and your opponent folds, you take down a very nice pot, which could benefit you into making a final table.
5. If any flush draw hits on the flop such as, Qd 6d 2c, you need to make a pot size bet, or even over-bet the pot so that you put your opponent in a hard decision to call. An all in bet here, might not be a bad play, its just that, if your opponent doesn’t have many chips then it is an easy call for him to make.
6. Same with straight draws, if the flop comes, Jd 10c 4s, if your opponent has a hand like KQ you need to move in, or make a huge bet, to where he would have to risk a big amount of his chips to see the next card or 2.
7. If you make a bet of 5800-6200 and a person moves in, of course the play is to call, and hope that the AA holds up against your opponents’ hand.
If raising in this early position, people are going to put you on a big hand. You might get a call preflop, but unless your opponent hits on the flop that is all you will get. Most likely, 75% of the time, your opponents will not call you. You will just get the blinds.

Middle Position: (fourth-sixth position)

1. If you get 1 or more people too limp in before you acting, you should make a pot size bet so that you put everybody on the table in an awkward position.
2. If you get a call by 1 person, and the flop comes like step 3 in the early section, you should bet out, to force your opponent into a decision. A check would only be a good play if the person that called you is behind you.
3. If the opponent checks in front of you, you should make a bet that is about half of the pot. For example: if the blinds are 200/400 and your sitting with 50,000 chips, and you raised preflop to 2000 and the person in the big blind calls you. The pot is about 4600. When the flop comes and the person checks, you should make a bet like 2000-2300 chips. This is a good bet because, you would figure that if your opponent had a huge hand he would reraise, to where maybe you would have the ability to fold or, he would call, and so you could extract more and more chips from the other player. Of course, there is always the factor that he would fold, to where you could just take down the pot there.
4. If nobody before you calls the big blind, or raises, you should put in a good raise of about 5x the big blind, or 2000 chips in this example. The reason why this is a good bet is because you don’t want people with mediocre hands entering the pot, and suck out on you. With this bet, it is big enough so that people will not call you with those “crappy” hands.
Again, just like in Early Position, you have to make pot size bets, or even over-bet the pot so that “suckers” don’t come into the pot, knowing that they have to hit runner runner. Like Doyle Brunson always said, “You gotta make your opponent pay when you know you have the best.” That’s why I say bet at least the pot so that you can take down a fairly reasonable pot, or maybe, get the guy to push in, and take all of his chips.

Late Position: (seventh and eighth)

1. This is the strongest position that you can be in at the poker table. With AA in the whole and you have the dealer button right in front of you, but the most common mistake when being in position like this, is too make a very small raise so that people will stay in with you. Well when you do this kind of thing, this is when you get stories about how somebody with 7 9 suited or Q 6 suited cracked my AA, well its because you let them come in for a very cheap price, and with pot odds.
2. When in late position, unless if it is just you and the blinds, you want to make a huge raise (at LEAST the size of the pot), so that those limpers cant see a cheap flop. It is easy for a limper to limp in, in early position thinking that he has the best hand the whole time, not knowing your holding AA in the pocket. I know since playing poker, I have got paid off when raising huge on the button because people are thinking that I am trying to steal in position, which is not nearly the case.
3. Whenever you get called preflop, you should always bet the pot if you are most certain that you have the best hand. If you are iffy about the hand, thinking that there is a possibility that you are beat, I would make what is called a “feeler bet”, meaning, I would bet about half of the pot to see where your opponents are at.
4. When playing against the blinds, you would want to push in a bet of about 5x the big blind, or 2000 chips. This bet will steal there blinds, or if they do have a good hand, they will call you preflop. Thus on the flop you should bet the pot unless uncertain that your hand is good.

The key about playing these two famous cards is: you have to put your opponents into decisions. If you bet 800 when the blinds are only 200/400, this will not push your opponent out. This will let your opponents see very cheap cards, and thus could hit runner runner to beat you. Which as everybody knows online, that could very well happen.

These I feel are the keys to success when playing AA, if you use these tips that I have supplied you, I feel that you will take down more and more pots with AA, and not having those horrid stories of how you got sucked out by 8 9 suited or even 5 8 suited or a stupid hand like that.

The latest poker phenomenon has strictly been No Limit Texas Hold 'Em. You put in an entry fee and you play to get to that glorious final table for big money.

The best semi-bluff (or the one with the best chance of winning the pot) is the flush draw semi-bluff. You raise with Ah-Qh, and the flop comes 3d-5h-9h. With two overcards and a flush draw, you can assume you have 15 outs out of the 47 remaining cards, making you 60% to hit with two cards to come. The problem is, you don’t have a hand yet. But since you might have a hand by the end, and you might not need a hand to win the pot, you might as well bet anyway. That’s the idea behind a semi-bluff.

There are no real required conditions to semi-bluff. All you need is a draw and a betting arm, but it can be boiled down to a science. What follows is an in-depth look at how to bet your flush draw on the respective streets and when to lay off and take a free card. I’ll discuss two different types of flush draw, the two-down and three-down types. Finally, I’ll discuss the betting once you have hit your flush.

First of all, I would suggest that you almost always semi-bluff with a two-down flush draw (when you have two suited cards in your hand along with two matching suited cards on the board). It accomplishes two goals in approximately equal proportions: getting money into the pot for when you hit your draw, and taking down the pot when your opponents fold to your semi-bluff. It is not well-advised to semi-bluff into more than 3 players because your chances of getting raised and isolated are much more present. When you do semi-bluff, your bet should be about half the pot, a reasonable bet. Remember that semi-bluffing is a combination of bluffing and value betting.

When you miss on fourth street, it’s usually a good idea to check and see what your opponents do. If they come out swinging, they usually have a made hand, and you should leave it up to pot odds to determine whether or not to continue with the draw. If they check, they might be on a draw as well, albeit a lesser one than you. However, if you have the feeling that your opponents are fishing, another stab at the pot couldn’t hurt much. If they’re drawing, you’ll almost certainly take it down there.

If the hand makes it to fifth street and you still haven’t hit, your options actually open up a little. You could make a big bet, try a post-oak bluff, check-fold and give up, or even go all-in. This is always a tough situation to be in, because any river card that missed you could have improved your opponent’s hand. Just use your better judgment and if all else fails, lay it down and stop the bleeding.

Now, if you hit your flush on the turn, this creates another odd situation. The natural thing to do is check and let your opponent improve his hand on the river, but two major problems persist: another flush card can hit and make him a higher flush, and if the board pairs you could be up against a full house. A check can also look suspicious to any player not holding a flush, although most of the time that check would mean the player is worried about the flush cards.

Instead, you want to bet for value here. Make it a bet that he can call, but one that will put a dent in the pot, something like one-third to one-half the pot. Stick with my value betting strategy for post-turn play and you’ll get the idea. Now is really not the time to get tricky, except for a check-raise into an opponent that you know will bet.

If you hit on the river, make no special plays. You must bet for value here if you want to make anything on the hand. Hopefully your semi-bluffing has made the pot worth winning even without a call.

A three-down flush draw semi-bluff consists of the board coming three to a suit (let’s say hearts) and you having the highest heart possible. In this situation, you do not semi-bluff without the nut draw. It’s that simple. There’s too good a chance that that one card is out there, so you might as well have it. With the nut draw, you semi-bluff just as you would with a two-down flush draw.

A different situation arises when you have an overpair along with the three-down draw. Say you have Ks-Kc. You’ve raised enough to get heads up with one player. The flop comes
3c-4c-9c. Here you have the second nut flush draw, but you also probably have the best hand with your pair of kings. This really isn’t a semi-bluff at all, but rather a great hand with great outs. You should push accordingly. If he plays back at you, you must assess his strength to determine whether or not you’re currently beat. He could have a set, leaving you with any club to win. He could also have the nut flush already, leaving you almost dead. Finally, he could have the ace of clubs and be putting a semi-bluff on you. Leave this up to judgment, but for the most part, call and see another card.

When you hit your fourth board club to make your nut flush, you should always value bet because your opponent either has a club or he doesn’t, and you won’t get any action if he doesn’t because he’ll notice the four clubs on the board. As a rule, you don’t worry about hands higher than a full house in hold ‘em. If there are four cards to a straight flush on the board, you should still assume you have the best hand unless you sense something very tricky about your opponent’s play. Use common sense and analyze the betting pattern to determine if the cards that fit the straight flush are possibilities in his holding. Usually, they won’t be.

Semi-bluffing with a flush draw is a strong play that has serious positive expectancy and always offers delicious implied odds. Remember your odds of hitting (9/47 with two cards to come and 9/46 with one card to come, or about 36% and 18%) and keep your opponents guessing.

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