Heads-up poker strategy in tournaments: solver ranges from 10bb to 100bb

Heads-up is where a tournament pays the most. The gap between first and second is usually one of the biggest jumps on the payout table, and you play it against one opponent, every hand, from both blinds.

It also gets less study time than it deserves. So every range and frequency in this guide comes from the heads-up MTT charts in Poker Academy: chipEV, 2 players, 0.25bb total ante, stacks from 8bb to 100bb. The screenshots are the same spots in the app.

The setup: who posts what

Heads-up the blinds flip around the button. The button posts the small blind, so it acts first before the flop and last on the flop, turn and river. The big blind acts second preflop and first on every later street.

That leaves the button with a small blind invested and position after the flop. The big blind has more money in and plays every postflop street out of position, which is why the button plays so many hands.

In these simulations there is a small ante on top of the blinds, so the pot before anyone acts is:

Heads-up is also simpler than any other tournament spot. With two players left there are only two prizes, so under ICM your prize equity is:

That is a straight line in your chip count. Every chip is worth the same amount of money, so the chipEV charts are also the $EV charts here, and the ICM pressure you feel at a final table is gone. That comes from the arithmetic rather than from the solver, and it ignores skill edges and the blind levels still to come.

The button: strategy changes with every stack

Here is what the button does first in, for all fourteen stack depths in the charts.

• The button almost never folds. From 12.5bb up it folds 4.1% of hands or less, and only at 8bb (21.2%) and 10bb (10.1%) does the fold range get real.
• Limping is the default at short stacks. At 15bb the button limps 82.7% of hands, and the share falls as stacks get deeper, to 35 to 41% from 50bb on.
• All-ins disappear and raises take over. The button jams 48.7% at 8bb and 28.8% at 10bb, 1.1% at 20bb, and never from 25bb up. The raise starts at 15bb and is the main play from 40bb on (53.1%).

It folds so little because of the price. Completing the small blind costs half a big blind into a 1.75bb pot:

That is not the equity you need at showdown, because the big blind can still raise, but it explains why almost any two cards get a look.

10bb: limp or jam

At 10bb the button has no small raise in this tree. It either limps, jams or folds, and it does all three: 61.1% limp, 28.8% all-in, 10.1% fold.

Look which hands jam. AA and KK limp 100% of the time, and so do AKs and AKo. The jam range is the middle: every offsuit ace from A2o to AJo, most offsuit kings from K3o to KTo, the small pairs 22 to 44, and suited hands like A2s, K2s to K4s, 96s and 65s.

My reading of it, not the solver’s: a strong hand is happy to limp because the big blind attacks limps a lot (more on that below), and it wants to be called. A hand like A7o does badly after a limp and a raise, so it takes the 1.75bb pot now.

The fold range is small and obvious: eleven offsuit hands like 72o, 83o, 43o and 32o.

20bb: the small raise shows up

At 20bb the jam is almost gone (1.1%: 22, plus a quarter of the time 33, A5o and A6o). The button limps 73.0% and raises to 2bb with 24.9%. It folds 0.9%, basically just 32o.

The raising range is split in two. At the top, AA, KK, AKs, AQs, AJs and A9s raise every time and AKo about 57% of the time. At the bottom, a group of weak suited hands that would rather not see a cheap flop raises 100%: 94s, 84s, 73s and 42s. Most offsuit hands and the middle of the suited hands limp.

40bb and deeper: raise first

At 40bb the picture flips. The button raises to 2.2bb with 53.1% of hands, limps 43.7% and folds 3.2%.

The limps are now mostly the weak end, like J3o, T2o and 93o. Hands like KQs, AJo and ATo limp most of the time too, so the big blind can’t raise every limp for free. The strong part raises: AA 100%, AKo almost always, KK 92%.

You may have seen the claim that heads-up you should raise about 61.5% of buttons. That number matches the 60bb chart, but it is only part of the strategy: at 60bb the button raises to 2.3bb with 61.5%, limps 34.6% and folds 4.0%. Leave out the limp and more than a third of the range goes missing.

The big blind after a limp

When the button limps, the big blind can check for free, so it never folds. What changes with the stack is how often it attacks.

At 10bb the big blind jams 35.2% of hands, raises to 2.5bb with 15.2% and checks 49.5%. From 60bb on it never jams and raises 34 to 37% of hands.

Same pattern as the button. The top raises small (AA, KK, QQ, AKs, JJ, TT), and the middle jams: most offsuit aces and kings, and 22 to 66. This is the jam that the button’s trapping limps are waiting for.

The big blind against a raise

Against a raise the big blind defends between 70% and 81% of hands at every depth in the charts. It folds 19.0% against a 2bb open at 20bb, 19.9% against a 2.2bb open at 40bb and 29.7% at 100bb.

The price explains it. The big blind already has 1bb in and calls 1.2bb more:

It needs 25.8% equity against the raising range, and almost every hand has that. The fold range at 40bb is 22 offsuit hands, from T5o and 95o down to 32o. The 3-bets to 6.9bb are mostly strong aces, broadways and pairs from 66 up, plus a few small suited connectors like 76s and 65s. The all-ins are a small group led by AQo, AJo and the small pairs.

So the old advice of “3-bet 20%, call 55%” is not far off at 40bb. But it needs a stack depth to mean anything: at 20bb the big blind jams 18.5% against the same kind of open and 3-bets small only 9.4%.

The big blind against a jam

At 10bb the button jams 28.8% of hands, and the big blind calls 40.5% and folds 59.5%. The call costs 9bb more:

You need 44.4% against the jamming range. Every pair calls, every ace calls, and so do hands like K9o, Q9o and T9s. J8o and 76s fold.

Don’t copy this range to 20bb. There the button jams only 1.1% of hands, so the big blind calls just 24.6%. The calling range always depends on what jams.

After the flop

The solver data in this article is preflop only, so everything in this section is a heuristic, not solver output. Check these spots in the postflop solver before you build a strategy on them.

• Position never changes: the button acts last on the flop, turn and river, in limped and raised pots alike.
• A pair on the board is not your pair. On T♠︎T♦︎3♣︎, A9 and K9 have no pair at all. If they bet, it is a thin bet to deny equity rather than a value bet.
• Monotone flops. On K♠︎Q♠︎3♠︎ both players can already hold a flush, and many more hands hold one spade for a flush draw.
• Count your draws. 7♠︎4♠︎ on K♠︎Q♥︎5♦︎ has no flush draw and no gutshot. A straight needs two more cards (6 and 3, or 6 and 8), so it only has backdoor draws.
• Ranges are wide on both sides. Heads-up the big blind defends about 80% of hands against a raise, so assume it hits the flop often; its range is far from blind junk.

One number from the old version of this article needs fixing too. Stealing the blinds does not grow a 40bb stack by 10%. The pot is 1.75bb:

Common heads-up mistakes

• Folding the button. From 12.5bb up the solver folds 4.1% of hands or less.
• Never limping. Limping is the most common button play from 10bb to 35bb in these charts, and AA limps at 10bb.
• Jamming only premium hands. At 10bb the jam range is offsuit aces, offsuit kings and small pairs. AA and KK limp.
• Open-jamming deep. From 25bb up the button never open-jams in these charts.
• Over-folding the big blind. Against a small raise the big blind defends about 80% at 20bb and at 40bb.
• Using one chart for every depth. The big blind calls a 10bb jam with 40.5% of hands and a 20bb jam with 24.6%.

Study the depth you actually play

Heads-up stacks move fast. You can start the match with 40bb and be at 15bb twenty hands later, and the strategy changes at each step. So open the chart for the stack you have, button and big blind, and play those spots in the trainer until the limps and jams feel normal.

Cheers! 🙂