Deep stack preflop heads-up strategy

I have two deep stacked preflop heads-up strategy and was hoping you guys could tell me which one is better and why.

1) This one is simplest, revolves more around adapting to the opponent:

First step: fold garbage hands like 37 T2, raise mid hands like Q10 at first to see how the opponent plays to them; some opponents tend to fold when you raise whereas other tend to call.

If the opponent calls when I raise then I will raise my garbage hands instead of folding them(the 37/T2 hands) and call my good/average hands(Q10/KK).

If the opponent calls my raises I'll raise good/average hands and continue to fold the garbage hands.


2) This style maximises the advantage of position and makes it difficult to gain reads on my preflop game( the above style can be figured out reasonably easily, changing gears is essential for it to work) It also tends to put certain players on tilt if it works

Basically, follow 3 rules:
fold garbage hands
ALWAYS check on the big blind(out of position) i.e never raise, even AA
ALWAYS raise on the small blind (in position) i.e never just limp, either raise or fold. Note that J2 isn't considered garbage by my standards so I'd raise here. Will raise 3BB at first and gradually reduce the amount I raise by as the blinds increase, till eventually I'll just min raise.



I just realised I could always use bothi.e changing gears. I havn't done this before though so I'm not sure how it would work. The second style is relatively new and people may try to play back at it; however when ever they do I seem to pick up on it and play back at them playing back at me if that makes any sense; this is what tends to put them on tilt, when I reraise their rereaise because I recognise it as a bluff; or because I'm loose with my raises preflop they think I'm the same after the flop and they call my raises relatively lightly

Basic strat is in the middle of the two you've listed here.

Problem with strat 1)
I don't recommend raising every hand. No reason to play 73 type of hands. Folding these hands (which maybe occur 10% of the time) gives you a bit more credibility.

Problem with strat 2)
You cannot passively play your big blind. If you're just checking every limp or calling every raise you are letting them be the aggressor and when you finally show aggression on the flop they have position on you and a good player will quickly outplay you by small balling with position.


My basic strat in a heads up match is hyper aggressive. Any queen-rag+ hand I'm raising the button. Any suited cards, raising the button. Any double/single gappers I'm raising. But folding occassionally gives you some credibility.

If my opponent is trying to get cheap flops when I'm in the BB or raising too many hands, I'm going to exploit this by using nearly the same hands to raise to 4-5BB if he limps or a good size 3 bet over his raise. I'll limit it a bit more to King-rag+ or suited single/double connectors. Your opponent has to give more credibility to your hands if you 3-bet 30% of the time and they will tighten up their range from the button since they know they may be playing for a good portion of their stack if they enter the pot.

I agree with everything you said, and already do most of the things you said but didn't add it, I should have been more informative

However, with strategy 2 I always check, even with AA; I might call a raise/fold it but that is really situational and ultimately depends.

My reasoning for checking premium hands is that I don't want to raise hands like KT out of position because they are not that good, and if I only raise premium hands then any observant player would see this and fold whenever I raise out of position. So, there are 3 approaches to this:

1) check every hand in order to disguise
2) start raising with hands like K10 above
3) raise with good hands at first and if they start recognising this start raising with garbage hands, until they see me/ suspect I'm raising garbage and start calling again, and that's when I can start raising with premium hands again

I would raise him with premium hands out of position or in position everytime , he will eventually get frustrated and tilt. leading him to make a stupid mistake. In heads up the first person to make a mistake pretty much loses i believe, patience and trap setting is the key i believe.

In HU as the stacks get deeper, preflop play gets less important. 250bb deep you can't really make a huge mistake preflop. Just keep your opponent off balance and let him make mistakes postflop.

And don't worry so much about standard preflop raises. Experiment with widening your 3betting and 4betting range and watch how postflop play changes. Hint: Most players at 50NL and 100NL HU play too passively preflop and too nitty postflop in 3bet pots.

As was said above, widen your 3bet and 4bet range PF. And fold garbage hands everytime. No sense playing them.