Online poker tournaments typically come down to heads up play. The heads-up scenario requires a different approach and strategies than multi-player contests. You must remember these tactics and techniques when you play poker. These are the essential subtleties that you must pick up in order to become a successful poker player.

Here a few tips to help you improve your heads-up game:

* It’s okay to fold your small blind instead of calling. If your hand is absolute rags, then let it go and move onto the next poker online hand rather than commit any chips to the pot.

* Avoid limping from the small blind too much. It’s okay once in a few hands to limp, but it you’re going to enter the pot from the small blind heads-up, then you might as well bet out a raise and take charge of the betting.

* A heads-up contest is where slow playing can be very powerful. The slow play strategy can often backfire against multi-player tables – for instance your trips get smashed by a flush when four players go to the river. But in heads-up play, a strong hand is more likely to hold up, and slow playing to trick your opponent may earn you a much bigger pot.

* When you’re heads up at a final table, mixing up your play even more than usual can really rattle your opponent. Be as unpredictable as possible to confuse your opponent.

* Stick to your proven strategies. Remember what got you to the end, and continue playing a strong poker online game.

Poker has myriad legends and folklore attached to it. Here are some interesting poker facts and trivia:

* The game of poker as played today began in the USA, most probably in New Orleans, from where it spread north and westward. Today, it is estimated that 65 million Americans play poker regularly.

* In 1937, a fifth suit was added to the deck but failed to gain popularity because people were reluctant to buy new decks of cards.

* The “Dead Man’s” hand is two Aces and Eights and named after Wild Bill Hickok, an American gunslinger who was shot to death while holding this hand.

* A pocket hand of 10-2 is known as the Doyle Brunson since it is the hand with which he won back-to-back World Series tournaments.

* It is estimated that in the 1800s, as many as 2,500 gamblers worked on American river boats, and of those numbers, only a very few were honest.

* When poker first originated in the early 1800s, a straight beat a flush.

* The different deck suits are of French origin. Spades represent royalty, diamonds stand for merchants, clubs are for peasants, and the hearts represent clergy.

* The first known game of Texas Hold ‘Em was played in Robstown, Texas in the early 1900s. Texas gamblers, such as Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, Crandell Addington, and Amarillo Slim introduced the game to Las Vegas casinos.

If you know your opposition, it definitely changes how you play. If you know them well, then you probably know their tendencies. The problem is, if you know their tendencies, chances are that they are aware that you know this, which could lead to them playing poker differently than you expect. The same applies for your game. If you never change up your style, your regular opponents are going to catch on and start taking advantage of you.

Recently I played in an online SNG with a bunch of players that I regularly play live with. One of my friends plays poker online a lot, and uses training sites. He virtually mimics top pros, which has proved to be profitable for him. I’ve talked with him a lot about sit and go strategy and we’re both pretty knowledgeable on what is considered good aggressive play. So the question is, how should I play against someone who knows the same stuff I do?

When we got down to 5 handed, he was directly to my left; when I was in the small blind, he was in the big blind. These are classic sit and go rivals. People were playing really tight, but I still didn’t want to make a 3x raise and have to fold to the re-steal he was likely to make. I started making 2.5x raises that were being respected and folded to – on the occasion that I was played back at, I could escape without losing too much. When the hands were folded to us in the blinds, I began to limp habitually. I did this about 6 times in a row. I would limp in for 200 and all but a few times he would 3x it up to 600. I would promptly fold. Now I wasn’t doing this with absolute garbage. I did it with hands I wouldn’t mind seeing a cheap flop with, but knowing I was donating an extra small blind in most cases to set up a weak malleable image. I wanted him to think it was easy to steal my limps. Finally I caught a hand….A, 3 off suit. I know this isn’t much of a hand, but knowing that he would re-steal as light as he does, I felt ace high was a monster against him. So I did what I always did, I limped into his BB. He raised to 600 and I shoved for about 4800, having him covered by about 1000. He insta-called with K, 7. I didn’t expect this, I thought he would fold most of his any-2 hands, but I guess he was playing a little meta game himself in thinking that my 4-bet was with air and his King high was ahead. So, my online poker plan worked perfectly.

It would seem that summer is finally upon us. No one can really explain the uncharacteristically warm weather. We all a bit befuddled. As soon as the sun comes out, Britain goes a bit bonkers. Millions don their bikinis and trunks in order to lap up what intermittent rays of sun grace their gardens or rooftops. Whilst for those native to California, or Mexico or the Sahara desert, shudder in our moerate temperatures, grabbing what jumpers, coats and thermal socks they can, we Brits insist that it is in fact tropical outside. We are willing to suffer the goose pimples and shivers, in order to allow our lilly whit skins to catch a mere glimpse of sun. What do we think will happen? Do we think we will suddenly become bronzed beauties if we get the halter necks and hot pants out for ten minutes a day? At least we’re making the most of it I suppose.

I’ve got a friend who is regarded as a pretty dangerous poker player. The first few times that I played with him, I was always intimidated by his aggressive poker style. He would make huge bets preflop and he bought more than his share of blinds in just about every game. He’d use his agression to scare players out of poker hands and buy his way into the final table.

His ultra-aggressive style of play was effective for a while, but eventually the people who played with him repeatedly figured him out. It didn’t take long to see that he went out early more often than he made it to the final tables. More often than not, he’d be playing either rags and hoping to buy everybody out, or he’d be chasing a straight or flush draw. Once I learned that he was putting huge amounts of chips down on hands that were marginal at best, I had no problem calling his huge raises with hands that I wasn’t very excited about either. If I had two pair and he was showing a flush draw, I’d call him and hope he was bluffing. Mostly, his aggressive tendencies turned around to bite him, and he would fold after getting called on a huge raise.