The strategy you utilize in Heads Up will be different depending on the amount of chips you have as opposed to your opponent. This article will be about if you are the big stack.

You’re down to the final two people in your MTT or STT and you find yourself sitting on the largest stack of chips you have had in a long time. Your opponent is holding a fraction of the amount of chips you are and you catch yourself grinning from ear to ear because you just know how this is going to end.

CONTROLLED AGGRESSION
Now is not the time to get cocky. You still want to be aggressive but you want to temper your aggression. Right now your best friends are the blinds and antes and the fact that you can take your time and wait for a good hand. Remember, as little as two double ups by your opponent going all in and getting called by you could put you behind. If you’re sitting on 1,000,000 in chips and your opponent has 350,000 (amount of chips in 45 man SitNGo) and the blinds are 500/1,000 with an ante of 100 just one double up will put you back to even. It will only take two double ups if you have 1,150,000 and your opponent has 200,000 chips.

TIME IS ON YOUR SIDE
You have time on your side. You play 10 hands where you fold every hand and you will still outstack your opponent by 992,500 to 357,500 chips. If you fold 10 more hands (with the blinds staying the same) you will still be ahead 985,00 to 365,000 chips. You don’t have to be in a hurry. You just have to be patient and play the good hands you get aggressively. You want to raise your good hands enough preflop so that you opponent will feel it if he calls and misses the flop. You should be raising most hands and any that has Ace/nine or better, any K/10 or better, any pocket pair 9s or better should go in with a raise 10 times the big blind or more. If you get any of the flop bet aggressively so that your opponent will have a tough decision to make.

SOLID POKER GETS THE JOB DONE
You should be playing solid, reasonable tournament poker and not taking big, undue risks with weak or "drawing" hands and remaining patient waiting for the right time to make your move. Do not go over board going all-in. More than likely this is what your opponent will be doing in hopes of doubling through you.

When you are yielding the big stack you don’t need to keep pushing and bullying. With a big stack you are looking to keep away from big pots (unless you are pretty sure you have them beat) and make sure you don’t double your opponent up – it’s a matter of trying to suffocate the short-stack rather than trying too hard to crush them. You could end up throwing them a lifeline.