Drawing 004 · the two-player rewrite

C-betting heads-up: when everything widens

Every number in drawings 001 and 002 was calibrated for a full table. Take away seven players and the machine runs on the same principles at completely different settings: wider ranges, weaker pairs, and a board that almost never hits anybody.

DWG 004 · REV A · issued September 2026

Why the ranges widen

At a full table, your preflop raise says “I have one of the better hands out of nine.” Heads-up it only has to say “I have one of the better hands out of two,” and that is most hands. Both players arrive at the flop with ranges so wide that the average holding is king-high. The consequence for the c-bet is direct: when nobody usually has anything, the first bet wins the pot more often, and the player making it should be you, often.

Position does the heavy lifting

Heads-up, the button raises, posts the small blind, and then holds last action on every street after the flop; if the mechanics of that surprise you, our sister site keeps the full rulebook at DualPoker’s heads-up rules guide. For this drawing, what matters is the consequence: c-betting in position heads-up is the most forgiving version of the bet in poker. You see their reaction before every decision, the pot stays small when you want it small, and your opponent must play every single hand out of position against you when you hold the button.

The exception list, rewritten

Drawing 002’s exception list shrinks but does not vanish. The low connected boards still favour the caller, heads-up as anywhere; a big blind defending nine-eight suited owns the nine-eight-six flop in both formats. What changes is everything else: paired boards flip from caution to green light, because a wide defending range holds so few trips that your bet prints; and the multiway clause disappears by definition. The station clause survives intact, and heads-up you will diagnose the station within twenty hands, because you see every showdown.

The counterpressure you must expect

A competent heads-up opponent knows your c-bet range is wide, so they check-raise wider than any full-table player you have faced. This is not a leak in your plan; it is the price of the format, and the answer is prepared, not improvised: know before betting which hands continue against a raise (pairs, draws, good overcards) and which fold without regret. If you find yourself surprised by check-raises, you are not playing too aggressively; you are planning too shallowly, and drawing 003’s turn discipline applies double here.

Where to apply it

Heads-up games are the hardest format to even find in 2026; our sister site maps where heads-up still runs online and compares the rooms two at a time at DualPoker.com. Strategy lives here, room choice lives there. Heads-up variance is the steepest in poker; stake accordingly.

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