Every tournament boils down to a final heads up match between whomever is going to win, and the player destined for second place. If you plan on ever winning any poker tournament, you need to either:
A: Get Lucky
B: Develop some Heads Up poker skills
I'd opt for B, and hope that A happens as well.
The first thing to mention, and everyone knows this, is that starting hands change in value tremendously when you are only facing one opponent. There is a chart with the win/loss percentages of any starting hand in a heads up situation at The Wizard of Odds, and for those who don't like staring at big batches of numbers, there is a free Heads Up Calculator at TurningRiver.com.
If you look into it, you'll find that hands as lowly as A2o produce good results in a heads up match. Knowing a little bit about which hands suddenly became valuable means you can recognize when you have a new edge, and exploit it.
Another key ingredient in a heads up match is aggression. You need to be able to use it yourself when odds are in your favor, and use your opponent's aggression against them.
No poker technique fits every situation or player, but here are some techniques I've employed, or seen used in heads up matches.
Heads Up Tables at Full Tilt Poker
Play a LOT of hands - Chris Ferguson says he plays about 70-80% of the hands in a heads up situation. While I'd certainly advocate playing any Ace, or any King, Chris says he plays down to any Jack.
Apply Pressure - raise preflop with any hand that has a positive expectation, and any hand that has an Ace or King. Raise with any resonable holding if you are in the small blind (since you will have position for the rest of the hand).
If the flop hits you, there is already a larger pot to be won. If the flop doesn't hit, you are in a position to pick up the pot with an additional bet because you've already represented a strong hand.
Position, Position, Position - being aggressive while in position means you have the opportunity to control the last bet that goes into the pot. So, when you're ahead, you can pump the pot, winning bigger pots than your opponent. When behind, you can check down, keeping the size of the pot under control.
Also, you have the chance to watch for weakness, and pick up the occassional pot. Position is valuable in a heads up match.
Catching Part of the Flop will usually put you ahead. Calling with something like middle pair will seldom lead to good results at a full ring game, but heads up catching any part of the flop can put you ahead of your opponent.
The All-in - of course patient opponents are in no hurry to win the match, but not all opponents are patient. Simply put, if you find yourself with the nuts, go all-in.
It may not work the first time, but players don't like the feeling of having to lay a hand that was contested down to an all-in bet. And if you've gone all-in before, the second time they are more likely to think they can catch you bluffing, and make the call.
Of course, experience playing heads up poker helps tremendously. A lot of the online rooms offer 1 on 1 tables. From my experience, the rake on those games is just out of hand completely. I'd pass over those and play the heads up tournaments instead. You can find a lot of those on the prima network rooms.
