World’s Best Heads Up Players

Heads-Up Poker is regarded by many as the purest form of the game out there. No other variant is so player-dependent and no other variant gives the better player an almost insurmountable edge over his opponent. When you play Heads-Up, you can’t be a nit and you can’t just play straight-forward or on automatic pilot. You have to be creative, you have to change gears, you have to bluff, and most importantly, you have to read your opponent’s soul. This is what poker is all about in the first place: picking your foe’s brain. As WSOP Main Event champ Tom McEvoy said a long time ago, poker is not a card game with people, it is a people game with cards.

And what better way to prove your worth than to challenge the best of the best in a head-to-head match? But who are the best of the best? Who has that ability to read your mind and crush your soul? Here is PokerTube’s ultimate list of the world’s best heads-up poker players in no particular order (cash and SNG both included).

Doug ‘WCGRider’ Polk

We start things off with the self-proclaimed best Heads-Up No Limit player in the world, Doug Polk. ‘WCGRider’ is feared among his peers and few players are eager to challenge him. And why would they since Polk already beat a Heads-Up No Limit AI botcreated by Carnegie Melon University last year? Yes, that’s right, the famous Claudico that battled against a team of top pros like Polk, Bjorn Li, Dong Kim, and Jason Les for two weeks. Polk & Co. won but it was a tough battle against a tough opponent that could adjust on the go.

Earlier this year, ‘WCGRider’ supported PokerStars’ decision to remove the regular Heads-Up cash tables and leave only the Zoom tables. However, he hasn’t played that much HU since then.

Polk is also famously known for his matches played against Internet poker’s cream of the crop like Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, Daniel ‘jungleman’ Cates and Alex ‘Kanu’ Millar.

Overall, according to HighStakesDB, Polk won around $1.13 million on PokerStars while playing No Limit Holdem, shorthanded, and heads-up combined. Will he return at the HU Zoom tables to crush his opponents once more? It remains to be seen, but till then we can still comfortably put him in our world’s best heads up poker players list.

Daniel ‘jungleman’ Cates

Who can seriously leave out ‘jungleman’, the man who took the online poker heads-up environment by storm? Daniel Cates is a true legend in the online world, as he went as far as revolutionizing the way poker players think about bumhunting. In fact, to learn the game the proper way, he used the reverse bumhunting system. Basically, he beat down the best players at every limit and built his bankroll by taking the so-called regulars’ money.

Back in the days before Black Friday, he had some epic nosebleed HU matches against Isildur1 and even accepted Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan’s $1 million challenge. Unfortunately, the two didn’t complete the challenge - and probably never will, at least in the online environment. Even so, Cates managed to take from Dwan more than $1.2 million in roughly 20,000 hands. Overall, as ‘jungleman12’ on Full Tilt, Cates is the third biggest poker player online with over $10 million. At No Limit Holdem, he won around $5.38 million, mostly at the heads-up tables.

Currently, poker is off-limits in the US, Cates is playing online poker from Romania - his girlfriend is from there - under his PS nickname ‘w00ki3z.’ He can be seen at the Heads-Up SNG tables as well as the cash tables (mostly mixed games). So far he has won over $1.1 million at the nosebleeds cash tables on PS but things can definitely get better if he continues to grind online. Who knows, maybe he can put Doug Polk in his place.

Daniel ‘mrGR33N13’ Colman

While Daniel Colman may be the ultimate live high roller/super high roller crusher, he did build his now huge bankroll - over $25 million in live tournament earnings according to HedonMobDB - online while playing Heads-Up Sit & Go’s. He started with regular speeds and turbos but in 2013, on the 2+2 forums, he decided to take his bankroll to a whole new level and start grinding the hypers. Colman also wanted to prove that the heads-up hypers are not just flipping games with tiny edges but actual tournaments that require skill. And guess what? Nine months later, he became the first hyper-turbo player in online poker history to win $1 million BEFORE rakeback. How’s that for proof?

We are pretty sure that one of the main reasons why he crushes the live scene is that he has a lot of experience with Heads-Up play on all speed levels. You know what they say: if you are ever planning to win a tournament, you have to play head-to-head with somebody. Since Colman mastered this format to perfection, the heads-up play in all tournaments that he won must have been a fairly easy game. GG mr. Green!

Olivier ‘livb112’ Busquet

Before beautiful Liv Boeree entered the poker scene, there was only one ‘livb’ in the poker community and that’s New York based Olivier Busquet. And before Daniel Colman amazed the whole online poker world with his hyper skills, there was only one true Heads-Up SNG crusher, again Olivier Busquet. And you know who actually taught Colman the heads-up format? The one and only Olivier Busquet, a.k.a. ‘livb112.’

Busquet was a real role-model for all those wizkids who started playing poker online in the early 2010s. Why? Because while playing HUSNG online, he earned $2 million well before any other player reached the magical seven-digit number. How’s that for history?

But as time went by, he focused his attention on live play, like his good friend Daniel Colman. And boy, has he had quite a ride since then. He won a WPT title back in 2009 and has two other EPT titles under his belt. Overall, he won almost $7 million in live tournament earnings. But we know, this isn’t a tournament contest. Yet, how can we NOT include Busquet in our list? He’s the man who started it all in the first place. He may not be the best HUSNG player anymore, but he definitely can compete with the current cream of the crop, online or live. And like Colman, his heads-up skills were a very good start for what became a successful poker career.

Ben ‘sauce123’ Sulsky

When it comes to Heads-Up cash games, every top player is mentioning Ben Sulsky as one of the toughest opponents ever. And for a time - 2011 to 2012 - he may very well have been the best of them all heads-up at both No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha. During that period, few dared challenge him so he decided to take his talents to the live green felt. And this turned out to be epic: in 2013, in a shootout marathon match of the $10,000 WSOP Heads-Up Event, he faced the great Phil Galfond and won. Sulsky eventually finished the event in fourth place but that match was something special.

During that year, he was also challenged by Doug Polk who managed to take from him $740,000 in over 15,000 heads-up hands. ‘Sauce123’ had to give ‘WCGRider’ an extra $100,000 for his foe’s victory. Overall, on PS Sulsky won over $4.45 million at the nosebleeds cash table - shorthanded and heads-up. At the No Limit tables, he cashed in $1.76 million while at PLO and he earned almost $2.5 million. How’s that for a successful career?

Wild Card: Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom

And we simplycannot end our list without adding the crazy Swede who challenged... well pretty much everybody online. Yes, Viktor Blom, the super aggressive poker player who has an innate ability to learn the game on the go and crush his opponents at the same time.

Why would he possibly be in our list? Because he played with all the best Heads-up cash players, old and new, from Brian Townsend, Tom Dwan, and Patrik Antonius to Daniel Cates and Doug Polk. Every top HU player had a losing streak against this unpredictable foe - ok maybe not Patrik Antonius - and every top HU player had to work hard on his game and adjust in order to beat ‘Isildur1’ on the virtual felt. And since he has a poker philosophy similar to ‘jungleman’ - play with the best opponents at every limit - it’s only natural that he too becomes a top player worthy of mentioning in the world’s best heads-up players list.

But what makes him stand out from the rest of the crowd is his unconditional love for the game of poker: no matter the swings and no matter how much he lost, Blom always came back ready to challenge the next HU wizkid. Plus he plays all formats, from No Limit Holdem to Pot Limit Omaha, 2-7 Triple Draw, and mixed games. So how can we leave him out?

Without him, online poker would have definitely been a much more boring sport and online Heads-Up Poker wouldn’t have been such a big deal.

Did we miss somebody? Do you agree with our list or do you have other names in mind? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.