You are not studying heads-up enough

Dara O'Kearney says just because getting heads-up happens rarely, it doesn't mean you should avoid studying it.

Heads-up is the stage in tournaments that you get to the least. Sometimes it can take so long between heads-up matches that you forget how to play them.

As a result, many players neglect to study this area of poker. They almost rationalise to themselves that they are happy finishing Top 2, anything beyond that is a bonus. 

That is the wrong attitude to have. Heads-up skills are important to keep sharp because there is so much money at stake when you get there. You could be playing for 40, 200, or 500 buy-ins. Any leaks you have heads-up are on a much bigger scale than in any other part of your game.

If you can win 5% extra, that will make a much bigger difference to your bottom line than if you can make a 5% increase in how often you cash, or even make the final table. Perhaps just as significant, it is likely much easier to boost your heads-up ROI by 5% because you probably have some massive leaks if you have not studied it. 

Likewise, you will often find yourself heads-up with somebody even less experienced, so there is even more edge to be enjoyed there.

The professionals know how important heads-up is

This is something professional players have known for a long time. I remember once watching Bryan Paris on Twitch get heads-up in two MTTs. He wasn't happy with how he played in either of them, so he took the rest of the week off to study heads-up. 

Therefore, you should always put some time into studying heads-up poker. If you have never done it before then you should probably stop everything and start today. A good place to start is simply looking at the GTO ranges for different stack depths in GTO Wizard because most players have no idea how wide they should be (often it's the case both players should be playing almost every hand). 

After that most MTTs end with 40BBs in play, so getting your 20BB effective ranges down is an absolute must. 

How often you study heads-up is difficult to answer, but you certainly should study it often, even if it is only a small amount of your overall study. Because the time between heads-up matches can be long, having heads-up strategy fresh in your head when it does happen can be a huge advantage. 

You can get more great strategy advice via Dara's free strategy newsletter.