When played at the highest levels—the big money tournaments at the international level—poker is a head game like no other. Some of the best heads-up poker showdowns haven’t been AA vs. KK, but rather, J6o vs. 83o—i.e., rags vs. rags.

Most people with any understanding of poker can successfully play pocket aces, but could that same person double up their chip stack on the final table in a poker tournament with 65-suited?

Nice starting hand if you’re on the button in a ring game, but head-to-head at the final table of the WPT?

Whatever the case, there have been some undeniable face-offs that will stand the test of time. I’m going over the best ever in my top H2H poker clashes in history.

It often happens that the best head-to-head poker clashes aren’t those occurring at heads-up tourneys but rather at big-money international tournaments.

And so, it is with our Number Five H2H hand.

Under the gun at one of the final tables of the EPT 8 Grand Final, Daniel Gomez is dealt pocket kings, and he raises the pot to 50,000. He gets two callers—Geert-Jan Potijk with AJo and Jason Wheeler with KQo.

The QKJo flop gives all three playable hands. Gomez starts the wagering with 90,000. Wheeler raises that to 240,000—and Potijk folds. Gomez calls the raise.

The turn is the 4 of clubs—no help to either. Gomez checks his set, and Wheeler bets his two pair for 335,000. At this moment, the pot sits at 975,000.

After thinking about his hand for a time, Gomez goes all-in for 970,000, and after a similar delay to consider his options, Wheeler matches with an 830,000 all-in himself—bringing the pot to 2,316,000.

The two table their cards, and the river is dealt: a 7 of diamonds, of no use to either, but that doesn’t matter because Gomez is already raking his pot in while Wheeler leaves his chair, moving away as though he has a hot date with a cocktail waitress.

Sometimes, the best intentions mean nothing when you make a bad decision.

Giuseppe Pantaleo learned that truth in his head-to-head hand against Jesu Lizano at the EPT Barcelona.

On the button, Pantaleo is dealt Jd-8s pre-flop. He raises the pot to 165,000, causing the small blind to fold. Lizano, the big blind, calls the raise with 85,000. Lizano’s pocket cards? JT of hearts.

The fourth street is Qc, which pairs the flopped queen and puts a club flush draw on the board that neither player can take advantage of otherwise. First, to bet, Lizano puts 230,000 in the pot, and after a contemplative moment, Pantaleo calls.

The river is the 2 of hearts, giving both players a two-pair hand with a jack kicker—at this point, a showdown would chop the pot. But the game isn’t over yet. Lizano bets 330,000—and Pantaleo raises that another 460,000. Lizano calls.

And that’s when the mistake happens. Pantaleo sneaks a peak at his pocket cards, shrugs, and tosses them in the muck pile. For whatever reason, that fold meant surrendering his half of the 2,440,000 chopped pot.

Whether he didn’t want to reveal his cards or was simply disgusted with himself for even staying in hand to the river, Pantaleo made one of the cardinal sins of poker—never miss a free opportunity to win (or, in this case, draw).

A revelation that he had been bluffing would have been of little lasting importance. All poker players bluff; it is sometimes advantageous to have your opponent think you’re bluffing when you are not.

Sun Tsu was, by all accounts, one hell of a poker player.

This hand isn’t technically a head to head poker showdown, but it is one of the most striking examples of how awry the play can go during a heads-up hand.

Dan Smith starts with a Td-9h, while Holz has the Qd-Ts. First, to act, Holz raises the pot to 1,500,000. Smith calls. The flop is J-6-7, nothing beneficial for either.

Smith checks, and Holz bets 1,800,000. After a minute of deliberation, Smith calls.

The turn is the 4 of clubs—again, no help to either. Furthermore, Smith checks. This time, a check sounds fine to Holz, as well.

The river is the K of clubs. At this point, the pot belongs to the highest pocket card, Holz’s queen of diamonds. But Smith isn’t finished. He bets 4,300,000. Holz fidgets with his chips for a long minute, then folds, unknowingly giving up ownership of an $11,100,000 pot.

Holz later got revenge, winning the event, with Smith cashing out in second place in one of the best heads-up poker showdowns.

This showdown begins with Ivan Freitez with a pre-flop raise to 120,000 to assert the authority of his 6h-5h pocket. Eugene Yanayt is the big blind and quickly calls the bet with his Kd-Qs.

The flop puts 5c-3d-ks on the board, giving each player a pair. Yanayt checks from the big blind, and Freitez bets 200,000. Yanayt calls.

The fourth street sets Freitz’s pair with the 5 of diamonds. Both players check.

The river is the 6 if spades, giving Freitez a whole house of fives over sixes. Yanayt bets 275,000. Freitez says “raise” as he tosses in his chips—and then corrects himself, saying “sorry, call,” but it’s too late.

Sometimes this is an honest misstep, and other times it is an instance of “angle shooting”—acts in poker that are not technically cheating but are violations of live Texas Hold’em etiquette. In some cases, as in tournament play, these acts are verboten.

Such as with this case. In a poker tournament, if you verbally indicate one action, you must take that action. A “fold” from your lips means you will be forced to fold, even if your pocket cards contain one ace and another ace.

Here, the referee said Freitez’s “call” was what the player must honor, despite a muttered “no speak English” plea from Freitez.

Frankly, that’s a pretty strong argument, particularly in this case. Freitez is a notorious angle shooter, noted on many poker sites as an inveterate stretcher of the rules.

Incidentally, if you prefer live-dealer table games to poker rooms, try one of our recommended live online casinos.

Topping our list of the best heads-up poker showdowns is Daniel Negreanu vs. Greg Raymer. Straight heads-up tournament play is to regular tournament play what tournament play is to cash games. If the logic of that statement isn’t obvious, let me explain.

In cash games, good players often fold 80% of the hands they’re dealt, either pre-flop or immediately after that. Why? There’s just no percentage in playing weak hands, even against a table full of tourists.

Tournament play introduces escalating blinds that require (if not demand) participation in more hands to survive.  Your stack loses relative value with every increase in the blinds, and sometimes within an hour, you’re faced with going all-in with a hand you would have folded near the beginning of the tourney—and that’s to live to fight another day.

Straight heads-up tourneys, of course, not only terrorize you with escalating blinds, but you no longer have the option of folding a large percentage of your hands. This is, as they say, where the cheese binds.

And so, we reach the Number One heads-up hand on our short-list: The battle between Daniel Negreanu and Greg Raymer at the 2006 National Heads-Up Championship.

The deal begins with Raymer drawing a pocket of Th-5h, and Negreanu, the BB, pockets Jh-7H. Raymer is UTG, so he raises against the blind by 3,600, which Negreanu calls with 2,400.

The flop is Kd-Jc-2d, so there will be no flush vs. flush war in this hand. Negreanu checks, as does Raymer. The turn is the 8 of hearts, which is no help to either player. Negreanu checks, but Raymer bets 5,000, indicating he has at least a pair of kings. Negreanu calls.

I should point out that Raymer is a notorious bluffer, but he’s playing against the best here, so those skills will have to be razor sharp to get past Negreanu.

Related: Analyzing the Best Methods to Recognize Bluffing in Poker

The river is the deuce of clubs, putting a pair on the board. Negreanu checks again, and Raymer counters with a 25,800 all-in.

Negreanu has probably the second-best hand in the game, but the all-in seems excessive, even though Raymer was doing his best to scare Negreanu into folding.

Negreanu greets the all-in with trepidation and eventually stands as he wrestles with his decision.

Finally, Negreanu, still standing, says, “This could be a real big mistake” and then, after a brief pause, makes his intentions clearer: “I gotta go with my gut,” adding with a shake of his head, “This could be really stupid.” He then declares loudly: “I call.”

When Raymer tables his cards, Negreanu sees that he has made the correct call. “You brought the heat on,” Negreanu tells Raymer as they shake hands. “You brought the heat on.”

Want to learn more about Negreanu? See where he ranks amongst the richest poker players of all-time.

Who are the richest poker players on the planet? Needless to say, hundreds of professional poker players are loaded. But only the very best players make it into the top 10 on the all-time money list. Some players have toured the world and won tournaments,...

While most of us won’t be participating in many head-to-head poker clashes at destination casinos any time soon, if we play poker, we will often find ourselves in h2h poker showdowns.

And while a heads-up tourney is a nonstop rollercoaster mixture of panic and jubilation, even the head-to-head confrontations in ring games can test our mettle.

If you need to hone your skills, work on them at one of the many online poker sites. Heck, you can work on your skills riding the bus, what with the top mobile poker sites.

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