For those familiar with Poker terminology the title will immediately ring a bell. Heads-up play is one-on-one play, a focused dual of wits unlike no other. Uno tends to lend itself brilliantly to multiplayer gaming and the game is a tonne of fun when played in largish (6-8 person) groups. Yet this same game changes dramatically when two players duke it out one-on-one.
To begin with, even a minor deterioration in the quality of the decisions taken will have longer lasting repercussions on the flow of a hand. Additionally the importance of special cards you are dealt, say the Skip cards or Reverse cards, also changes depending on the game plan you weave as play progresses.
You must also be careful in as to what rules you choose to adhere to before engaging in a heads-up match. For instance let’s say you decide to opt for accumulative penalties, this will severely impact the flow of a hand and game. In standard penalty application, when a player plays a valid +2 card or a +4 card, his opponent must take the ascribed number of cards from the deck and lose his turn to play. If accumulative penalties are used, then if say Player 1 plays a +2 card and Player 2 plays back with another +2 card, then it’s Player 1 who must now pick four cards from the deck. You will understand that this method of allowing penalties to accumulate if possible, can have disastrous effects such as for instance two +4 cards played in succession with the first player having to take an eight card penalty from the deck.
There are also other dynamics in heads-up Uno play that play out differently to multiplayer scenarios. For instance if I use a Skip or Reverse card in a three or more-handed game, the effect of these wild cards is diluted in the sense that the Player playing these cards can only hypothetically enjoy a delayed effect or benefit. If on the other hand these same cards are played heads-up, suddenly what this means is that I can play a string of connected wild cards reducing my own stack rapidly. This happens because playing either a Reverse or Skip card has the immediate effect of returning control of a hand back to me.
As with 3 or more-handed games, playing your larger cards first and your smaller cards later is still the way to go. Your aim should always be to reduce your point score to the barest minimum to avoid getting caught with your pants down at the end of a rather difficult hand.
Wherever possible, you should also try to determine what a player might potentially be holding on to. Through actual play, you will at times notice that a player while successfully reducing his score is still blocked whenever the hand changes to Green for instance. So what you should deduce is that this player must not have any Green cards in his hands. The best strategy therefore would be to favour Green in order to reduce your own hand points while forcing your opponent to skip turns while picking cards from the deck. If doing so is not possible and you feel that there is no way to win a hand, then your backup strategy should always be to reduce the number of points in your hands to an absolute minimum. So in this latter scenario, get rid of all your wild cards first and then follow through with the larger cards.
Attention to detail is king in Uno, it is not only a matter of observing what cards are being piled up on the discard pile but also what cards you are pulling off the top of the deck when it’s your turn to play. If say a lot of reds have been played early in a hand and now it feels as though I’m peeling only greens and blues from the top of the deck, then it would stand to reason that any red (albeit rare) cards I might acquire will hold a strong blocking potential and should be used selectively. While forcing a player to pick a card rather than play a card is a desirable outcome to any strategy employed, having an opponent pick too many cards rather than playing to the discard pile should send alarm bells ringing in your head.
The reason is a simple one; let’s say that you haven’t seen too many wild cards, +4 or +2 cards being played to the table. Let us also imagine that your deck is rapidly dwindling and your prospects of winning look healthy. However let us throw a wrench in to the works by saying that your opponent has been picking cards from the deck for the past 5 rounds. As you approach the three-card mark in your hands, you play a red card knowing your opponent has apparently not picked up any viable reds. Then your opponent seeing your hand go down to just two cards, drops a bomb on you by playing a +4 he has picked from the deck, in the process he switches play to yellow. You have no reply to his switch to yellow, and guess what now you’re the one picking cards rather than playing them to the deck.
What this example highlights is that to win, you really should be trying to stall your opponent cautiously while keeping an eye on what cards have been played up to that point. It all boils down to at least trying to recall key cards played to the deck as well as what colours have so far dominated play. Some gifted folk might even try recalling entire sequences of discarded cards, which while commendable is not essential for Uno. Recalling for instance that it was mostly blue cards up to now is already a good indicator of what other colours are more likely to be played in near-future rounds. It also pays to keep track of any zero cards played (since you only have 4 in a deck) as well as of any special cards in particular +2 and +4 cards.
When a hand becomes blocked, and it will on occasions, game play will also experience an interesting transition towards one focused on the luck of the draw. Let’s say that the last up-card at the top of the discard pile is blue and let’s assume that up to that point a good two-thirds of all possible blue cards have been played. Let us now also assume that neither player in the heads-up dual hold any blue cards. Worse still the up-card is a Blue Zero. Since there are only 4 Zero cards in the entire deck, you will appreciate that only a Wild card or a +4 or any other of the remaining (hopefully still not played) Zero cards can unblock this situation. When this happens both players will end up picking card after card from the remaining stockpile, accumulating sizeable hands before either would be in a position to unblock the situation. In these cases the first player lucky enough to pick any one of the aforementioned block buster cards, will also be the player who will stand a greater chance of winning that particular hand.
In conclusion, if you are intrigued by two-player card games, Heads-up Uno will be something you will most likely enjoy. However before signing off, I would like to suggest a few guidelines that might tailor your playing experience in line with your own preferred playing style. More importantly you should ascertain that both you and your opponent are fully aware of the rules you will be observing.
Option A – Dare Devil Uno.
- Use accumulative penalties; this will create more dramatic twists and turns where players are more likely to experience dramatic swings in the number of cards in their hands.
- Use the 7-0 rule; when a player plays either a 7 or a 0, players exchange all their cards with their opponent. This disruptive gaming contraption can create some nerve wrecking moments in Heads-up Uno duels.
- Use the Jump-in rule; simply put if a player holds both instance of say 3 Red, then he can play them both in succession before passing on the control of the hand to his opponent.
Option B – Standard Heads-up Uno.
- Use standard penalties; if a player plays either a +2 or +4 his opponent must pick the associated number of cards from the deck even if he has another +2 or +4 to play on top of the one played. In other words, penalties do not accumulate.
- Do not use the 7-0 rule; in standard play 7 or 0 cards are common cards and no hand switching takes place.
- Do not use the Jump-in rule; again if a player holds two identical cards, he cannot play them in succession.
Some additional rule guidelines for Heads-up Uno:-
- If a penalty is played, the player absorbing the penalty loses his turn on that round.
- If a player plays a Skip card or a Reverse card and he cannot follow through with another card in the same colour, he should take a card from the deck. If the picked card is in the same colour as the Skip or Reverse card played, then he may play it to the discard pile.
- I do not advocate using the +4 challenge rule, since I personally do not agree with showing your cards to your opponent. Players should be allowed to use any +4 dealt to them in any manner they see fit to reap benefit from its usage.
- If a player goes out, winning the hand, with either a +2 or +4, his opponent must still collect the penalty since the losing hand’s total point score will be awarded to the winning player.
- Failing to declare “Uno” before playing the penultimate card will always carry a 2 card penalty. The penalty can only be incurred within the round of play in which the penultimate card is placed on the discard pile. Declaring Uno after that the penultimate card is played to this discard pile will also incur the 2 card penalty.
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