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When beginning poker players are describing a hand they’ve
played, they usually start by
saying what their hole cards
were before moving on to talk
about the betting. A
professional player, however,
would never describe the
dynamics of a hand without
first talking about his
position at the table because
in games like Hold ’em and
Omaha, position can be even
more important than the cards
in your hand.
Simply put, you want to play more hands in late position than you
do in early position. By doing
so, you’re going to make
more money over the long haul.
Why? Because in late position
you will have much more
information to work with than
you would if you were in early
position. You will be able to
see who folds and who raises,
and if someone raises you will
have a much better sense of
how much it’s going to cost
you to play your hand. When
you have to act first, you
have none of this information
to work with.
There are three simple reasons why playing a hand in late
position will be more
profitable in the long run
than playing the same hand in
early position. First, you
will end up folding some
winning hands in early
position that you wouldn’t
have folded in late position.
Secondly, when you have a
winning hand in late position
you’re going to make more
money from it than you would
with the same hand in early
position. Finally, when you
have a losing hand in late
position you will lose
significantly less than you
would with the same hand in
early position.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about. You pick up
pocket Jacks in middle
position and raise four times
the size of the big blind. The
button calls, and the flop
comes Q-7-2. You make a
continuation bet two-thirds
the size of the pot. Your
opponent calls. A blank comes
on the turn. Now what are you
going to do?
Because you don’t have position over your opponent, you’re
now in a very difficult
situation. If you check and
your opponent bets and you
call, you could end up losing
a big pot on the river. If you
opt to fold, you could be
folding the best hand. Even if
you call the turn bet and you
and your opponent check it
down on the river and you win
the hand, you’re going to
make far less than you would
have if you had been last to
act. Whenever you play a hand
out of position, there is a
much greater chance that you
will have your profits
minimized or your losses
maximized or that you will get
bluffed out of a pot.
Having poor position is such a disadvantage that if I’m sitting
under the gun at a full table
I will often fold a hand as
strong as A-Q before the flop.
With so many players yet to
act behind me, one of them
could easily pick up a hand
that has me dominated, like
A-K, Aces, Kings, or Queens.
Even if my A-Q is the best
hand at the table I won’t
make very much money off it in
this position, and if it is
second best I could end up
losing a very big pot.
It’s the exact opposite when you’re in late
position. Now you’re going
to want to play as many hands
as possible because getting to
act last on all the betting
rounds is such a huge
advantage. If everyone folds
to you on the button, you
should often raise with any
two cards. If the blinds fold,
you win the hand. If they
call, you still have two ways
to beat them after the flop,
by continuing to show strength
if they show weakness or by
showing down the best hand.
Team Full Tilt member Andy
Bloch says
you might play fewer than 10
percent of all the hands dealt
to you under the gun, but you
should play more than 50
percent of the hands dealt to
you on the button.
Having favorable position is just as important after the flop.
Not only can you take pots
away from players who show
weakness, you can also control
the size of the pot. Smart
poker players want to play big
pots when they have big hands
and small pots when they have
small hands, and having
position on your opponents
allows you to do that. If you
flop top pair with a weak
kicker, bet, and get called,
it’s often a good idea to
check the turn in order to
keep the pot small.
The power of position in poker cannot be overstated. Whenever
you’re dealt a hand, you
should take into account your
position at the table even
before you evaluate the
strength of your cards. Even
in the most basic limit games,
you’re going to make far
more money when you have
position over your opponents
than when you don’t.
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