29th Dec 2009
The Power of Position in Poker
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When Texas holdem beginners describe a hand they played, they usually begin their cards before speaking updates. A professional player, however, does not describe the dynamics of a poker hand without speaking of his table position. In games like holdem or Omaha, the position may be even more important than the cards in your hand.
Quite simply, if you play more hands in late position than early position, you will earn more money in the long term. Why? Because in late position you have more usable information that you will get in early position. You can see who goes down and recovery. And if someone raises, you’ll have a much better idea of how much it will cost you to play the hand. When you’re first to act, you have no such information.
Hands played at the end of words are more profitable for three reasons. First, in early position you end up sleeping winning hands than you would have played in late position. Secondly, when you have a winning hand in late position, you can earn more money with the same hand in early position. Finally, if you lose a hand in late position, you lose much less with the same hand in early position.
Here is an example of what I speak. You get pocket-J in middle position and you raise four times the big blind. The button calls and the flop comes Q-7-2. You make a continuation-bet twice the size of the pot. Your opponent calls. A map harmless falls on the turn. Now, what do you do?
As you have no better position than your opponent, you’re in a difficult situation. If you check and your opponent bets and you follow, you can lose a big pot on river. If you choose to sleep, you can lie the best hand. But if you take a bet on the turn and you and your opponent checks on the river, you will earn much less than if you were the last to speak.
Whenever you play a hand out of position, you’re more likely to reduce your profits or maximize your losses, or even make you bluff a pot.
A bad poker position is such a disadvantage that if I am sitting under-the-gun to a full table, I often sleep with one hand like AQ before the flop. With so many players behind me, one of them could easily have a stronger hand than mine like AK, AA, KK or QQ. Even if my AQ is the best hand of the table, I do not earn much money in this position, and if this is the second best hand, I can still lose a lot.
This is exactly the opposite when you’re in late position. You must play as many hands as possible, because being the last bet is a real advantage. If everyone goes to bed until you position button, you should raise with any two cards. If the blinds fold, you win the pot. If they follow, you’ll still have two rounds to beat them, demonstrating the strength or that you have the best hand. Member of Team Full Tilt Andy Bloch said that you should play that 10 percent of hands dealt under-the-gun, but 50 percent of hands dealt to the button.
A good Texas holdem position is equally important after the flop. Not just because you can steal the pot of players showing weakness, but because you can.
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