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Position
Understanding position to improve your game
Your position on the table refers to where you’re sitting relative to the dealer and it determines the order you’ll be acting in. A lot of beginners make the mistake of ignoring position, but it’s a big deal. Remember, poker is all about information and even the smallest scraps make the difference between winning and losing.
Betting from position
The earliest position in hold ’em is directly to the left of the small blind. The player sat here is ‘under the gun’ and, as the name suggests, it’s not a comfortable place to be.
The best position to be on a poker table is ‘on the button’ – with the dealer button in front of you and the big and small blinds to your left. You’re the last to act and can make decisions on your hand based on what you see other players doing. |
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Poker, as I’m sure you’ve heard it said already, is a game of limited information. In this hand Kate, who’s sat on the button, is going to have a lot of information before she plays her K-J off suit. If everyone just folded or called the big blind before her, she’d probably call the blind. But, looking at the other hands at the table, that’s not too likely, is it? Erikka, with her A-10, might raise. Mark almost certainly will with pocket Q’s and Klaus is bound to at least match Mark or even re-raise.
By the time the action gets to Kate she’ll know there’s a lot of strength around the table and she’d be wise to fold her K-J off suit and wait for better cards on the next deal. But look who else has K-J off – John. He’s in the worst position, under the gun. If he knew some big raises where coming he’d be unlikely to take a chance with such a marginal hand. Trouble is, he’s got no idea what other players are going to do. He’s got no information.
John might well be tempted to call his K-J and, if he does, it’s bound to be a waste of his chips as he’ll be forced to fold before the flop in the face of strong raises from three other players on the table.
So that’s why hands in early position have a lower value. There’s no way of knowing how much it’s going to cost to see a flop when it’s your turn to call – so calling marginal hands, like K-J off from bad position, is like taking a double gamble. First, you’re betting that you’re going to hit; second, that no one else will re-raise before the flop. This cycle repeats itself through the flop, turn and river.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play cards from bad positions – you just need to be more selective. As a rough guide, in normal play, consider playing the following hands from different positions on the board:
Early Position
         
   
Middle Position
   
  
 
Late Position
   
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Remember, suited hands (where both your cards are of the same suit) are slightly
more valuable because there is a better chance you will make a flush with them.
Remember that two cards of the same suit give you the added bonus of a shot at the flush. Suited connectors, like Ah-Kh, give you both flush and straight possibilities, so they’re worth a little more. These are, by no means, the only cards you should ever play. Any two cards can win a hand (though some are a lot more likely to than others) and playing against a particular type of player, or in an unusual situation, may require you to be either looser or tighter with your play.
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