Positions On A Poker Table
- Position In Poker
- Poker Seat Positions
- Positions On A Poker Table
- Position In Poker Texas Holdem
- Texas Holdem Seat Positions
Dec 02, 2008 Learn the power of position in poker. The single most important ingredient to having success at the poker tables. First you get the position, then you get the power, then you get the pot. This is a discussion on seat names within the online poker forums, in the General Poker section; hi all at a 9 player table we have bb,sb,button,cut off,hijack then 3 more seats then utg do these. Being in the dealer position, or 'on the button,' is the most desirable position in poker in flop/community games like Texas Hold'em, since after the flop, the person on the button will always be the last to act in each round of betting. Being last to act means you have seen everyone in the hand take an action before you have to take one. Positions at poker table: classification, common info and advantages. Position in poker is a significantly underestimated factor by many novice poker players. Your position at the poker table will have a significant impact on your wins/losses.
BETTING RULES
The key to winning in Texas Holdem games is to choose the right cards to play in a hand. And this often depends on your position i.e. where you sit. The seat to the right of the dealer is possibly the best seat to be had. It allows you to see what most players do before you have to act. The worst seats at a poker table are seats in early position i.e. the two seats to the left of the dealer. They have to act first in betting rounds which means that they don't have the advantage of knowing what their opponents are going to do first.
Importance of Table Position in Texas Hold’em Poker Game
In Texas Hold’em variant of poker game, table position is the place where a player sits in comparison to other players. It is very important to know in detail about table position in Texas Hold’em poker game as it will help you in understanding the hands and situations of your opponents.
Types of position in Texas Hold’em
On a large 9-player poker table, the position of a table can be categorised as below:
Early position or EP: When a player is in this position i.e. Early Position then he makes the move before most players in the hand. Early position is the first position to the left of the big blind. The player sitting immediate left to the big blind is the first to act and is called 'Under the Gun' or simply 'UTG'. On 9-player poker table, the seat next to ‘Under the Gun’ position i.e. UTG+1 can also be referred as the Early Position as most of the table is in later positions.
Middle Position or MP: In this position, a player makes his move before some of the playing members, but only after others have made their move.
Late Position or LP: In Late Position, a player acts after most of the players in the hand.
Blinds: A player is said to be in a blind position if he acts after all other players pre-flop, but makes the first flop.
Why table position matters in Texas Hold’em poker game
While playingpoker online, the position of player is very important as it impacts the action on all streets (street -> community card revealed in a betting round, eg. turn is 'fourth street' and river is 'fifth street'). When a player is in an out of position (OUP)(Out of position - First person to act in a hand) then his game play will be quite different from when he is in position (IP)(In position - Last to act).
When a player is positioned in a late position i.e. LP then he would have an advantage over his opponents as he will get to know about some important details related to the hands of others before they make a move. When a player is in late position, he gets a chance to observe other players around the poker table when they make their moves. This will enable a player to get an idea about the strengths of his opponents’ hands during the pre-flop round itself. If all the players are limping during their moves then it means that they are not in a good position, or you can say that they have a weak hand.
On the other hand, during each of flop round, the player in a late position can know about the interest level of his opponents in the game as they were compelled to make their move first. Also, this late position can benefit the player as it gives him an advantage over his opponents to use the poker technique of bluffing and confusing them. As the player in this position will be making his move after all other players, he can win more pots, place his bets more effectively, and get the chance to witness more showdowns.
Position In Poker
So the position of a player in Texas Hold’em is one of the factors that impact the no-limit strategy in Texas Hold’em. When playing with a good position in comparison to the opponents, a player benefits by reducing his chances of losing the game play and rise over others as the winner.
Hope you would have understood the importance of any specific sitting position in the game of Texas Hold’em poker game variant by now. If you are a beginner, you would have got an idea about the different poker hands while sitting in different table positions.
Strategies to Play in Position
When you are in the early position, you should only play the best hands simply because there are too many people to act after you. You are not wrong if you think that raising too early is not a good option but then it has its benefits. First of all, the pot gets bigger and you win a handsome amount if you win. Secondly, it also protects your hand because lesser the number of players in the game, the more chances you have of winning.
When you are in the middle position, you can add a few more hands to your raising range. And if there had been no raise in front of you, then getting even more ambitious is not a bad option.
In late position, you can raise with even more cards including the middle position cards. We mean to say that although you have a number of good reasons for raising, you should also try to make other players fold in the late position.
When you are in the blind stages, don't get into a habit of calling just because you have been put in a big blind; only re-raise with good hands or just fold.
If you watch a lot of poker on television, you've probably noticed how most no-limit hold'em hands are contested heads-up after the flop. A player opens with a raise, another calls, then it's just the two of them battling for the pot thereafter.
The same is true if you happen to rail online poker games involving better poker players, such as the big weekly tournaments and Sunday majors. Unlike perhaps is the case in many home games and also lower-limit live games, there's often going to be just two players left by the time the community cards arrive.
In heads-up situations, it's obvious enough to point out that one player will be 'in position' postflop and get to act last on all streets while the other will be 'out of position' and have to act first. If you weren't paying attention, you might assume players spend about half their hands playing from out of position and half playing in position — but that would be wrong.
The truth is, most good players play the majority of their hands in position — by a lot, in fact. That's because when it comes to starting hand selection, good players tend to fold more hands when they would be forced to play from out of position and to get involved more frequently when they can have position. They do so because they know there are many advantages to having position on an opponent after the flop.
Position in poker
The seats around a no-limit hold'em table are usually described as being either early position, middle position, or late position, with the location of the button and blinds determining each.
'Early position' (EP) usually refers to the players having to post both the small blind (SB) and big blind (BB), as well as the player sitting to the big blind's left in the position often called 'under the gun' or 'UTG.' At a nine- or ten-handed table, the next seat (UTG+1) might also be considered early position, given that most of the table is in later positions, relatively speaking.
Note by the way that even though the SB and BB act last preflop — after the UTG player and everyone else around to the button — those are considered early position seats since they'll be acting first every betting round after the flop.
Poker Seat Positions
'Middle position' (MP) usually refers to the next couple or three seats at the table, leading up to the last two or three seats culminating with the button.
That leaves 'late position' (LP) seats that include the button (the latest position), the cutoff (the seat to the right of the button), and the hijack seat (the seat to the right of the cutoff). Of course, in short-handed games (e.g., 6-max.) the hijack would probably be better designated middle position.
As noted, the best no-limit hold'em players generally choose to play most of their hands from late position, fewer from middle position, and least from early position. Not coincidentally, they also win most of their money playing from later position, with even the best hold'em players tending to be net losers when playing from early position.
Positions On A Poker Table
Here's a quick list of five reasons why playing in position is preferable in no-limit hold'em:
1. More free cards
There are times when playing drawing hands when you'd rather not pay a price to get to the next postflop street. When you have position on your opponent, you have the opportunity to take a 'free card' if your opponent checks to you while you are on a draw, checking behind to see the next community card.
Say you decided to play suited connectors and have on a flop. Your opponent who has to act first decides to check. You could bet, but you can also check behind and take a 'free card' to see if you can complete your flush. If you were first to act, though, you have no assurance when you check that your opponent won't bet and make you pay to stick around in the hand.
2. Pot control
Acting last on every postflop street usually helps you control how big or small of a pot you end up playing. If you wish to play a small pot and an opponent checks, you can check behind, and if your opponent bets you can just call and close the action. If you want to play a bigger pot, you can bet or raise when the action is on you.
When out of position, you can't check and be sure your opponent will check and let you see the next card for free. Nor can you bet and be sure your opponent will fold or only call you (thus keeping the pot small).
3. More bluffing opportunities
Having position on an opponent is so valuable, it can often make up for having a relatively weak hand. In other words, your literal hand strength may be weak, but by getting to act last you have a lot more leverage when trying to represent stronger hands. That translates into more chances to bluff when your opponent who is out of position demonstrates weakness by checking to you.
You raise from the button and get called by the big blind, the flop comes , and your opponent checks. If you bet and your opponent doesn't have an ace or king (or perhaps a six), you'll likely earn a fold, thereby making your actual hand strength somewhat irrelevant. You could have , , or , it doesn't matter — position won you the hand, not the cards.
4. Calculating pot odds
Say you are in a four-way hand holding , the flop comes , and you are second to act. There is 1,500 in the middle and the first player leads with a bet of 500. With your open-ended straight draw you'd like to call and see the turn. If you were last to act, you'd know for certain what your immediate pot odds were — you're trying to win 2,000 and need only call 500, so your pot odds are 4-to-1. (See '10 Hold'em Tips: Pot Odds Basics.')
But with players still to act behind you, you can't make this calculation. You don't know if the other two players will just call also (making your pot odds even better), or if one might raise and force you to pay even more to stick around (making your pot odds potentially much worse). If you were in position and acting last, though, you could know precisely what your pot odds were going forward.
5. Knowing your opponent's action
This is the biggest advantage to having position (and frankly covers all of the advantages listed above) — namely, being able to know how your opponent is going to play a given postflop street before you have to make your decision how to play it. You are more informed knowing that while your opponent can always be trying to deceive you, a check usually means they are not so enthused by the board while a bet indicates interest.
When playing from position, a lot of strong players use an opponent's action as a primary factor when deciding how to play each street.
Conclusion
The mere fact that the button moves each hand to ensure everyone at the table gets an equal opportunity to play from all the available positions should tell you that position matters in poker. If it didn't, there'd be no need to spread the positional wealth evenly in this way.
Playing from out of position can occasionally have advantages, too. From out of position you can check-raise, which as we've covered before in this series can be a powerful postflop play. Also, sometimes acting first enables you to prevent other players from acting, say in a multi-way pot where an early position bet or raise might force others out of a hand.
However, the advantages of playing in position are much greater. It's a big reason why the seating arrangement at a table can be so important — that is, it is much better not to have strong, difficult players on your left and in position on you for most hands than to have them sitting on your right where you get to have position on them most of the time.
Position is one of the most important factors affecting no-limit hold'em strategy. Playing with position on your opponents both reduces your risk and increases your chance at rewards. Help your own cause by playing more hands in position, and try not to help your opponents and play fewer from out of position.
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Also in this series..
Position In Poker Texas Holdem
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Texas Holdem Seat Positions
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