How Important is Position in Poker

When most people consider poker strategy, one of the things most overlooked is positioning. However, it shouldn’t be. When players don’t understand how important their seat at the table is, they automatically put themselves at a disadvantage. Each player’s position will affect, or at least should affect, how a player plays their hand.

The primary positions in a game of Hold’ em poker (ten handed game) are the small blind, the big blind, under the gun, early, middle, late and button. The small blind position is the one where the individual who posts the small blind sits. The big blind position posts the big blind. The person under the gun makes their move after the big blind. The early position is the person sitting two players away from the individuals under the gun. The middle player is two over from the early position. The late position is two players over from the middle. The button is the individual who has the dealer button.

Players in the early position are at a disadvantage. Because they don’t know what the other players are doing, they are largely making their decisions blindly. A good way to approach the game when sitting in this position would be to only make moves which would make sense if the pot was raised. Early position players need to have a stronger hand then normal in order to be successful.

The players sitting in the later positions have an advantage because they have more information. They are able to see what moves their opponents have made which will give them a better chance at assessing their opponent’s hands. These players will have some idea of whether or not their opponents have weak or strong hands. The later positions may also benefit from what some people call positional raises. Positional raises are when players are able to steal the blind with by raising even when their hands aren’t exceptionally strong, simply because of where they are seated at the table.

When most people consider poker strategy, one of the things most overlooked is positioning. However, it shouldn’t be. When players don’t understand how important their seat at the table is, they automatically put themselves at a disadvantage. Each player’s position will affect, or at least should affect, how a player plays their hand.

The primary positions in a game of Hold’ em poker (ten handed game) are the small blind, the big blind, under the gun, early, middle, late and button. The small blind position is the one where the individual who posts the small blind sits. The big blind position posts the big blind. The person under the gun makes their move after the big blind. The early position is the person sitting two players away from the individuals under the gun. The middle player is two over from the early position. The late position is two players over from the middle. The button is the individual who has the dealer button.

Players in the early position are at a disadvantage. Because they don’t know what the other players are doing, they are largely making their decisions blindly. A good way to approach the game when sitting in this position would be to only make moves which would make sense if the pot was raised. Early position players need to have a stronger hand then normal in order to be successful.

The players sitting in the later positions have an advantage because they have more information. They are able to see what moves their opponents have made which will give them a better chance at assessing their opponent’s hands. These players will have some idea of whether or not their opponents have weak or strong hands. The later positions may also benefit from what some people call positional raises. Positional raises are when players are able to steal the blind with by raising even when their hands aren’t exceptionally strong, simply because of where they are seated at the table.

Tags: important, Poker, position

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 12:23 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.