Online Poker Strategy: Understanding Position
Author: Jim
If you’re new to poker, one of the first terms you’ll hear
thrown around is ‘position’. More specifically, you’ll usually
hear one of two things, either a reference a player being in
‘early’, ‘middle’, or ‘late’ position, or in reference to one
player ‘having position’ on another. Both of these terms will
become much clearer with an explanation of the importance of
position in poker.
In poker, position refers to where you sit relative to the other
players. It’s important because where you are sitting around the
table determine the order is which you will act. Play moves to
the left in poker, so the player sitting at your left will move
after you. That means that that player will have more
information when you did when he bets. This is known as having
position on you, because of the where he is sitting, he act
after you and therefore always have more information then you
when he bets, a great advantage.
Early, middle, and late positions are references to where the
players are sitting relative to the dealer. The first few
players after the dealer are sitting in early position, they are
the first to act and will have the least information when they
make their decisions. Being in early position is unfortunate,
but it does have one occasional advantage, bluffing from early
position can be powerful because a bet from early position, when
you have not seen any other players act, suggests a very strong
hand. When sitting in early position, you only want to play the
best of hands.
Middle position would be the next third of the players and are
sort of a balance between early and late position. Middle
position players have information about how the players in early
position acted, and they bluffs can carry a little extra weight.
Middle position players can play more hands because they have
more information.
Late position is the best position to be in. It is the last few
players to act, and they have the most information about how
everyone else is playing. Because they have seen everyone bet,
they have lots of information and can act accordingly. In
addition, late position players will often steal many pots when
everyone is holding a weak hand. If a late position players
notices that no one before him has bet strongly, suggesting they
have weak hands, he can often sweep in and steal the pot with a
strong bet.
Because they have the most information, late position players
also have the opportunity to play the most hands. As a general
rule, being in late position is your best opportunity to play
draws, hands that do not have all the cards they need yet, but
will be very strong if the right card comes down. Because you
get to act after everyone else, you can decide whether or not it
is worth it to limp in with that flush draw.
That’s the basics of understanding position play in poker. Learn
it well and start to look for how position affects the way
players bet and act in poker games. You will quickly discover
just how important position is, and you will quickly take your
game to the next level.
About the author:
Jim is a online poker player who’s played thousands of hands.
He’s released an ebook teaching you the secrets of cleaning up
at the poker table that the casinos and other players don’t want
you to know. You can get it free at his website
http://www.easyonlinepokercash.com along with a whole bunch of
additional tips and tricks to help you learn to make money playing
poker
