Position Betting

To put it simply, your position at a poker table is where you seat is relative to the blinds at any point during the game.  While this may seem like an unimportant thing to consider, position can actually be used as a winning strategy when examined and played correctly  First of all, position is important because, in general, acting late is more favourable since you get to follow other players’ action and formulate a sense of their hand strength before betting on your own. Being in early position doesn’t afford you as much information, so you are less educated on the hand.

To explain position, let’s take a 10-player table and dissect it. The dealer is “on the button.” The person to the immediate left of the dealer is in the position of the small blind (SB). The player to the left of the SB is the big blind position (BB). The very next player to the BB will be the first to act. This spot is often referred to as “under the gun” (UTG). The Button will be last to act post-flop and is the gatekeeper of the hand, ultimately deciding how the game will play out. This can be an important tool if you know how to use it (see Late Position below).

Early Position
Consider the UTG position and the least favorable positions to be in during the first betting round. When you are in this position, you should be careful to only play solid hands and open with a raise when you do. The idea is to raise in order to get other players to fold after your bet, thus, thinning out the competition by the completion of the first round of betting. If you just call with an okay hand, you will likely be raised by another player and forced to fold by the time it gets back around to you, which ultimately causes you to throw away your bet.

Middle Position
The next player to the left of UTG, through three seats to the right of the Button, is considered middle position. When in this position, you should follow the same advice as for early position (see above). Play textbook poker and don’t get fancy because at this point of the game, you are really uneducated on the hand and don’t have the proper knowledge of your opponents’ hands to raise and bluff when you have a weak hand. Play strong pre-flop and solid post-flop or you’ll be setting yourself up for disaster.

Blinds Positions/Late Position
Still in the first round of betting, from the blinds positions, you are in the most advantageous position because you are last to act and have the best opportunity to steal the pot. If your opponents are generally folding or calling the minimum bet, and you sense that the table is generally weak, you may present a big raise in attempt to end the hand right then and there. Or in the BB position, you may choose to stay safe and just check, in hopes that you’ll hit the flop, but odds are that you won’t. Plus, the more players in the hand, the more likely someone else is to hit on the flop, but since you’ll be first to act come next round, you won’t have any way of knowing. While this isn’t so dangerous if you don’t have a lot invested in the pot, it can become a huge risk once the blinds increase. However, when it does pay off, it pays off big.

Keep in mind, though, that when players fold it changes the position for the next betting round, which can be advantageous or disadvantageous to those players still in the hand, depending on the new order of things.

Late position is the players who are to the immediate right of the button. Playing in late position is a profitable situation because you will get to play more hands, take further risks, and see more opportunities to bluff. This is partly due to pot odds. By the time the action gets around to you, the pot is full and calling the pot just comes out mathematically accurate. You can even, in essence, ignore your hole cards and focus on what your opponents might or might not have in order to determine the strength of their hands and bluff your opponents into believing you have the stronger hand. This is when you can practice reading the other players. When you determine that they have nothing, you’ll steal the pot by forcing them to fold.

The Bottom Line
What is important to realize is that your hand goes up in value when you’re in late position because of your overall improved control of the game—not because of your cards. Expected profit increases as does your ability to make decision based on what has already happened. Furthermore, weaker hands are more playable from the button than UTG because you risk someone raising you pre-flop. If your hand does hit, you won’t make enough money off of it to make it worthwhile to cover the times you get knocked out of the hand, so don’t waste your money taking risks from early or middle position. Wait until you’re in late position and then make the most of your chips.