The Importance of Position in Poker
Poker is a game of adjusting; the one who best adjusts his strategy will win. It's also a game of position, just like war; there are great positions to make an attack and there are really bad ones. We will concentrate on the importance of playing from good positions and avoiding bad ones. After you study the information in this article, you will have a better chance of climbing the Poker Ranking in the Online Poker World Championship. Let’s get started with a walk-through of the positions at a Full Ring poker table. Positions are divided into three types: early, middle and late.
Early Positions: Under The Gun, Under The Gun +1, Under The Gun +2 (UTG 1, 2)
Middle Positions: Middle Position, Middle Position +1, Middle Position +2 (MP 1, 2)
Late Positions: The Cutoff (CO) and The Button (BTN)
Early positions are the worst ones to be at, thus, the name Under The Gun is also very appropriate for describing these. You will be the first player to act before the flop and also one of the first ones after the flop is dealt. Why does this matter? It's simple; you will have no information about what your opponents are going to do and what their hand range is like. They, on the other hand, will have a great idea about whether you are going to play in this hand or not. When you're in the early position, you also have a large amount of players that are left to act behind you, chances are that one of them can ''wake up'' with a big hand.
Middle positions are better than the early ones, but still not all that great. You will hold a positional advantage against players in the early positions, but will still have no idea about what are players in the CO and BTN seat about to do. However, the difference between being in a MP+ vs. being in a UTG for example, is huge. But we are going to discuss that a bit later.
Late Positions are the gems, now you are the king of the table and have the largest amount of information available. You will always be aware of what your opponents are doing before the flop as well as after the cards are dealt. By holding an advantage of being the last one to act post flop, you can control the whole hand. If you want to play for a large pot you will be able to bet and if you want to take a free card and keep a low-sized pot you will also be able to do that.
How to approach and play in each position?
Now you have learned about the basic advantages and disadvantages of every position. It's time to take the next step and learn about what hand ranges are good to play and how the amount of hands you can play gets higher as you get closer to the button.
You should be playing only your best and strongest starting hands when in early position. Avoid playing dominated hands like KQ and AJ from these spots. We would advise to start with a hand range of Jacks or better and AK from the UTG, until you get more comfortable playing post-flop.
Start opening your game when in Middle Position; even though you still have a significant amount of players left behind you, this is now a way better spot than the one you are at when playing from the UTG positions. Open raise with hands like nines or better and AJ suited or better. You can also mix in a couple of speculative hands like 89 suited. These hands play well after the flop and are not dominated that often. You will also disguise your hand range as your opponents will have a hard time putting you on a hand like this.
Late position is where you will make most of your money at. You can play such a wide variety of hands from this position that there's no need to even make a hand range. Unless players on the blinds are playing very well and aggressively, you can play just about any suited hand. Note that the recommended plays so far include a condition: none has entered the pot before you. If you intend to make a move under different circumstances you must decide based on way different arguments. The more advanced topics about this strategy will be delivered soon, so stay tuned to the OPWC weekly poker tips.
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