WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE IN POKER POSITION?

Learn what it means to be in position in poker and how to use it to your advantage in No-Limit Hold'Em. We also cover the fundamentals of playing out of position.

In poker, acting last has a significant advantage, and acting first has a significant disadvantage. When you act at the poker table is determined by your seat position. Position is everything in Texas Hold'em. Let's go over what it means to be in position in poker.

EXPLAINED POKER POSITION

In poker, the term position has two distinct meanings.

The first meaning has to do with when it is your turn to act. Whoever is in position (IP) will be the last to act. Whoever is out of position (OOP) will take the initiative. The second meaning is related to your seat at the poker table.

Each table position has a unique name that is determined by its proximity to the Dealer Button. The seats are divided into three categories: early, middle, and late. After each hand, the Dealer Button moves clockwise around the table, allowing each player to sit in each table position once per orbit.

The names of the poker positions, as well as whether they are considered Early, Middle, or Late position seats, are determined by two factors: 1) whether you are playing 6-Max or Full Ring, and 2) personal preference. People divide up the positions in various ways, particularly in full ring.

Don't be too concerned about it. What matters most is the seat's position in relation to the Dealer Button.

Going anticlockwise, the further you are away from the Dealer Button, the worse your position is. The best poker position is to be "on the button."

The Dealer Button

Because it is the most profitable spot at the poker table, the Dealer Button is also known as the money button. The dealer button holder is always in position post-flop and can only act after the blinds pre-flop.

If everyone else folds, the dealer button can raise knowing they will have position after the flop—even if the blinds call. This advantage is not shared by any other position at the table.

The Blinds

The Small Blind is directly to the left of the Dealer Button, and the Big Blind is directly to the left of the Small Blind.

The Blinds are the most dangerous positions in the game. They must make a forced bet before seeing their cards and must act first after the flop. The acting in the previous pre-flop does not compensate for this.

The Small Blind is the worse of the two positions. You are only required to pay half as much as the Big Blind, but you never act last before the flop and always act first after the flop.

Early Position

Under-the-Gun, or UTG, is the seat to the left of the Big Blind.

This is due to the fact that this player must act first before the flop. They will act before everyone except the Blinds after the flop. Because of this confluence of factors, it is a difficult position to play, so the basic Under-the-Gun poker strategy is to be cautious and keep it tight.

In Six-Max Hold'em, the only player considered early position is UTG. There are usually at least two players in Full-Ring (that is, 9 players): UTG and UTG+1 (the player directly to the left of UTG).

Some players, however, consider the first three seats to the left of the Big Blind to be early position.

The Blinds are also considered to be in Early Position because they act first post-flop despite being the last to act pre-flop.

Middle Position

The middle position at the poker table is made up of neither here nor there seats. As with Early Position, 6-Max has only one seat classified as middle position - usually referred to as Middle Position, but also as the Hijack.

It is generally accepted that the two seats between UTG+1 and the Hijack are Full-ring (the seat two places to the right of the Dealer Button). These are commonly referred to as the Lojack and Middle Position.

In Middle Position, you can relax a little more than in Early Position, but you still need to keep it tight.

Late Position

The best poker table seats are in late position. That's the Cut-Off and the Dealer Button in Six-Max. Full Ring consists of those two seats plus the Hijack, which is the seat next to the Cut-Off going anti-clockwise.

Again, it's critical to consider table position as a spectrum. The Dealer Button is by far the best late position, with the Cut-off and Hijack being slightly worse. Some consider the Hijack to be a Middle Position seat.

What really matters is how many players remain after the pre-flop - the more there are, the more likely someone has a good hand. If anyone else gets involved after you, they will have position on you after the flop.

IN VERSUS OUT OF POSITION

Poker may appear to be primarily a card game, but it is actually a wagering game in which each player bids the amount they are willing to pay to continue in the hand.

Each betting round (or "street") is a separate negotiation. It's always better to act last in a negotiation so you have more information to form an opinion on what to do next. This is where playing styles and position come into play.

In position - last post-flop acting

If you are in this position, you will be the last post-flop actor. Before it's your turn to act, you'll get to see what the other players do. You base your decisions on their actions.

That is a significant advantage. In poker, the goal is to make good decisions, and the more information you have, the better your decisions will be.

In addition to this informational advantage, acting last gives you control over the hand. You have the option of proceeding to the next street or reopening the betting. When you're in position, it's easier to get to showdown and realize the equity of your hand; it's easier to chase draws, and it's easier to build the pot.

Out of position- last post-flop performance

Being out of position, on the other hand, requires you to act first. You will have to make a decision about what to do without knowing what your opponents will do. This is almost always a significant disadvantage. When you're out of position, it's more difficult to get to the showdown, and it's also more difficult to build the pot.

The best part about poker is that you can choose which hands you want to play. You have the option of playing hands when you have position and folding hands when you don't. Understanding the importance of position is critical to a poker player's win rate.

Annette Obrestad, for example, won an online 180-player tournament without consulting her hole cards. She did it to "demonstrate the importance of playing position and paying attention to the players at the table." She shared her tournament hand history, which showed her folding premium hands out of position and playing complete trash in position.

IN-POSITION STRATEGIES

Consider position poker to be similar to having home field advantage. It doesn't guarantee that you'll always win, but it's a significant advantage that you should take advantage of.

When in position, play more hands.

The most important thing is to try to play more hands in Late Position, particularly from the Button. You may hear that you should play about 20% of the hands you are dealt and fold the rest, which is correct but misleading.

That may be the average, but you should be playing a lot of hands from the Button and Late Positions and very few from the Early and Middle Positions. You want to take advantage of the positional advantage as much as possible.

When you're the button, raise before the flop.

If you open-raise from UTG, there are 8 players left to act on a Full-Ring table, with a 60% chance that one of them has a top 10% hand. When you open from the Button, there are two players who have yet to act; the odds of either of them having a top 10% hand are about 20%.

If you raise from UTG, you must act first after the flop unless you are up against the Blinds. If you get involved on the Button, you will always act last post-flop.

Increase your use of continuation bets and checks.

Make the most of your position after the flop. You can C-bet more frequently. You can check behind if you want to take a free card or pot control. Pot control entails checking behind to avoid one street of betting. This significantly reduces the cost of getting to the showdown and realizing your equity.

This reduction is so significant because the pot grows exponentially on each betting street. Paying three streets at 50% pot will cost you twice as much as paying two streets at 50% pot.

Chase draws

When you play in position, chasing draws is much more profitable. As the last to act, you can accurately calculate the pot odds. And if you make your hand, you'll be able to easily build the pot, especially if they bet into you on the river.

If you are not the preflop aggressor, you can learn a lot from what your opponent does. If they check the flop and turn, it's usually worth a shot because people rarely check twice with anything good. You can also place small probe bets and fly under the radar relatively safely.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE OUT OF POSITION

Let's not beat around the bush: out-of-position poker is terrible. You want to avoid it as much as possible. Even so, there are some basic poker strategies you can use when you are out of position.

The following are the three most common out-of-position poker scenarios:

You raise from anywhere other than the Button and the Blinds calls - for example, you open from UTG and the Hijack calls, or you open from the Cut-off and the Button calls.

You raise anywhere except the Button, and anyone not in the Blinds three-bets you, and you call.

You're in the Blinds (unless you're Big Blind vs. Small Blind).

Getting Called

You can't do much about it except try to have cards that are good enough to compensate for your positional disadvantage.

The first rule of OOP is to be tight. As a result, you should open a tighter range from the middle position than from the late position, and a much tighter range from the early position than either. The earlier you call pre-flop, the more likely it is that a non-Blind position will call, putting you out of position post-flop.

Obtaining a 3-bet

You have a choice here because you can always fold. Yes, you will lose your initial raise, but this is insignificant when compared to what you could lose playing a 3-bet pot out of position.

If you are 3-bet by anyone other than the Blinds, it is usually better to fold rather than call 3-bets OOP - with the emphasis on folding.

If you can't bring yourself to fold your hand, 4-betting is preferable to calling because your opponent may fold, which means you won't have to play the hand OOP and you won't have to pay rake.

Second, 4-betting lowers the Stack-to-Pot ratio (SPR). The lower the SPR, the less power position has - this is easy to see by considering the extreme case where you both get it all-in preflop and there is no longer any positional advantage.

The Blinds

When it comes to Blind play, the golden rule is to not talk yourself into playing hands just to get a discount. The disadvantage of position cancels out the benefit of the savings. Even if you do hit a monster hand, getting paid off will be much more difficult. When you're in position, it's much easier to slow play a monster hand than when you're the first to speak.

In the Blinds, it makes sense to have a three-bet or fold strategy. The exception is against late position blind steal attempts in the Big Blind, where you are incentivized to defend by calling with a wide range to avoid being exploited.

However, at low stakes, you don't have to worry about defending your blinds. Playing too many hands from these unprofitable positions will be a much bigger leak for most beginners.

With the exception of being in the big blind against the small blind (as you will have position), think twice before playing a hand from either blind.

Post-Flop

If you end up post-flop out of position, you should keep playing tight. Bluff less frequently. Even if you are the pre-flop raiser, you should be more selective with your continuation bets than when you are in position.

Keep an eye out for wet, coordinated flops that hit the kinds of hands with which your opponent would have called your pre-flop raise. If you continue-bet here and are raised, it will cost much more to see the turn than simply checking and calling your opponent's bet.

If you are not the pre-flop raiser, you should almost never "donk" bet - that is, lead out from the OOP into the pre-flop raiser. The only exception is if you are terrified of giving away a free card (either because it will help your opponent or because it will kill the action), but even then it is rarely a good idea unless you have built a balanced donk-betting range. If you don't bet, you miss out on valuable information and the chance to check-raise. If you never duck bet, you'll be fine.

Out-of-position play creates a lot of difficult situations, and when things get dicey, it's often better to fold and wait for a better opportunity - at least in cash games. You don't have this luxury in tournaments, but the much smaller SPRs tend to reduce the impact of position after a few blind increases.

Being in position implies acting after your opponent. Position is power in poker. Use this to your advantage by playing more hands in position and fewer hands out of position.