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Introducing the power of position

Playing positionally aware poker is a concept that you may or may not be already familiar  with. Most losing players aren’t- hence why if you aren’t already, you should be. In a nutshell, position at the poker table is a measurement of how far you sit from the dealer button in a given hand. The point of paying attention to position is to keep track of how early or late you will act in a hand. As you will see, the order in which players act has a significant effect on the dynamics of a hand.

In order to formulate a general strategy, most poker minds agree that positions at the table can be grouped into 3 groups. Fittingly, we call the groups Early Position (EP), Middle Position (MP), and Late Position (LP). At a nine-handed table, Early Position would consist of the three seats directly left of the button, these seats being the Small Blind, the Big Blind, and the player “under the gun” (UTG). Middle Position consists the three seats to the left of the player UTG. Late Position consists of the two players directly to the right of the Button, and the Button itself. In many strategic discussions, the seat directly to the right of the Button is called the Cut-Off (CO).

Why Do We Use Position?

It may seem strange to some that we should pay so much attention to such a concept while playing poker. It should seem strange- it’s an advanced concept, and only those who want to win will learn, understand and use it. So how do we use it, exactly?

Simply put, position is power. The later we act in a hand, the more information we have access to before we make a decision about how to play. Therefore, we always want to play as many hands as we can when in late position. When we are in LP, we get to see how our opponents want to play their hands before we do, and we can judge the relative strength of our hand versus theirs more accurately. This information will not only allow us to avoid making costly mistakes, such as overplaying marginal hands without position, but will also allow us to outplay our opponents when we sense weakness.

In contrast, we want to significantly tighten up our game when sitting in EP. A common beginner’s mistake is playing too many marginal hands without position in a hand. Overplaying hands early on is akin to firing a cannon in the dark- we can never be too sure of the outcome when we fire our barrel. In order to avoid being outplayed, we want to only play our biggest preflop hands from Early Position.

Position equals information. As elite poker players, our main source of profit will not be getting great cards and hitting big hands, but rather outplaying and out thinking our opponents. It will be much easier to play back at a villain when we have more information. This is why we pay attention to the order in which we act, and play a positionally aware game all the time.

How Do We Use Position?

Positional strategy differs between the three different groups. General playing advice for all of them are outlined below.

Early Position: Open tighter than usual. Do not play marginal aces or kings. Play only premium hands. A huge mistake most beginners make in EP is limping way too many hands hoping to see a flop. This is simply bleeding money and will cut your profits. Another common error is completing the small blind when folded around to.

When you are in an unopened pot folded around to you in the SB, it is often a good idea to raise with any two cards in an attempt to steal your opponent’s blind. Completing is never a good option, because you will need to play your poor cards out of position unless you hit a monster, which is obviously unlikely. From the small blind you should only raise or fold. Follow this advice and you will see a large long term surge in profit.

Middle Position: Play your standard opening range from this position. Do not limp in pots, a rare exception being with small pocket pairs in some cases. Many beginning players still like to limp hands in MP in hopes of hitting a flop. Don’t do this- raise the hands you wish to play, and fold the marginal ones you would be ‘hoping to hit’ with. Save the fancy play for late position, where you have a serious positional advantage.

Late Position: Have fun! In unopened pots, you can open tons of hands from late position- any suited connectors, some unsuited connectors, suited two-gappers, and premiums. If you know the players in the blinds are folding a lot preflop, you can raise essentially any two cards from LP to steal the blinds. Remember, even if you have bad cards in Late Position, you can easily show aggression postflop and outplay your poor opponents postflop.

You will see many poor players limp-calling your LP opens, only to fold when you continuation bet the flop. Once you master playing poker in Late Position, expect to see your profits soar. Most professionals agree, especially 6-max pros, that well over 75% of one’s profit should come from playing hands from the Cut-Off and Button (LP). Take advantage of the edge positionally aware poker strategy can give you.

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