Position in Poker

Playing poker correctly for your position is vital to playing successful winning poker. Here is basic outline of why position is one of the most important parts of a winning game, combine this with solid hand selection, post flop play and your ready to get started.

Position means how far you are round the table in relation to the dealer (button). The nearer to the dealer (ie on the dealers right) the better your position.

The dealer has the best position because he is the last to act on every round of betting except the first. You have seen what everyone else has bet and how, this is a big advantage.

Being the first to act is a big disadvantage – your betting in the dark – say you have a good hand before the flop and had raised, then the flop doesn’t help you – what do you do ? If you go with the hand and keep betting you could be re-raised by any of the players following you. If you check because your hand hasn’t got better you are sending a clear message that your weak and others will bet you off the hand.

Now if you look at the same strong preflop hand on the button (dealer) or in late postion (the last couple of player) it becomes all together a different situation. The players before you will be scared of you because you bet preflop and then even though you havent hit the flop you can still bet them off when you’ve been able to sense weakness.

Therefore the earlier your position the better your starting hand needs to be to get involved in the pot. Following this logic the later your position the more starting hands there are that become playable.