Everything you need to know about position

March 12, 10:35 AMOnline Poker ExaminerSteven Ruddock

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Table diagram courtesy of wikipedia.org

If tight aggressive play is the foundation of a solid game, properly using position is the walls and ceiling. Position is one of the more underutilized concept in poker (especially by new players); people figure if they are last to act (or nearly last to act) they can play a bunch of hands they wish they could play from up front.

Here in lies one of the great misconceptions in poker: being last to act does not allow you to “loosen up”, or play more hands, being last to act gives you more information about your opponents hands, allowing you to make better decisions with your hand.

Position doesn’t give you free reign to play suited connectors and small pairs, it give you the information you need, to decide if those hands are playable. And if so, how to play them.

Ok, so the primary use of position is gathering information, but there are other ways the use of position can impact a hand. There are three important positional advantages you can find yourself in, they are:

• Last to act
• Taking the betting lead
• Your position relative to the raiser

Last to act: Being last to act gives you the most strategic advantage. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Not only will you have information about your opponents hands, but they have no idea what you are going to do! This makes your decision easier, and your opponent's decisions more difficult; the best of both worlds. You are less likely to make a mistake, and your opponent is more likely to make a mistake.This makes it much easier to let go of a hand, or pick up an orphan pot.
2. If you were the aggressor pre-flop you have tremendous fold equity acting last.
3. Being last to act gives you the opportunity to use deceptive plays: free cards, bluffs and semi-bluffs, and the opportunity to pick good situations to slow-play.

The one disadvantage is when you flop a strong hand and it gets checked to you. In this case you have to decide on giving free cards, or likely ending the hand right there.

Taking the betting lead: When you are the aggressor pre-flop you will find it much easier to play out of position than if you simply limp in. Here are the reasons why:
 

1. You will pick up many pots by simply making a continuation bet on the flop. By taking the betting lead you are basically saying, “my hand is better than yours.”, and by calling your opponents are saying, “my hand is pretty good but not great, and I’m worried your hand is great.” This is especially true in Hold’ Em, where your hand is less likely to improve on the flop, and flopping monster hands is the exception not the norm.
2. By calling your raise your opponents have given you information about their hand while your hand is harder to pin down. Even if your opponents know your raising standards are 77+ AT+ 89s+, they will have a hard time putting you on a specific holding. Likewise, you will find it easier to pin down their holding, even though they have position on you, because they only called. Suppose your opponent has the same raising standards as you, but will only call a raise with TT+ AQ+ and ATs+ KQs. Additionally, you can most likely eliminate QQ KK AA and AK from their range, since they would  re-raise with those holdings. Despite their superior position you can tentatively put them on five specific hands: TT JJ AQ ATs AJs.. This is why it is so important to be aggressive, not only to improve your position, but to really handcuff your opponents ability to put you on a hand, while at the same time drastically narrowing down their holding.

Your position relative to the raiser: Hopefully you won’t find yourself in this situation to often, but it’s extremely important to play these scenarios properly. You will find yourself calling raises pre-flop more often in big bet poker than in limit poker, because of the implied odds. here are the two situations where your position relative to the raiser will come into play:
 

1. You want to act immediately before the pre-flop raiser in multi-way pots. An aggressive player is expected to make a continuation bet post-flop, and is more often than not checked to. This effectively puts him in first position, therefore the player who acts immediately before him ends up in last position! It sounds weird, but more times than not people check to the raiser, this allows the player to his immediate right to gather the most information, while at the same time not giving up any of his own. For instance his check could be seen as a weak hand, but it could also imply a strong hand that he wants to check-raise. The reason for this is that the pre-flop aggressor will most likely bet if he’s checked to, and most players know this.
2. You want to act immediately after the aggressor in heads-up pots. Acting after the raiser allows you to float, get off a missed hand, basically use every deceptive play in the book.

As you can see, there are many ways to take advantage of different positional situations.

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Contact Steve at bostonpokerexaminer@live.com