Position is one of the most important considerations for a poker player to ponder. Irrespective of one’s ability, experience or hand strength, playing a hand out of position is going to be difficult, as anyone else involved has far more information than you do.
The biggest part of winning at poker is decision making. You make the right decision every time and your bankroll will grow exponentially. Consider a heads up scenario where you are first to act holding 9c8c on a board of 2d 7d 8h. You’ve got top pair but it’s not strong and you don’t really know where you are. Your opponent raised pre-flop – does he have a pocket pair? Is it smaller than yours or bigger? Maybe he has AK and you’re ahead. He was in late position, he might have been trying to take it down pre-flop with a similar hand to your own. If you bet, are you going to be raised? If he’s flopped a draw, you can’t give a free card.
Now consider this hand but the other way around. Your options are essentially the same, but you have the pleasure of seeing how your opponent acts first. Check? Might well be a draw then, time to bet. Bet? Probably a continuation bet, let’s raise and put him to the test. It all seems much more straightforward in position and decisions are easier. Easier decisions mean more correct decisions, which mean more profit.
It is for this reason that suited connectors play well in late position but not in early. When you are last to act, you can see how many players are in the pot ahead of you. If there are lots, you are likely to be getting the right pot odds to call and when you do, you probably aren’t going to be facing a raise behind you, so it is safe to limp. Limp them under the gun and who knows what might happen. You could be looking at a couple of raises and you’ve just wasted chips. Even if you get in cheap and hit, you won’t be able to extract full value from the hand.
It is not just “fold or call” type decisions that become easier, though. Being in position at the poker table allows you to exert more influence over what is in the pot. You can size your bets according to the information gleaned, allowing you to make value bets or represent types of hands. Bluffing opportunities are more frequent as players out of position check their uncertain hands to you.
Position is power.
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