Playing solid position poker is part of the fundamentals of poker that I preach about regularly. So many poker players, particularly no limit Texas Holdem players, tend to get involved in pots at the worst times simply because the hands they hold are played out of position. By playing hands out of position you negate the prospects of playing the hand in many situations. On the other hand the players that understand position and how to use it are almost poetic in their use of it to significantly increase their chip stacks.
How important is position in poker? It is so important that the majority of the chips earned by most players are earned due to position and savvy post flop play.
What is position?
Position is the ability to act last in the hand. It really is as simple as that. You have the benefit of seeing how your opponent(s) are going to approach the hand and you now have the opportunity to act based on where you believe you are in the hand accordingly. So what does this mean for you? It means a few things. First, you can control the size of the pot when you act last in the hand. Second, if you are beat on the Turn or River you can get away from the hand with minimal loss. Third, it is probably the best place to steal from base on your image of your opponents and how they are playing against you.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to have position. Clearly you have significant options available to you that other players do not simply because you get to act last in the hand. Let’s take a look at position in action.
Our players are involved in a multi-table tournament with no antes early in the tournament with $50/$25 blinds:
Player1 $1800 (Button) [A][Q]
Player2 $3000 (EP) [J][J]
Player2 opens the pot for $150 and the action folds around to the button. The button decides to make it $600 to go and puts pressure back on Player1 in early position. Now all of the sudden [J][J] doesn’t look all that good. A few things have to be going through the initial raisers mind. “Obviously the rest of his chips are going in the middle if I call this bet. He probably has a big hand and his bet looks like he wants a call.” Yes, there is a method to the madness in how this hand was bet by Player1.
Even those observing the game would be likely to believe that Player1 has some kind of premium hand based on how he decided to bet it. Also, being low on chips certainly plays into the decision making process. We can also deduce that Player1 is not going to fold under any circumstances pre-flop and most likely post-flop either. The aggressive position based play of Player1 results in Player2 folding his hand and giving up the pot with the best hand.
Hand Selection
Part of playing good position is also hand selection. There is a reason that successful poker players do not play small pairs, suited connected and other speculative hands from early position early on in poker tournaments. The reason is that it is way too easy for another player to raise you off of the hand and therefore you have just donated to a pot you will never rake. Again, solid fundamentals tell us that we need to play stronger hands from early position unless our chip stack allows us the luxury to do otherwise early in poker tournaments.
Position and Feel
So many people talk about having a feel for the game of poker. There is a lot of truth to that statement and it is even more evident as you watch some of the better players use their feel for the game to help accumulate chips. The reason I bring this up is simple. You must develop your ability to sense when another player is not telling the truth. This means smelling out bluffs or bets that simply do not add up. By having position you are able to put pressure on a player by choosing a bet size that you believe will be enough to push them off of the hand. This takes a feel for the player as well as a feel for the ebb and flow of the table you happen to be playing at as well. The only way to acquire this kind of feel for the game is to play and gain that experience. This is particularly true of live tournament and cash game players.
Just remember that position is everything in poker. Learn how to use it to your benefit and exploit weakness when you sense it in your opponents.
Curtis Mayfield III