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Importance of playing your position correctly in poker

Position is one of the most important concepts of poker, especially when playing No Limit or Pot Limit. The importance of postion also increases in flop games like Holdem and Omaha because you remain in the same position throughout all betting rounds. A few of the key factors to playing your position correctly in poker include the amount of information that will be revealed about the hand before its your turn to act and knowing which hand range to play according to your position. We'll be going over these key factors in detail along with examples in this article.

Deciding Which Hands To Play

When your sitting in early position you have to act before most of the other players at the table and will not have a chance to gain as much information about the hand as the players in later positions. If you are playing to wide of a hand range in early position you will often find yourself being forced to fold against raises/re-raises after you have already invested money in the hand.

When your sitting in late position you'll be able to gain key information about the hand, such as your pot odds and you'll also have the advantage of acting late in the upcoming betting rounds. This means you can widen your hand range when playing in later position.

When deciding which hands to play, position is always a factor that needs to be considered. For example, when playing Texas Holdem your calling/raising range under the gun (first to act) should be very tight, meaning you should play only premium hands like AA, KK etc...

Bluffing Opportunities

When sitting in later postion you will have more opportunities to bluff against your opponents. For example, if all players before you check you have the option to raise and possibly get all other players to fold and take the pot. Alternatively, you can always see the next card for free.

Being in late position also offers more opportunities to semi bluff. A semi bluff is betting or raising with a hand that might not be the best but has plenty of opportunities to improve to the best hand. When your in late position you can bluff with hands you would never call with in early position because you always have a chance at winning the pot uncontested.

Importance Of Position In Tight Or Loose Games

In a loose passive game where theres not much pre flop raising going on position is always less of a factor than it is in a tight aggressive game. This is because in a loose passive game you can be pretty certain that the pot will not be raised so you should be getting the correct pot odds on nearly every hand. Basically, you can play alot of drawing hands in early position during a loose passive game but should alwys tighten up when you are playing in a tight aggressive game.

Playing Position According To Your Opponents Positions

Preferably, you want loose passive players acting before you "to your right" and tight aggressive players acting after you "to your left". Loose players will always call with too many hands and give you better pot odds so ideally you'll want them acting before you so you can capitalize on their mistakes. Having the tighter players act after you will give you more bluff opportunities or you can also steal the blinds by betting into them because they are more likely to fold.

One Last Example

Heres an example of how having the worst position can lose you the pot. The example game is NL Holdem.

Your holding Ace Four of Hearts and your opponent, who has the better position, is holding Seven Eight of Diamonds. Your heads up and the flop comes out, King of Hearts, Nine of Clubs, Six of Hearts so you semi bluff with your flush draw and over card. The turn comes out, Jack of Spades, no help to either of you. You now make a continuation bet in hopes that your opponent will fold a pair of nines or sixes but he calls. The river comes out with the two of clubs. You check and your opponent bets.

It's nearly impossible for you to call this bet with just Ace High so you end up folding the best hand. In other words, you just lost the pot because your opponent had the better position.