The importance of position

Introduction

In this article you will learn the importance of position at the poker table for your game.

Position

Let me start with terminology and a common understanding of position. In the game of poker, the word position refers to the order in which the players in a hand make their move.

• You are in position (IP) to an opponent when it’s your turn after him.
• Your opponent has position on you when it is your turn in before him – you are out of position (OOP).

What is the relevance of the concept of position? Poker is a game with incomplete information. The more information you have about your opponents, the better you are able to evaluate their hand and the better your decisions will be in the hand. When you are in position, your opponents have to act before you, revealing fragments of information about their hand.

Practice shows that you win more hands in position and the pots you win are on average larger. Accordingly, you can expect to win fewer hands out of position and the pots you win are smaller.

From these considerations, it can be deduced that in No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker, whenever you play a hand, you want to be in position to your opponents. When you play a hand in which you are not in position to your opponents, you need a compensation for being out of position.

This is the reason why the standards for your starting hands are higher in the earlier positions like MP2 and MP3 than in the later positions like CO or BU.

If you raise and get called in early position, you must assume that you will play out of position for the rest of the hand. Accordingly, you need a hand that is on average stronger than your opponents to compensate for the disadvantage of being out of position. On the other hand, if you’re in the BU and all of your opponents have folded, you can raise a wide range of hands, since you’ll either win the hand directly or be in position for the rest of the hand.

Try to understand this argumentation by looking at the recommended Starting Hands Chart.

If you find yourself in a hand out of position, be prepared to look for compensation for the following three disadvantages.

• Out of position, it’s usually harder to win chips from your opponents, because if you act before them, your betting behavior must reveal information about the strength of your hand.
• Out of position, it’s harder to play draws and get freecards, because a check from you signals weakness that your opponents can exploit. On the other hand, if you bet instead of checking, you’re feeding a pot with chips while you’ re probably the underdog. You’re also giving your opponents the opportunity to raise you out of the hand.
• Out of position, it’s harder to bluff because you have to make your bluff bet before your opponent has signaled weakness by checking.

Summing up the arguments, I recommend that you play your hands in position whenever possible and get involved in as few hands out of position as possible.

If you’re not sure, then you better give up the hand, because a fold won’t cost you any chips. However, if you frequently play more hands out of position than in position, it’s almost guaranteed to be expensive.

Summary and prospects

In this article you have learned the importance of the concept of position. As a consequence, you want to play as many hands in position as possible and as few hands out of position as possible.