PokerWorks

It's Not All About The Cards

I have a saying I tell my students all the time – Position Is Power. This simple statement is at the core of so many various poker decisions that I've decided to spend a whole article discussing the importance of position. I'm going to do so by outlining some reasons why position is important and showing examples.

#1 – Information, information, information

Being able to see what the other players will do first gives a player in position a great tactical advantage over the rest of the players. If you flopped top pair, top kicker, this is a hand you are more often than not going to be willing to play. In early or middle position, would without doubt bet, call a bet, or raise with it. What if the action went bet, raise before it got to you. Suddenly, your top pair/top kicker doesn't look that good. If you were in earlier position, you would find yourself stuck for a significant number of chips, but in later position you are able to save those chips because you have that information available to you.

#2 – Speculating in position is easier than when you are out of position

The rest of the ideas will all play off of #1 in some shape or form. Information allows you to do many things as a poker player. One of them is speculating. What do I mean by this? Let's say you are dealt a great speculative hand like 7-6 suited. This hand might not play so well from early position because you would not be able to call raises and re-raises with it. However, in late position you have a better understanding of what is going on in the hand and speculative hands become more playable.

Let me use an example from a tournament I played at Full Tilt Poker today. A solid, tight player opened the action from middle position for three times the big blind. I was on the button with 7-5 of spades and called. The big blind, a loose aggressive player, popped it up an additional 200 (the blinds were 25/50) which was called by the middle position player. With 875 in the pot, I made the call for 200. If I had been in early position and limped in, I would have folded to the raise/re-raise but by being in position because I would not have been certain what the original raiser would have done. By being in position, however, I am certain that I will be closing the action and can reasonably speculate with my hand. The flop came 8-6-4, the loose aggressive player led out for 750, the middle position player folded, I pushed and doubled up when I was called by my opponent who held pocket 9's.

#3 – Making moves is easier in position

In order to succeed in tournament poker, you are eventually going to have to take stabs at pots without an actual hand. It's much easier to bet with nothing when your opponent's have shown little to no interest in the pot. If you are in early position, it's harder to determine your opponent's interest in the hand, but in later position you generally have a good idea of what people think. Let's look at a couple examples to show you what I am talking about.

Example #1 (out of position) – you are playing an online tournament at Pokerstars and see a flop with pocket 7's. The flop comes 10-5-2. You are unsure of whether this flop helped any of your opponents and don't feel comfortable leading out. A middle position player with pocket 4's bet and you end up folding.

Example #1 (in position) – you have pocket 7's and see a flop from the button. The flop comes 10-5-2 and it is checked to you, including the player with pocket 4's who doesn't feel confident with his hand. You bet and everyone folds.

Example #2 (out of position) – you have A-K and raise pre-flop and are called in one spot. The flop comes J-5-5. You make a continuation bet and your opponent raises you with A-9 suited and you fold.

Example #2 (in position) –  a player limps in and you raise from the cutoff with A-K.  The limper calls with A-9 suited and checks to you on the J-5-5 flop. You make a continuation bet and your opponent folds.

In each of those examples, the difference in each hand was that when you were in position you had a clearer idea of where you stood in the hand. This is why I say that position is power. Having position enables you to do so many different things. Are you up against a player that continually makes continuation bets? In position, you can float the flop (call with the hopes of taking the pot on a later street) with a marginal hand or nothing.

Because the flop so often misses both players or makes them uncomfortable because it “appears” to have hit you, they will often check to you on the turn and/or river and you can take the pot away from them. While there are ways to do the same thing out of position, having position makes it much easier, and more importantly cheaper, to accomplish.

There are many other ways in which you can use position to make moves. I'll devote a complete section to “making moves” later on, so I'm not going to waste any more time discussing them now. I merely wanted to illustrate a couple of examples to show you how position makes a difference.

Up next, we'll get into pre-flop hand selection, including an assignment that will have you play various hands based upon your position and the actions of your opponents.