PokerWorks

Over the years I've had the good fortune to teach many people how to play poker and more than anything, I run into one mistake that people make OVER and OVER. Not only is it the biggest mistake newcomers to the game make, but it is often the biggest mistake experienced players make.

What is it?

Playing hands out of position!

This might seem obvious to most of you so an explanation may provide you with more insight into what I mean by that.

Obviously hands like A-A/K-K/Q-Q and A-K are playable in any position. But what about hands like 7-6 suited or Q-J off suit?

How many people do you know that play Q-J off suit from early position? Do you? Look in the mirror. Come on. You know you've probably done it on more than one occasion.

You might be thinking that everyone else does it, so what's the problem? Q-J is an above average hand. Yes... it is, but the problem with playing it out of position is you are going to be facing difficult decisions in a "dominated hand" situation.

Say you raise with Q-J off suit, in early position, to 300 with the blinds at 50/100. You get two callers and the flop comes J-7-5. You bet 1/2 pot into a 1000 pot and are raised by one of the callers. What do you do now? You have top pair. But what does your opponent have? Does he have a bigger kicker? Two pair? A draw? You just don't know. Why? Because you're out of position.

If you just call, what are you going to do on the turn? If you re-raise, are you really going to feel good about having put all of those chips in and have to fold when your opponent pushes, or even feel obligated to call because you put so much in, only to find yourself drawing dead?

Let's look at the same hand in position. It's folded to you on the button and you raise with Q-J off suit. Both blinds call. Three of you see the flop. The flop comes J-7-5. Both blinds check to you and you make the same 1/2 pot bet. Now if you are raised you likely can gather that your opponent has a stronger hand (check raise out of position almost always means top pair marginal kicker is beat). If you are called you can gather that they are drawing and can use your positional advantage against them on the turn because they are going to give you information through their actions. And it very well could be that they missed and are going to fold.

You could make this same bet with Q-10 off suit and be correct. Here you have information. They have checked to you and you know a little bit about what they think about their hand. When you act out of position you don't have this advantage.

The next time you are thinking about playing a hand in early position ask yourself the following questions:

1) What kind of flop am I going to be looking for (and based upon this you should know what the probability of getting this type of flop is for your hand)

2) If I get this flop, what am I going to do if I face adverse pressure?

3) What are the benefits to playing this hand?

Position is power. Use it.

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