The importance of position in Texas HoldEm Poker

Your position within the game is a concept that is widely underestimated and misunderstood among the Texas Hold’Em beginners. In order to improve your poker gameplay, you need to learn and master a strategy that takes into consideration your position. While it might seem a bit confusing at first, it’s actually a concept that is relatively easy to understand.

When you play poker online, there is a dealer button, which in live poker is the actual dealer, but in online poker it’s just a sign on the table. The player on the left of the dealer will pay a small blind, the following player will pay a big blind and the third player from the dealer will be the first to play during the round.

This position is the worst possible, because you are going to be the first one to make a decision and because you don’t know anything about what the other players’ bet. Because of this, the position is known by poker players as “under the gun”.

But why is this position so bad? Let’s suppose that you have a reasonable, but not premium hand. You think that with a bit of luck from the community cards, you will be able to get some chances of winnings, so you call. However, one player after you will raise the bet by a lot. You are not willing to invest such a big amount in a relatively weak hand, so you will fold, thus losing the money you used in the earlier call. Had you been at the button (thus the last player to bet), you would have folded right away, without needing to lose that money.

This is why, players tend to play only the best hands when in early position, but they will play weaker hands if they are in late position. If you are under the gun, it’s better not to risk your money on a weak hand and you could just fold and wait for a better hand.

The people in late position (those who get the chance to bet among the last) will see all the other pkr bets, so, if everyone either called or folded, they can try bluffing: doing a raise, because they expect the other players don’t have good hands and they will not try to waste their money. This strategy is called stealing the blinds, because everyone will fold, thus the game will not reach the flop and the bluffer will win, getting just the blinds.