Lesson - positional play

While researching starting hands on the internet and in magazines I become aware of positional play. Some top players stated that position was even more important than the cards you hold. This seems to be a huge part of the strategy of good poker. My understanding of position is very basic but quite effective. Here is my beginners guide for a 9 person table:

Early position - this is the small blind, big blind and one seat to the left of the big blind (seats 1, 2 and 3). In this position I only play 'Great hands' (as listed in my starting hands article) and I play them strong with a 5x big blind raise or all-in depending on my chip stack and (when I am in the blinds) how my opponents have bet in the first round. I do not get sucked in with other hands that will cost me a lot of chips.

Middle position - this is seats 4,5 and 6. In this position I will play 'Great hands' and 'Good hands' strongly but rarely go all-in. I will sometimes limp in with OK hands but only if my chip stack is large. The nice thing about the OK hands is they can turn into 'Great hands' after the flop if I can get to see it cheap. Often though a late position raise will force me to abandon the OK hands before I even get to see the flop. With good hands I want to call a late position raise unless it costs me half my stack or more and then I might fold. I always call with 'Great hands' but will often re-raise all-in.

Late position - this is the last 3 seats (seats 7,8 and 9). The button (seat 9) is the ultimate late position and the best seat on a poker table. Except for the first round of betting the late position player is one of the last to bet and can get a feel for how all the other players view their hands. For example if I am in late position and a few players before me just CALL the big blind they are probably not that strong. If one player before me had raised 3-5x the big blind he probably has a Good or Great hand depending on HIS position. With a few callers before me and the blinds to bet after me in the first round of betting I can often steal the pot just by putting in a 3x big blind bet regardless of the cards I hold. However I like to have at least an OK hand before I try to steal the pot UNLESS I have a large chip stack and can afford the blinds calling me and getting lucky. Often even with useless cards I can limp in with a call when in late position just because it is a powerful place to play the game after the flop. For example if the flop is A-x-x where x is any card and no-one bets much before the action comes to me I can fire a half-pot or pot-sized bet and often win the pot right there even if my cards are rubbish. This is because everyone else at the table will assume I have the Ace and will fold. This is true for any flop that shows a high card, a potential straight or a potential flush combination. Other weak players are always scared I have made the hand and will fold. I am always careful of a call or especially a re-raise from an early or middle position player who might have slow-played their monster hand. Sometimes I try to steal the pot from late position after I see the flop and get called by one of the earlier players. It is interesting how most players seem play the 4th and 5th cards. If I bet big on the flop it is often true that the calling player will then check on the 4th card and allow me a free bet. Or the calling player might make a very small bet allowing me a cheap call. Often they are very worried about the strength of my hand because of my bet on the flop. In this situation, I can take another stab at stealing the pot here by firing off a strong bet OR I can check it down and wait until 5th street until I fire my strong bet. If the 4th street and 5th street cards LOOK like they might have made me a stronger hand I can often make a strong bet on 5th street and avoid the showdown, especially if my opponents check to me at this point. This is the great advantage of late position - I always get to see what the other players do before I do anything. The only thing I think about before I make my move is 'be careful - is the other player trying to trap me'.

One final word on blinds - many players in seats 1 and 2 like to protect their small and big blind. It is ok to try this once in a while but for the most part I just give it up if I have bad cards. When I am a small or big blind I know it is a terrible position to play from post flop because I am the first to act and everyone can make a play on me. The only really effective bet from this position is the massive raise but I often get caught out when I do this unless my cards are one of the 'Great hands'. So I tend to fold a lot of my blinds. The only time when blinds are really important are in the later stages of a tournament where they are very large in relation to your chip stack - at that point I try to protect them but in normal play I just give them up.