learn · position
Position.
Position is the order in which decisions are made, and it is the first part of poker that needs no cards at all. Whoever acts after everyone else knows what the rest has done before he chooses. That advantage is larger than the gap between two starting hands that look alike.
what it earns you
You know what he did
If he checks, he has nothing more often. If he bets, you know what it costs before you have to decide anything. He has to do all of that without knowing what you will do.
You set the size of the pot
With a marginal hand you check behind and the pot stays small. With a strong hand you bet and it grows. From the other seat you have to make that choice before you know what he intends.
You see weakness earlier
Someone who checks twice usually has nothing. In position you can do something with that, because you have the last word. From the other seat you only find out when it is too late.
Take . From the first seat you fold it without thinking: four players still decide after you and your hand loses to nearly everything that continues. From the button, once everyone has folded, exactly the same hand is a raise. Two players are left behind you, both have already posted, and they fold immediately on a regular basis. That is what stealing the blinds means, and the glossary entry for position holds the short version of why it works.
If you have to decide first in every round, you are playing out of position: every choice you make hands your opponent information he can still use, and you get nothing back. That is the reason you play fewer hands from that seat and keep the pots smaller. It is also why raising to push the callers out, what the glossary calls isolating, is worth more from a late seat than from an early one.
the seats at a six handed table
First to act
Directly left of the blinds. You start every round.
Four players decide after you, and any of them can raise without you knowing it is coming. That is why you play the smallest number of hands at the table from here.
Middle position
Between the first seat and the cutoff.
One fewer player behind you, so slightly more room. The gap with the first seat is small; the real difference only begins after this.
Cutoff
Directly right of the button.
After the flop you have position on everyone except the button, and the button folds often. In practice you play here as though you have the best seat.
The button
The player with the disc. Always last to act after the flop.
The best seat there is. You decide after everyone in every round, and only two players sit behind you, both of whom have already been forced to put money in.
The blinds
The two players who post a forced bet.
Preflop you decide last, but after that you act first in every round. The second of those weighs more, which is why these are the two seats where most players lose money.
The disc moves one seat every hand, so over a full round everyone occupies every chair exactly once. What shifts is not your luck but how many hands you are allowed to play: from about fifteen percent early to about forty five percent on the button. What that list looks like per seat is set out in the lesson on playing preflop, with what you open and why for each chair.
using position, not just having it
Most players who understand position use it for one thing only: opening wider. That is half of it. The other half sits after the flop, and there it is worth more. With a marginal hand you check behind and keep the pot small. With a strong hand you bet exactly as much as he is still willing to pay. And if he checks twice, you can do something with it, because you have the last word.
You feel that immediately on the following streets: when you bet the flop and how you keep the pot small on the turn are both easier from the last chair. If you want to see how many hands such a range per seat actually contains, the free range visualizer turns it into a grid with the combination count alongside.
next step
The practice: one real decision a day.
You only feel position once you have played the same hand from two different chairs. The hand of the day archive holds one hand for every past day where something is genuinely at stake, with the seat stated and with what each option costs in big blinds.
questions about position
What does position mean in poker?
The order in which decisions are made. Whoever acts later has seen more before he has to choose. After the flop the button always decides last, and that is an advantage for the whole hand.
Why is the button the best seat at the table?
Because after the flop you decide last in every betting round. You know what everyone has done, you can make the pot small or large as it suits you, and you can react to weakness instead of hoping for it.
Which seat loses the most?
The blinds, and of the two the small blind more than the big blind. You post money by force, and after the flop you act first for the rest of the hand. For nearly every player these are the only two seats that lose money structurally.
How many more hands do you play from the button?
Roughly three times as many as from the first seat. Where you open about fifteen percent of your hands early, on the button it is approximately forty five percent. The cards have not improved; there are simply fewer people left who can raise you.
What does playing out of position mean?
That after the flop you have to decide before your opponent every time. Every choice you make hands him information he can still use, and you get nothing back. That is why you play fewer hands from that seat and keep the pots smaller.
What is stealing the blinds?
Raising from a late seat after everyone has folded, with a hand you would not play from an early seat. You win the forced bets outright on a regular basis, and if someone does call, you play the rest of the hand with position.
Back to the overview of learning poker, or read how position works once the stacks shrink in the lesson on tournaments.