Understanding Positioning in Texas Holdem

Posted by Dave on March 22nd, 2010 filed in Poker Strategy

In a game of Texas Hold’em, the position at the table that you are at during a particular hand should dictate the way that you play. This is the third most important determining factor on whether or not you should get into a hand before the flop; the first two being your cards and your chip stack.

You may ask what’s the big deal about your position in a hand? But the position of a player alters the way in which he makes his decisions. A player can put significant pressure on the other players if he positioned strongly on the table, but this can only be done if he understands the significance of his position. There are 4 types of positions in a game of poker; lets have a look at them:

1. Blinds: The blinds are the first two players sitting on the immediate left of the dealer. The first player is called the small blind and the second is called the big blind. ‘Blind’ is the amount of money they contribute at the start of the game, to make up the pot. As all the rounds of in the game, proceed in clockwise direction, the blinds are the first to make their decisions on the table. All the other players either follow their decisions or go against them. So, it’s the blinds, who direct the game.
2. Early position: the two positions after the blinds are called the early positions. This is probably the hardest position to play in, as this is the middle of the table. In this position, you have neither the advantage of making the first moves nor the advantage of waiting for the other players to make their decisions first. You can be successful on this position only if you have a good hand. If you know you have a good pair or two and can make a great hand, you should play confidently and make your raises. In this position, it is essential to be confident of your game play, as the other players, who are sitting after sitting after you, will be looking to take advantage. And if they turn out to have better hands, you will end up bearing the loss.
3. Middle Position: The two positions after the early positions are called the middle positions. These players do have the advantage of knowing the decisions of a couple of players before they make their decisions, but also have the disadvantage of making their decisions before the players in late positions. The cards that the players in these positions can afford to chase can be a bit weaker than those in the early positions.
4. Late Positions: These are the last two players to make their moves. They sit to the immediate right of the dealer. They have the advantage to see the decisions made by all the other players before they make their moves. Of these two positions, the player sitting to the right of the dealer is called the button. This player can take the maximum risks. He can even chase the weak cards, as he is able to get an idea of the hands and strengths of all the other players on the table.

Of all the positions, the blinds may be the hardest for the new players, as they are the ones who start all the rounds and thus set the standards of the game. In case you don’t have a big chip stack under your chin, prefer not to sit in the blinds or the early the positions.

Things to remember about Positioning

Don’t always protect your blinds, but don’t always fold your blinds when some raises either. If people know your a calling station, they will get more money out of you when they have good cards. If people think you play your cards too weak, they will raise to try and get you out of the hand.

The Small Blind is also always in a good position. After the flop, the small blind is always first to act. This can work for or against you though. If you suspect nobody has anything, then a bet will probably chase away those who would try to catch a card. You may also be betting right into the teeth of a monster though. At least this will give you a chance to know someone is sitting on something better and get to fold for cheap.

In the early position, the weakest hands that you should think about playing are a pair of 7′s, Ace-10, or any two suited cards higher than 10. End of story. Don’t play with a pair of 6′s or lower because your chance of getting the third card for a three of a kind is only about 1 in 8. This will be a waste of money folding the times you don’t get it in the long run.

In the middle position, you can sometimes makes some inferences about the hands before you. This definitely depends on who is sitting next to you. Some players will go in with any face card just about. Other early position players play so tight that they are likely to even throw away an Ace or Queen/Jack. This can be helpful to determine what could be left and usually a small raise will chase the late position players with questionable hands out.

In the late position, you are really helped during the pre-flop round of betting. If nobody else is in the hand, you can pick and choose times to try to snipe the blinds. This is the least risky move that can increase your chip stack. The reason for this is that you don’t have many players left to decide and the big blind will likely call unless they don’t have anything at all. If one of the blinds re-raises you, then you know that someone left is still strong and can make decisions accordingly.

The idea in Texas Holdem overall is to play as few people as possible. Finding the right time to take the blinds will really help you out in the long run. Here is a really good article that I have found about classifying other poker players. This should be used in correlation with your position during a hand in order to maximize your chances of building your chips.