The Importance of Position in Texas Hold ‘Em (Pre-flop Play)

Poker - Texas Hold 'em - Photo: Wikimedia

Grabbing information is one of the most important skills that you need in poker. From your opponent’s betting patterns and the "tells" that they make simply define your hand and are simply integral on your next decision. But you can’t do that without proper positioning, which is on the button or somewhere near it.

But that doesn’t mean that you should fold every hand if you’re not in the proper position, each has its pros and cons, and it should also determine how you should play your hand.

In this article, I’ll tell you how to utilize perfectly your position in pre-flop play.

Early Position

This position is from under the gun to the third turn in a ring table, which has around eight people seated. In this seat, you have to be choosy in raising your hand or simply limping into the pot because there are about five to seven people yet to act, thus there are more chances for them to raise the bets and given that you don’t have a hand that’s good enough, you just lost money the size of the blind.

So it’s important that you only raise premium hands in this position like AK, AQ and AJ suited. When someone re-raises after you, you have a good idea that he/she has jacks or queens. So not only is raising pre-flop a good way to drive out people who have small cards that may get lucky after the flop, it also gives you information on who probably has a hand better than yours.

Middle Position

In this position, you have to be looser, but not to the extent that you’re virtually throwing your chips away. A9, K10, and QJ may be raised here, given that no one has raised and indicated that he/she has an excellent hand.

Again, the reason why that you should raise pre-flop is to mine important information about your opponents, if they have good to great cards.

Late Position

In late position, you can practically raise any hand you want, depending on the circumstances. If everyone just limps into the pot, and a raise is nowhere in sight, then you stick your foot right in and raise around four to five times the big blind, even withcards like 24. It may win you the pot right there.

But be wary when everyone calls when you do raise,because they may sense that you’re trying to steal the pot. Don’t cringe if your technique fails and if the flop shows high cards like A-J-4, raise outright and try to steal the pot again. They may rethink that you tried to steal the pot before the flop and give you credit for hitting aces or jacks.

As you may observe, one may get looser in choosing his/her cards when nearing late position and also presents you the opportunity to steal the pot. The late position also entails you to play more aggressively and show some muscle, enabling you to hammer on pots, do isolation plays and basically eat up the blinds. So to speak, the position should guide you on how to play your hands because it opens the option of instilling fear into your opponent, bluffing your way into the pot or does the complete opposite of the previous two.

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