Importance of Position

[kompressaur]

I was watching the Poker Conferance of 2004 last night seeing as i had no internet. Barry Teanabaum(??) is a great speaker and he was talking about 'gateway skills' you need to become a good poker player. He reminded me of the power of position. As he said 'no matter how much importance you put on position you are not putting enough on it'. It is a key skill to playing 'proper' poker and if you don't use position then your just throwing your money away.

as you may or may not know position is when your on the button and your last to act on all the betting rounds after the flop. you will have position on anyone to your right at the table except when you are in the small or big blind. He gives a good example of what position means. Say you go to a turkish rug trader to buy a rug. you ask him how much it is. He wont tell you but instead he will ask you 'how much are you prepared to pay?'. He now has 'position' over you. He is acting last. He knows whatever price you say you will not pay lower than that.

I aint the best poker strategist in the world but what position means to me is...errr well basically i dont like to play any hand out of position. If your under the gun (utg) in seat one before the flop you will need a very strong hand to play from there. Reasons being not only is there say another 9 people to play before the flop but after the flop your gonna have maybe 7 people playing after you . You only have position on the blinds. Your gonna have to hit the flop pretty damn hard to want to bet into 6 other people say. k so youve got AK utg. you raise 4x the big blind say and you get 4 callers. the flop comes 982. what you gonna do now? Youve got 4 people all with hands they thought where good enough to play before the flop. do you feel confident with your AK?

another good thing about position is calling raises with it. say someone in early position raises and your sitting with 98 suited. If the raise is less than 10% of your stack and the raisers stack then why not call and see if you can steal the pot away from the raiser on the flop or maybe even the turn. Infact you can call with ANY two cards if you know your opponent only raises with big cards or maybe only bets when he hits and checks when he doesnt. you have POSITION on him. so he raised with AK and you called his raise with 65 suited. the flop comes Q88. the standard way of playing for the raiser is to make a CONTINUATION BET.

If you arent using continuation bets then you should be as your game is weak without them. generally the preflop raiser would lead out at any flop if it hits him or not. there are exceptions to the 'rule' as there always is but we can look at continuation bets elsewhere. he bets and you.....call. k so youve got him worried now. why are you still in the pot he's wondering? AK aint a good example as low stakes players overplay AK even after the flop. they go all in with it etc. anyhow wait and see what the turn brings and how strong he bets it. If he makes a weak looking bet or worse checks to you then fire a bet maybe about half the size of the pot and see what he does. If he comes back over the top then you know he's probably got you beat. again the low level dafties might still call with AK and your gonna have to bluff the river or else give up. I just want to talk about the benefits of position. Position could well be the most important thing to consider in playong poker.

If everyone limps to you and your in the small and big blind with 99 or AJ say then you want to put in a big reraise to try and win the pot there and then as your gonna have to act first in all the betting rounds and these hands do not play well when you are out of position.No hands play well out of position. Battle of the blinds? your in the small blind and raise the big blind. He calls as he has position on you. your gonna have to go fist and he can wait to see what your up to. Basically if your in early position or the blinds then you better have a super dooper hand as playing out of position is not fun.

any questions just ask and i will try to help your game. I dont know everything but i do have an understandment of the basic key skills required to be a winning player.

sometimes if the table is tight or full of weak players i will raise with any two cards on the button as i will have position on everyone at the table. especially good when the blinds and antes are worth stealing. It can get you into bother but also it can help you accumulate chips when you are not getting playable hands. just use your position.