lesson one - position

Of all of the basic concepts of poker which contribute to winning play, position is often said to be one of the most important. However, there are many low-stakes players who either do not make adjustments to their play based on position, and indeed have a flawed understanding of both the concept of position and its value.

In poker, a player is said to be "in position" on their opponent when they act after their opponent throughout the hand. This happens anytime the opponent is closest to the left of the player with the dealer button in front of him/her. If the opponent is the one acting last, the player is said to be "out of position" against him/her during the hand. Interestingly, in hold'em, the blinds are actually in position against the other players before the flop, and out of position for all remaining rounds of betting.

So, why is it so advantageous to act last? Actually, there are several reasons:

1. You have more information when it is your turn to act. This is perhaps the most obviouos reason. Poker is a game of incomplete information, and you are constantly attempting to determine what your opponents' hole cards are. By seeing what your opponents do on each street before you decide whether to bet/check/call, etc. it is easier to determine what you're up against. This leads to point number two.

2. You can take pots to which you aren't entitled. In other words, you can more efficiently attack weakness. If, when observing your out-of-position opponent acting before you, you sense that they are weak (often because they have checked multiple streets, etc.), you can often make shrewd bluffs that will take these pots down. Out of position, however, you can't really know for sure whether a given card helped your opponent, since they haven't done anything since it came out. You'd have to fire bets into the pot "blind" in a sense.

3. There are more plays available to you. This one applies to all kinds of hands, but especially drawing hands. Put plainly, it is easier to play draws in position. By definition, a drawing hand is probably not the best hand until it's made. By acting last, you can know for sure whether your bet will end the action on that round, and you control whether free cards come off the deck. This is critical. Not only can the "raising for a free card" play not be done from out of position, but when your opponent(s) check to you, you can decide whether to keep the pot small and see a free one, or bet as a semi-bluff with a more powerful draw.

There are whole sections of poker books devoted to preflop hand selection, and virtually every single one advises playing different arrays of hands when in different positions. Generally speaking, they advise playing only the absolute best hands when out of position, and loosening up your hand requirements the closer to the button you get. When you are first to act before the flop, you are said to be "under the gun." When you're in this spot, you have the entire table yet to act behind you, and have no idea how they'll be playing the hand. Thus, you should stick to hands which are likely to be good regardless of the action around the table, like AA, KK, AK suited, etc.

The more players yet to act, the better the odds of a hand that beats you being out there. That's just simple math. If you have a hand, and you have one opponent, the odds your hand is the best hand (if no one has looked at the cards) are 50-50. If you have three opponents, you're a 3:1 dog to have the best hand. Therefore, if it's folded to you preflop on the button, you have only two hands to get through. You don't need AA or KK to feel like you probably have the best hand, so you can raise with a lot more holdings. Plus, even if you don't have the best hand currently, you'll be in position against any callers for the rest of the hand, and can fold if you think you're beaten on later rounds.

As an added last note, it's extremely valuable to have opponents who don't understand position and don't utilize it properly. One of the traps that weak players get in that cost them a huge amount of long-term value is playing weak hands out of position - especially easily dominated hands like AT and KJ. You want your opponents playing these hands out of position against raises, because they'll more than likely be handing you lots of chips over time.