POSITIONAL ADVANTAGE IN TEXAS HOLDEM

Position is power in Texas Holdem. Where you’re seated in relation to the dealer button is crucial to which starting hands you’ll play and which ones you’ll fold, in addition to how you’ll play them. The person who has the dealer button (called ‘on the button’) is in the best position because they act last. Whoever gets to act last is at an advantage because they see how everyone else has acted before it’s their turn, so they have more information to work with than their opponents and can make the most-informed decision.

There are three positions in Texas Holdem (except in heads-up games where there are only two players): early, middle and late (see diagram below). The first few players immediately to the left of the dealer are in early position (players 1 and 2 in the diagram) and are said to be “under the gun.” This is the worst position to be in because you have to act first without any idea of what the strength of your opponents’ hands is, plus you have to pay the blinds without having seen your hand yet – this is frustrating because you have to give up chips even for hands you would otherwise fold. The next few players to the left are in middle position (players 3 and 4), and the last few players, including the dealer, are in late position (players 5, 6 and 7). In a nine-player game, players 1 through 3 are in early position (the two blinds and one more player to their left), players 4 through 6 are in middle position and players 7 through 9 are in late position.

Early position players are vulnerable to raises and re-raises by middle and late position players, so you should play more conservatively. Players in late position, however, are the exact opposite: you have more leverage and flexibility, so you can play aggressively. By being the last to act, or near-to-last, you’ve already seen how the other players acted, which, as mentioned above, will give you clues to the strength of their hands, so you can make the most-informed decision whether or not your hand is the nuts (the strongest hand).

With the right hand, you can also raise and/or bluff players into folding from this position easier than the other positions. If you’re able to get everyone to fold pre-flop (usually with a raise), you can “steal the antes” – that is, you can steal the blinds that were bet and any other chips that were put in the pot to call the bet. You’re also able to play looser (playing marginal hands) because your call will end the betting round and you don’t have to worry about people after you raising (since nobody acts after you). For example, if you were player 3 in the diagram, you wouldn’t want to waste chips on a weaker hand in case people after you raised. Good poker players incorporate this into their starting hand strategy – they tend to play their best hands (premium hands) in all positions, but they wouldn’t play weaker starting hands in early position. On average, expect to play less hands in early position, and more hands in late position.

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