Texas Hold'em - Winning with Position

One of the least utilized (for beginning players) and yet most important factors to think about when playing Texas Hold'em is table position. Your table position in hold'em is your location at the table in relation to the button. Your position rotates every hand with the button, so it's important to know how to play them all. Your table position will be a huge factor on how you play your hands, and whether or not to play a hand at all.

In Texas Hold'em, there are essentially four positions. They are the blinds (BB and SB), early position (EP), middle position (MP), and late position (LP). I gave the blinds their own category because the strategy for playing them is a little different. Understand that the tips below are general, in that they do not account for other game play circumstances. In general, though, following them will help your Hold'em game quite a bit. Let's look at how your table position affect you game:

In Hold'em, early position describes the two seats just left of the big blind.Do not play garbage hands here. If you have a premium hand, you can play it, but no junk. Nobody else at the table has to do anything until they see you act, and that puts you at a huge disadvantage. Also, the fact that there are so many players after you makes it fairly likely that someone else has a big hand that you do not want to be playing against. If you have a big, made hand, like AA, KK, or QQ, go ahead and raise the action. With premium drawing hand, like AK or AQ, it may be a better idea to limp in, see if someone else raises, and then re-raise them and try to take the pot down there. When you see a flop from EP, you should bet the flop about 75% of the time, whether you hit or not.

Next is middle position. These are the two positions just to the left of the two early position seats. You have a little more room to play here, but not much. Play it pretty much like early position, with the exception of maybe adding JJ or suited AJ to your starting hand arsenal. Be wary of early position limpers (unless you have already seen them limp in EP with junk) and you should fold to just about any raises from EP.

Late position in Hold'em is the button and player to his immediate right. Being in late position has a huge advantage over everyone else, in that they are allowed to see what everyone else does before they have to do anything. This basically gives them a license to steal. The button and the cut-off get to see the action and decide whether or not they want any part of it. They have the freedom to raise the blinds at will and see flops with all kinds of speculative hands, because they have the advantage of great position. Go ahead and raise the blinds with 88 or suited 89. Then just outplay any callers after the flop. Yes, you will be up against winning hands sometimes that people won't want to lay down, but you position gives you a better chance of spotting when that is and getting out of the hand before it gets ugly.

The blinds can be really really tough to play correctly, and a lot of novice players don't. As a rule of thumb, I would say to take down the pot pre-flop or drop your hand like a rock. It's true that you have odds to call many raises from the big blind, but the disadvantage of your position post flop is not usually worth the effort (or the chips). Unless you have a monster, I say let it go.

There are some very basic strategies for playing Texas Hold'em according to your position. Hold'em is a game of patience and discipline. Be patient, pay attention to your table position and it will definitely help you to become a winning Hold'em player.

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