Playing Position

You have probably heard all of the top poker pros talk about how important position is in poker. Playing position correctly is important for every player. You have to play different in early position than you do when you are in late position. You want to always be in position against your opponents so that you have more information before you have to act. Position is really important and knowing how to play your position will help to make decisions much easier and make the value of hands much higher.

Here is our list of the top five tips for playing position in poker. Take the time to learn these poker tips and start taking advantage of your position.

Top Five Tips for Playing Position

1. Early Position – You need to play tight in early position and here is why. When you are in early position there are many players behind you left to act. When you raise in early position with a marginal hand you run the risk of getting raised and being forced to fold your hand. When you raise with tight hands in early position you are betting with hands that can withstand a raise. Another thing to remember when raising in early position is that you will be playing the rest of the hand out of position against your opponent. This means that they get to see what you do before they have to decide what to do and you do not get to see what they do before you are forced to make your play. Being in early position is hard. That is why you should only raise with tight hands in early position. Dan Harrington plays extremely tight in early position and almost never runs into trouble that way.
2. Late Position – You need to play more hands than normal when you are in late position. This is because you need to make up for how few of hands you are playing in early position. Daniel Negreanu is a complete LAG in late position. There are only a few players behind you that can raise when you are in late position, and you will be in position for every other street against these opponents when they do contest you for the pot. Loosening up in late position will also help to raise your steal percentage. Stealing blinds is very important in poker. Make sure that you are attempting to steal your opponent’s blinds liberally when you are in late position.
3. Information – When you play a hand in position against your opponent you have an advantage against them. You get to see what they do before you have to make your decision. Since you have more information before you are forced to make your decision you can better determine the best play. If your opponent bets a small amount you can better see that they don’t have a good hand. If they had a good hand they would have made a bigger bet, so you know that the most value here will come from just calling them hoping that they take another stab on the turn. If they check then you can bet to make them fold because you know that they don’t like their hand enough to bet.
4. Control Pot Size – When you are in position against your opponent you can control the pot size much better. If your opponent checks to you looking to raise when you bet you can simply check and not build the pot when you don’t have a good hand. When your opponent checks to you and you want to get value you always have the option to bet even if they check. When you are out of position you have to lead out to guarantee building the pot, so you have fewer options for plays that you can make.
5. Tells – When you are in position against your opponents you also have extra room to put your online poker tells to the test. If you have a read on your opponent you need to see what they are doing so that you know when they are doing something you can exploit. By acting after they do you will get to make your play based on what they do. If they do something habitual that you have already picked up on then you will easily be able to take advantage of them due to this.