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Poker Kama Sutra (Position is Power)
This article was co-authored by Alex Scott and Tony Lane. Alex Scott is a semi-professional player, analyst and tutor based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Tony Lane is an aspiring professional and full time poker student based in the USA.
‘I always lose with Ace-Jack,’ muttered a disgruntled man after going all in on the river, only to see his ace-jack bucked off the throne by the superior ace-king. ‘It seems every time I raise and someone either calls or raises me I am out-kicked. I never win with Ace-Jack.’
If we had a dollar for every time we've read that, or heard someone say something like this, we’d be in Bellagio every Friday night, sitting next to Doyle in Bobby's Room playing the Big Game. Well, probably not, but you get the idea. Why did the player in question go broke with Ace-Jack?. No, it's not because he is the unluckiest guy in the Universe. It is some other factor. Poor players are guilty of this more often than good players, but regardless of experience and skill, many players continue to ignore the importance of position.
In the poker world, there are many opinions on what the most important factor in poker is. Some say it's the cards, some say it's reading your opponent. We don't believe there is one distinct factor in poker that's most important - however, playing your hand, and playing your opponent from an advantageous position is very important. There are plenty of reasons why this is so, and we’ll discuss them in this article. As a player, you'll be faced with many crucial decisions in poker, and when it's all said and done, one factor that can help you make the best decision is where you are in relation to the betting. Are you in early position, middle position, or late position? Being in late position will often give you leverage over every other player at the table.
‘I’m All-In!’
By now, you have heard these words a million times, and almost every time someone has been in a big confrontation. Usually it's when one player has a dominating hand, and the victim has nothing worth playing. However, you may have done this while holding absolute garbage. Bluffing is tactical warfare for the poker player. Possessing the ability to successfully bluff your opponent is to poker as possessing an arsenal of nuclear weapons is to tactical warfare. If you can bluff your opponent, you hold a huge advantage over him. In a game like Hold’em, it is very difficult to make a big hand. Its easy to win when you hold the nuts, but being able to turn marginal hands into winners and extract every dollar of value from your hand is what separates the amateurs from the pros.
When determining whether or not to fire the third bullet, you should always be aware of your position at the table. It’s often easier to bluff when you act last - you've seen your opponent react on every street, and have gathered crucial information that you can use to set up your bluff. However, if you're first to act you must be much more confident in your read on your opponent, or your plan may go up in flames. Pulling off a successful bluff takes a lot of skill and practice, but is decidedly easier when you have the added information that late position provides.
Position is also important when trying to extract maximum value on a hand. Let's say you're playing $5/$10 No Limit Hold’em and you're on the button with 66, and player in early position makes it $30 to go. You know this player to be very loose, and very aggressive. Two other players call, making the pot $105, and it is on you. You’re getting 3.5 to 1 on your money with a hand that can potentially win an enormous pot, so you make the right decision and call. The flop comes A-6-3. You flop middle set, in last position, in a pot with 3 other players, one of whom is very aggressive. Does life get any sweeter? After getting on your knees and thanking your favourite deity for their kindness, you watch your aggressive opponent make a half-pot-sized continuation bet of $50. The other two players fold and now it's on you. Well, you have some decisions to make! First, you just flopped the second best possible hand, and unless your opponent has aces, you are a huge favourite. Your next consideration should be how much can you extract from your victim. This is much harder to do if you are first to act. If you bet, you could run your loose opponent off his hand and lose crucial bets. However, since you are last to act you can proceed in a couple of different fashions. You can smooth-call, hoping that the cheap card won’t hurt you and you’ll gain another few bucks by betting or raising on the turn. Or, you can raise here, hoping he has a genuine hand and either comes over the top giving you a great opportunity to double up, or just calls, in which case you can see what the turn card brings. Regardless of how you play from then on, you’ll make more money on average from late position than you would from early position.
Another important effect of position is on starting hand requirements. What hands should you play from each position? Without going into too much detail, we'll generalise and say that in early position you usually need a stronger hand than you would in late position. That is, you can play a broader range of hands because you are in late position, and will be last to act on every betting round. Certain hand types, like middle connectors and mediocre face cards (think Ace-Jack, King-Queen, and so on) become more playable in late position, as you can more effectively determine what your opponents are holding based on the prior action. If no one has raised the pot, you can be fairly certain that no one in front of you is holding Ace-King. Then we won't have to hear another sob story about how much money you lost with Ace-Jack!
The earlier your position, the more risk you are taking when playing a hand. Certain types of hands become more or less playable depending on how many people are in the pot – hands that require good implied odds (like small pairs and suited connectors in Hold’em) prefer more players, and hands that can win a heads-up pot without improving (like Ace-King in Hold’em) prefer fewer players. When you enter the pot from an early position you have almost no information on the kind of opposition you’ll be up against, whereas when you enter the pot from late position you have a better opportunity to manipulate the pot to suit you.
So far we’ve talked a lot about the benefits of being in late position. Naturally, you might assume that being first to act is the worst position to be in, and that’s usually true, especially in heads-up confrontations and on the first betting round. However, in multiway pots, the worst position to be in is the middle.
Lets say you’re playing three handed Razz and you started off nicely with an (A-7)-2. You complete, a player with a 6 showing raises, the bring in calls with his 8, and you decide to just call. On fourth street, you catch a king for (A-7)-2-K, the 6 catches an 8, and the 8 catches a 2. The 8-2 bets and it’s up to you. Normally, in a pot this size you’d consider seeing one more card, but you know that if you call, the next opponent will (and should) raise. You have to fold the hand because it will be too expensive to continue.
The same effect occurs in Hold’em when you flop a medium-strength hand like second pair, you are in the middle, and the first player (the preflop raiser) bets. You might believe that you have the first player beat, and deep down you want to raise him. However, you often have to fold knowing that the next player is still to act and could be dangerous.
There are also some benefits to acting first. In pots where everybody misses their draw, the first person to bluff at the pot usually wins it. This is the ‘right of first bluff’, and can be a powerful weapon when applied in the right situation. In first position, you have the best opportunity to check-raise, which is a key tool in most forms of limit poker and can be a great way to bluff or to extract the most money from a second-best hand. Lastly, a bet from an early position conveys a great deal of strength. If you’re playing No-Limit Hold’em against reasonable players and raise from first position with A-Q, and the next player reraises, you can be almost certain that you’re beat and aren’t being bluffed.
However, if you asked any world-class player whether they would rather act first or last most of the time, you can bet your whole bankroll most would pick last.
If you’ve understood what we’ve talked about in this article, you should be able to see why position is so important to a poker player. Being in position makes it easier to steal pots, it helps you to read your opponents, and can turn marginally profitable situations into big wins. When playing poker, pay attention to your position, and use it to your advantage. After all, it may be your biggest weapon.
