Position – II

Position vis-a-vis Betting

The first position in a game of Texas hold’em is bang on the left of the big blind. The player who occupies this place is in the spot-light, not to mention the fact that it’s the most undesirable of positions to occupy in any game of poker.

The best position for a player is ‘on the button’ which has the dealer button right in front of you and the blinds, big as well as small, to your left. You will be the last in the sequence of players and this can leverage your position as such by judging the acts of the rest of the players on the table and calling your shots accordingly.

Although Poker is a game where information is of utmost importance, it is hard to come by. If you happen to be seated on the button then you are going to have a lot of information before you play an off-suit like say a K-J. If everyone just folded or called the big blind before you, you would probably call the blind.

But, thinking about the probable other hands at the table, that’s not too likely, is it? Someone with an A-10 might raise. If someone has pocket Q’s then they most certainly will.

By the time the action gets to you you will have figured out that there is a lot of strength around the table and you would be wise to fold your off suit of K-J and wait for better cards on the next deal. Now imagine that someone else on the table also has the same off suit as you.

This person would be in the worst fix if he/she is under the gun – seated as he/she is on the left of the big blind. If this person only knew that a few big raises are on their way, it’s highly unlikely that they would cash in on the chance with this fringe hand. But unfortunately they wouldn’t be aware of their predicament before it is too late as they do not have the information that a person seated on the button might have.

This other person with the same off suit as yours might be heavily tempted to call their hand, and in the unfortunate circumstances they do, it will be a total waste of their chips as they’ll have no option but to fold prior to a flop if the other players on the table raise their stakes.

Because of the entire scenario explained the previous para, hands in the beginning or early positions have lower values. Calling a fringe or marginal hands like in the example explained above ( the K-J) if you are not seated in a good position is taking a gamble twice as you can never figure out how much it might end up costing you for the flop when it is your turn to play.