How To Use Position In No Limit Texas Holdem To Dominate Your Opponents

It’s hard to stress just how important position is in poker. Position in poker is a lot like position when rebounding in basketball.  You may be shorter than your opponent (have a worse hand), but if you have position on him you will grab the rebound (win the pot) most of the time.

Position in poker is the most important part of the game.  That’s right, even more important than your cards.

If you don’t consider your position before making every decision at the table, you are costing yourself money especially when playing Hold’em cash games online. Did you know that almost all the money you make in poker will be made from late position? It’s true.

Being in late position means you get to act last the entire hand. This in turn means you get to see what actions your opponents take before you have to choose yours. It’s a major informational advantage to act last.

This article is going to be divided up into three parts for easier reading:

• Weak Hands in Position
• Strong Hands in Position
• Drawing Hands in Position

Weak Hands in Position

If you have a weak hand, it’s a lot easier to play it from late position than from early position. If your opponent checks to you, you have the option of betting it yourself or just checking behind. If your opponent bets, then you can easily fold the hand.

When out of position, your opponent will be more likely to check to you because poker players have to be more honest when out of position. He doesn’t know what you’re going to do, so he can’t even begin to judge the strength of your hand.

Now had you been the one acting from out of position, this hand would have been a lot harder to play. If you would have checked, your opponent could bet and you’d have no idea of whether he had a real hand or was just betting because you showed weakness with your check.

Sure, you could have just bet out instead of checking, but then you’d still be at a disadvantage. In this case, you’d be blindly betting into an unknown hand. You haven’t seen him take any actions yet so it would be hard to judge the strength of his hand.

Strong Hands in Position

Strong hands also benefit from the power of position. It is a lot easier to extract money with a strong hand in late position than it is from out of position. First of all, your opponent will have a hard time trying to guess if you have a real hand or are just betting light because you’re in late position.

Second, you can judge the strength of your opponent’s hand and act accordingly. By acting second, you get to see his move before you have to make yours. If he checks, you can either bet or check it behind as a slowplay. If he bets, you can either flat call his bet or raise it up.

When playing strong hands from early position, there’s always the risk that you miss your checkraises. Again, you haven’t seen your opponent act yet, so you don’t know if he will give you a chance to checkraise him or if he’ll just check it behind and get a free card out of you.

Even if you do pull off a successful checkraise, you haven’t won yet. The checkraise is a powerful move and it sends out the message that you mean business. Checkraises are scary because your opponents know that you probably aren’t trying to increase the size of the pot from out of position with weak hands.

Drawing Hands in Position

Guess what happens to drawing hands when you are in late position? That’s right; they too get easier to play. Draws are a lot of fun in late position because you have so many options and advantages.

If you have a draw and your opponent checks to you, there are a couple of ways you can attack the hand. You can make a semi-bluff and try to take the pot down with a bet. If your opponent calls, that’s OK because you can either bet again on the turn or take a free card. If you don’t want to bet you can check behind and get a free shot at hitting your draw.

If your opponent bets, you can call the bet, fold to it or raise it with your draw. If you raise him and he calls, that’s OK because he’ll probably just check to you on the turn. If he does that, you again have options and can either bet again or just take the free card.

Closing Thoughts

Position gives you an advantage of information. This advantage makes it possible for you to put tremendous pressure on your opponents. Good poker players make it very difficult for their opponents to win pots from out of position without having strong hands.

So remember, position is everything. Every hand you play and every move you make should be decided only after taking position into consideration. Poker is an easy game to win from late position, so do yourself a favor and make most of the poker you play take place from late position.