For example, imagine we are playing.25/.50 no limit Texas Hold em online. We are second to act preflop and are dealt 8-7 of hearts. While I love this hand from later position, when employing a tight aggressive strategy, we should generally fold the hand, as there are too many players left to act behind us. Because position is so important, you must adjust which poker hands you want to play (and/or open-raise with) from the various poker positions to achieve a winning strategy. The further you are away from the button (to the right of it), the tighter your starting hand range should be to compensate for your (likely) lack of position on the.

Your distance from the dealer button

(Less is more)

Texas Holdem Strategy Pdf

In Texas Holdem, Position refers to your distance from the dealer button. The closer you are to the button the better your position is. If you are 'on the button' then you are last to act each betting round except the first (the blinds act last before the flop). It makes sense that acting last in poker is better than acting first because you get to see what all the other players do before you have to do something.

In our holdem starting hand suggestions you'll notice that you can play worse hands when you have better position, but be careful, The worse your hand is before the flop, the harder you have to hit the flop to continue.

The power of position is information. By acting last you see what your opponents do before you act. You need to make the best use of that information. For example say the following situation occurs while you are on the button:

The board is checked to the person before you who bets. From past experience you know this person is capable of betting a draw even if the draw isn't to the nuts. You raise and force everyone behind you to call two bets if they want to play (and force them to make a bigger mistake with weaker draws like overcard draws and gutshow straights). Without seeing what other players have done before you, your decision isn't as clear.

In this situation, if a solid player raises in front of you, you may choose to drop your hand. So, with the same hole cards and same flop your action may be totally different based on what the players before you do. This is only possible when you have good position.

On a side note, when you play this hand against a lot of players you would rather have a flop like this:

Why would you rather have a draw than a made hand in this case? Let me count the ways:

1. With the made hand (a pair of Tens with a Jack kicker) You may not have the best hand and you may have to pay a lot to find that out by the end of the hand, especially with a flush draw on board. This is one of reasons to raise on the flop with the made hand to reduce the number of players
2. You have the top end of a straight draw, so when you make your straight it will be the highest possible straight.
3. There is no flush draw.
4. If you don't make your straight draw, you will sometimes win when a Jack or a Ten comes.
5. When you make your straight, other players are likely to make fairly strong second-best hands

Of course you would really like:

On a related note, if you do happen to flop the nut straight, don't be afraid to play it strongly at your average loose table. You will still get plenty of action from the Queens, Nines, Eights, 67's, Tx's, Jx's and under pairs trying to beat you on the river. Unfortunately for them this is one hand that they'll have a very tough time cracking. This means that when you are last to act you usually want to raise with this hand on the flop and not play it passively.

And as a second side note, don't be afraid to cap the betting on the river should your nut still be the nut then. A very common mistake you will see at low limit holdem tables is to assume the other player also has the nut hand after a raise or re-raise on the river. Don't assume the other player obviously has JT as well--you'll be surprised how often they don't. Really, cap it. Every time.

The Free Card

Another advantage of being in late position (especially in last position) is that you can attempt to gain a free card by raising on the flop. Free cards are not really free but actually half price--you are raising a small bet on the flop with the intention of being able to check on the turn if a helpful card doesn't come.

For example, the following happens again while you are on the button:

There is a bet and four callers before you. You have the option of raising here. If the other players are betting or calling with only one pair they will be inclined to check the turn to you.

At this point you can check the turn and hope to catch a heart on the river. In this particular case if you use this strategy against most low limit hold 'em players it is probably safe to raise the river if your heart comes and someone comes out betting as they will often bet an ace high flush draw strongly the whole way so your king high flush is almost certainly good.

Keep in mind that your opponents are not stupid! If you consistently try to buy a free card whenever you are on the button they will start re-raising you and betting the turn. For this reason, you should raise your strong made hands at least some of the time on the flop (instead of waiting until the turn when the bet size doubles to gain some extra value).

You’ve probably heard “position” come up frequently in how-to guides, but what does it mean?

Texas Holdem Strategy Book

Simply put, position in poker refers to where you sit at a table relative to the Dealer Button. Seat 1 is directly to the left of the Dealer Button. Seat numbers are sequential and move in a clockwise direction. Position determines the dealing and betting order in each orbit.

During a game of poker, the seat you are in may be considered Early position, Middle position or Late position. Late positions are always the best positions to be in as you get to act after other players have acted (call, raise, fold) on their hands.

With each hand, your position is determined by where the Dealer button is located. Since it moves in a clockwise direction to a new player after each hand, your position always changes after every hand. Over the course of the game, each player will get multiple chances to play from the various positions.

Early Position

Early position identifies the first three 3 seats to the immediate left of the dealer. (Remember, the two players to the left of the dealer are the small blind and big blind and must place their bet before the cards are dealt. During the Pre-Flop round, the small blind and big blind are the last to act. In subsequent rounds, they will be the first to act.) The player to the left of the big blinds is said to be “under the gun.” These three seats are considered the worst positions as players in these positions are the first to act in the betting round.

Middle Position

On Replay’s 9-player tables, Middle position includes seats 4 through 6. These seats are more advantageous than the Early position seats, but not as advantageous as being in the late position. Players in the middle position get to know how the first few players have played their hands.

Late Position

The player designated by the dealer button (dealer position) and the two players to his/her immediate right are said to be in the late position. Being on the dealer button is the best position to be playing from in a hand.

Players in the late position are the last to act, and they can see how the other players have played their hands. The information you gain from being in the late position allows you to play weaker starting hands or even fold strong hands like JJ or AQ.

Ultimately your decision to bet, raise or fold will be determined by the strength of your hole cards. During the early stages of learning to play Texas Hold’em, it is best to play only when you have Premium Starting Hands.