Article The Power of Position
The Power of Position
You have probably heard the line “remember the importance of position” a million times if you’ve done much research on poker strategy. It does get old seeing it all the time, but this article will discuss why people say that so often and what makes position so important.
In poker, especially no-limit, position equals power. If you have the power of position you get to see every move your opponent makes before you make yours. This may sound obvious, but think about it. By the time it’s your turn to decide on a move, you have already seen your opponent’s move first. The great part of the deal is you get to see first not just once or twice, but for every single action your opponent takes for the entire hand.
Remember the old saying knowledge equals power? Well the power you get from position is based on having the knowledge of your opponent’s move every time you decide on yours. Your opponent, meanwhile, must make every move without having any idea of how you’ll react. The power of position makes your hand easier to play while at the same time making your opponent’s hand much more difficult to play.
The power you get from this knowledge gives you the ability to put significant pressure on your opponents. Good no-limit players make it very difficult for their opponents to take a hand very far if it’s not a strong one. If the opponent has a strong hand, you get to find out a lot faster than you would had you been out of position. The opponent with a strong hand can either keep betting into you or he can go for the check-raise. Either way you can tell pretty quickly what type of hand the opponent is representing.
When out of position, however, it is much harder to tell what your opponent has. The worst time to be out of position is when you have a decently strong hand but a scare card comes on the turn. How many times have you had top pair on the flop but the turn brings a third club? It is tough because if you check the opponent can either value bet with the hand or he could be using the scare card to chase you off. It gets even more difficult when the river comes and you still don’t know what the opponent has.
The reason people suggest playing extra tight from out of position is to avoid these sticky situations as much as possible. When out of position there simply is not enough information available to you to make the best move every time. It’s an inherent disadvantage that affects even the best poker players. If two players of exactly equal skill face off in a given number of hands, the one with position will profit over the long run. It’s a fact of game theory and there is no way to completely overcome this disadvantage.
The good thing is that as the dealer’s button moves around the table, everybody must play in both positions an equal amount. The poker table is a level playing field in that respect. The players who can better manipulate their advantages when in position and better negate their disadvantages when out of position will be the biggest winners.
When playing from out of position it is impossible to completely make up for being out of position but there are some skills that can be learned to make it much easier on you.
The most obvious is to play a straightforward game when out of position. This is best used against weak opponents in small stakes games and against opponents you don’t play against on a regular basis. Continue play with only your best hands when out of position and fold if the opponent puts too much pressure on you and you can’t tell where you’re at. This may sound somewhat weak-tight but playing a solid, straightforward poker game is the best way to capitalize on the mistakes of weaker players.
The next strategy is best used against good opponents and regulars that you play against often. The best way to play when out of position is to mix up your plays. The most common I will describe are the checkraises, check-folds, bet-folds, and bet-calls.
The easiest way to keep people from pounding on you so often is to mix up the hands with which you checkraise. For example, if you randomly checkraise strong hands on the turn, it will keep people from automatically betting every time you check. Say you flop top pair against a loose stealer, you bet the flop, check the turn, and wait for his bet. Once he attempts the usual steal, you slam a massive checkraise in his face. He will remember that the next time you check on the turn.
To balance this, you also sometimes have to checkraise with air on the turn. This is expensive and I don’t recommend you do it often but I do recommend that you keep it in your inventory of moves.
Of course you can’t win every hand so often times you will end up checking the turn and folding to a bet. That’s OK as well as long as you have done a little mixing it up to keep yourself from being totally predictable.
A nice way to keep people from constantly bluffing scare cards is to practice your semi-bluffing skills. A perfect example of this is to semi-bluff a flush draw on the flop, and then check to your opponent on the turn if you hit the draw. You may then slam the big checkraise down his throat and once again he will remember that the next time you check on a scare card.
And to balance this move, you must practice the bet-call and bet-fold. The bet-call is when you follow up on the turn with another bet instead of just checking to the opponent in position. If he attempts a big raise and you suspect your hand is good, then call. If you suspect your hand is beaten, then fold. It’s pretty obvious but still your varied mix of plays will keep you unpredictable. If an opponent figures out that every time you bet on the turn but will fold to a raise then he can exploit you for all kinds of money. If the opponent is unsure of how you will react to a bet, he will think twice before leveraging his position against you.
No matter how well you use this strategy, however, you will still be at a distinct disadvantage when playing from out of position. Remember that and make your first priority to avoid getting stuck in the situation in the first place. But for the times you do have to play out of position, this strategy will help negate some of the opponent’s power of position.
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