When Position is Most Important

Obviously, good position is important in no-limit hold’em, much more so than in limit play. Nevertheless, it is worth more in some scenarios than others. In no-limit hold’em, when is good position of greater value and when is it of lesser value? (I believe that position is even more important when playing pot-limit, because the out-of-position pot-limit player cannot nullify his positional disadvantage on subsequent betting rounds by overbetting the pot and going all in.) There are several factors at work that affect the value of position. This column will explain my feelings about this important question.

Before I discuss the factors of good position, I think I need to define what “good position” means. Of course, it is easy to simply say that good position means acting after your opponent(s). However, the rules of hold’em do not give a certain player position on all four betting rounds. On the preflop round, the big blind acts last and the small blind acts next to last. Unless the betting is over because all players but one are all in before the flop, the blinds must consider the fact that they act before their opponents on all three of the post-flop betting rounds. This will not be of great importance to a short stack, who intends to bet all of his chips no matter what comes, but it will be of great consequence as the money gets deeper. Generally, a player in one of the blinds should be overbetting the pot size on a preflop raise or reraise to discourage callers, or at least to charge a high price to someone who wishes to take a shot at him.

We cannot even simplify things to say that the button is always the optimal seat on all three of the post-flop betting rounds, even though that player always acts after the rest of the field. Sometimes the button has poor position! That anomaly exists because the other players are not equally likely to bet. In hold’em, you are not the favorite to improve your hand, no matter what you hold. As a result, the player who “said” that he had the best hand in the preflop betting often makes a bet on the flop that asks the question, “Did you improve your hand?” That flop bet is called a continuation-bet (c-bet). In my no-limit experience, the preflop raiser (or reraiser) makes a continuation-bet more than half the time. Consequently, on the flop, someone acting before the preflop raiser will often check to see what the preflop raiser will do. “Check to the raiser” is one of the most common expressions in poker. So, if you are on the button in a multiway raised pot and the preflop raiser is on your immediate right, your position is poor on the flop betting round, because the checks by the other players cannot be taken at face value. If the preflop raiser bets the flop, you have to act before all of the unknown quantities behind you. Even if the preflop raiser checks, the situation is not ideal. True, you have the option of taking a free card, but betting here is much riskier than it would have been if the pot had not been raised preflop and all of your opponents had checked.

When working with my poker students, I like to call the position to the immediate left of the preflop raiser the “electric chair.” Your position has been compromised even if you are on the button. You need a much better hand to call here than if the preflop raise had come from one of the blinds and you are on the button.

An influential factor in measuring the importance of position is the depth of the stacks. The deeper the money, the more likely that all four betting rounds will come into play, and the greater the sum that will be gambled for. Having all three of the post-flop betting rounds come into play gives you an excellent chance to use your position to outplay opponents. If you wish to become a good all-around player, it is essential that you learn how to use your position to create extra problems for opponents. The leverage of a potential big loss enables you to use a threat without actually committing your chips to the pot.

Another important factor in the value of position is the number of opponents that you have. The fewer opponents there are, the less risky it is to give a free card by checking, or a cheap card by betting only a small portion of the pot. Deception abounds in heads-up play. If your opponent is likely to disguise his hand by checking when strong and betting when weak, having position on him is less valuable. The more players there are in a pot, the more honest the betting is going to be.

My guess is that most people feel that the greater the number of players in a pot, the more valuable good position is. I do not agree, at least for the way that I play poker. When others show weakness, I like to exploit it with a hijacking. However, having four or more opponents freezes my larcenous propensities. Since I wish to use my position to steal what I am not otherwise entitled to have, my favorite number of opponents is two or three. Naturally, if you have the nuts, the more opponents there are, the merrier, and having late position in a large field is the optimum way to go. But I run into many more situations in which I have a bad hand and am looking to steal than good hands that are hungry for action, so I root for no more than three opponents, even when I have last position.

A third factor in evaluating the benefit of good position is your hand. Yes, your hand does matter; not just the quality of your hand, but your hand’s character. A drawing hand is more in need of good position than a made hand. Having opponents act before you do may earn you a free card, tip you off as to when it is time for a steal, or win you more money when you complete your draw. Frankly, most no-limit hold’em drawing hands do not have enough outs to make them worth playing on strictly a mathematical basis of proper pot odds. They need the implied odds offered by a payoff when they hit and the possibility of stealing the pot with a bluff in order to justify a call, assuming that the opponent has made a solid bet of close to the amount in the pot. Good position greatly increases the opportunity to get paid off or to inform you that a bet or raise will get the cheese.

Position is one of the most important concepts in no-limit hold’em. However, the value of good position is far from uniform, as it varies greatly with the situation.

Bob Ciaffone has authored four poker books, Middle Limit Holdem Poker, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Poker. All can be ordered (autographed to you) from Bob by e-mail: [email protected]. Free U.S. shipping to Card Player readers. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons at a reasonable rate. His website is www.pokercoach.us, where you can get his rulebook, Robert’s Rules of Poker, for free. Bob also has a website called www.fairlawsonpoker.org.