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5 Simple Rules To Stop Losing Money,
And Start Playing Winning Poker
And Start Playing Winning Poker
Table positioning is a BIG DEAL. Yet most players pay little attention to table positioning. Lets break position into 2 parts.
Pre-Flop. Lets say we have been dealt a pair of 8's, the 17th best starting hand. If we are sitting just to the left of the big blind, and are the first to act, at a table of nine players what should we do? Well let's think about it. If we call the big blind there are 8 players to our left that are yet to act and we have no idea what they may do. What if the player to our left raises to 3 times the blind, and the player two seats to his left calls his bet, and the player on the button raises again to 5 times the blind and the player in the big blind calls that. Now what do we do?
Well our pair of 8's isn't looking very good right now. Four others players have indicated that they have a strong hand, and if we call, there will be at least two others in the hand, and very likely four. Not a very good place for a pair of 8's. It's not likely that the other players bet 3 to 5 times the big blind with a pair of 2's or any other small pair. So most likely there is a larger pair out there, or at least a lot of big cards. So it's way to likely that someone will beat our pair of 8's.
Now of course we could hit trips on the flop, we will about one out of every 8.5 times (1 to 7.5). So a call here would make sense only if there is (or will be if the players to our left call) 7.5 times more in the pot than we have to put in to call. And even if there is, others behind us could raise. Or with 4 other players in the hands even three 8's may not be enough to win. If we fold we've lost our money, if we call our 8's are probably outclassed by 2 to 4 other hands.
One thought that may come to mind is that with the 8's, knowing that you only want one, maybe two other players in the hand, we probably should have raised instead of calling with our initial bet. That would be true. We probably would want to bet 3 to 5 times the big blind to discourage action from most players. In the scenario above the end result would likely been just about the same, except we now would have more money in a pot we don't really belong in.
The problem is that when you're in first (or early) position you are suffering from a serious lack of information.
Now what if we had the same pair of 8's but were sitting on the button? If the same players as before do the same thing as before, two players have bet 3 times the blind, what do we do? Well knowing that 2 players are indication strong hands, and there are two left to act, we might likely fold, thinking that this may not be the best place for a pair of 8's. So we don't lose any money like we did before.
Or what if everyone folded around to us, well the 8's are looking pretty good at that point.
Or if two players limped in by just calling, we could either just call and try to see the flop cheap, or raise to see who really wants to play and see if we can get heads up with one player.
If we raise we might bid 3 times the blind to put pressure on the blinds. Lets say the blinds both fold. If the two players who first called fold, we get 3.5 times the blind with no risk of losing, I'll take that. Instead one of the early callers calls us, where are we then? The only thing that would put us in bad shape is if he has a bigger pair than ours, which is not to likely based on his not raising pre flop. Even if he has AK we are about 55% to win the hand. If he's holding A7 we are about 70% to win. Either way we're in very good shape.
As you can see though, on the button we have a whole lot more information with which to make our decisions. And that is powerful. It's huge.
So the point is that the same cards in different positions can lead to totally different circumstances. The earlier position you're in, the more careful you generally want to be. You'll usually want to play fewer hands and better cards. The closer to the button the more hands you generally can play pre flop, if you look for the right situations.
In the first 2 positions left of the big blind you may want to open only with the top 16 opening hands, and hen open aggressively to discourage a lot of action. But if you're on the button you there are many hands you could play, if the situation is right. And there are many strategies you could use. You could limp in just to see if you hit anything, or bet aggressively to get to one or two callers, or aggressively to try to steal the blinds.
So lets say you have AJ. Don't just think "Hey, I've got AJ". We want to think more like "I've got AJ and I'm in middle position". But while that is better, it's still not good enough.
We need to examine the whole situation. "Hmm, I've got AJ, I'm in middle position, the guy in second position called, and the guy on the button seems to love to raise big when there are only two or three calls in front of him. So what's my best play here, should I fold, call, or raise?" But even then, have I been able to figure out what cards the guy on the button does the big raising with?
The idea here is to use all the information we have to see what the situation is. So it's not about the cards you hold. It's about the cards you hold in the situation you're in. What does this situation call for? And of course the later position you're in, the more information you have, and the better decisions you'll be able to make. Never underestimate the power of information.
But there is one more piece of information you must consider when your thinking about you're pre flop betting. And it's a big deal.
What position will I be in after the flop?
We've talked about pre flop position. Now let's consider post flop position. It's pretty simple here in that there are usually only 2 or 3 players post flop. But the idea is exactly the same as pre flop. If you're first to act you have little or no information to work with. Did the other players hit on the flop? You have no idea. You've got nothing to work with. The odds are that the flop will miss the other player, or players the majority of the time, but they may still be ahead of you even if they missed on the flop. You have to act, but you have very little information, you did see the pre flop betting, but that is all you know.
Instead if you're the last to act, you saw the pre flop betting too, but now you have seen the other player, or players act also. More information is always better.
So the bottom line here is that in order to win consistently we have to pay attention to table positioning and not just the cards in our hand. Over the long haul, playing a lot of weak to average hands from early position is a losing play. But when we have late position we can often find situations where a lot of hands can be played profitably.
Pre-Flop. Lets say we have been dealt a pair of 8's, the 17th best starting hand. If we are sitting just to the left of the big blind, and are the first to act, at a table of nine players what should we do? Well let's think about it. If we call the big blind there are 8 players to our left that are yet to act and we have no idea what they may do. What if the player to our left raises to 3 times the blind, and the player two seats to his left calls his bet, and the player on the button raises again to 5 times the blind and the player in the big blind calls that. Now what do we do?
Well our pair of 8's isn't looking very good right now. Four others players have indicated that they have a strong hand, and if we call, there will be at least two others in the hand, and very likely four. Not a very good place for a pair of 8's. It's not likely that the other players bet 3 to 5 times the big blind with a pair of 2's or any other small pair. So most likely there is a larger pair out there, or at least a lot of big cards. So it's way to likely that someone will beat our pair of 8's.
Now of course we could hit trips on the flop, we will about one out of every 8.5 times (1 to 7.5). So a call here would make sense only if there is (or will be if the players to our left call) 7.5 times more in the pot than we have to put in to call. And even if there is, others behind us could raise. Or with 4 other players in the hands even three 8's may not be enough to win. If we fold we've lost our money, if we call our 8's are probably outclassed by 2 to 4 other hands.
One thought that may come to mind is that with the 8's, knowing that you only want one, maybe two other players in the hand, we probably should have raised instead of calling with our initial bet. That would be true. We probably would want to bet 3 to 5 times the big blind to discourage action from most players. In the scenario above the end result would likely been just about the same, except we now would have more money in a pot we don't really belong in.
The problem is that when you're in first (or early) position you are suffering from a serious lack of information.
Now what if we had the same pair of 8's but were sitting on the button? If the same players as before do the same thing as before, two players have bet 3 times the blind, what do we do? Well knowing that 2 players are indication strong hands, and there are two left to act, we might likely fold, thinking that this may not be the best place for a pair of 8's. So we don't lose any money like we did before.
Or what if everyone folded around to us, well the 8's are looking pretty good at that point.
Or if two players limped in by just calling, we could either just call and try to see the flop cheap, or raise to see who really wants to play and see if we can get heads up with one player.
If we raise we might bid 3 times the blind to put pressure on the blinds. Lets say the blinds both fold. If the two players who first called fold, we get 3.5 times the blind with no risk of losing, I'll take that. Instead one of the early callers calls us, where are we then? The only thing that would put us in bad shape is if he has a bigger pair than ours, which is not to likely based on his not raising pre flop. Even if he has AK we are about 55% to win the hand. If he's holding A7 we are about 70% to win. Either way we're in very good shape.
As you can see though, on the button we have a whole lot more information with which to make our decisions. And that is powerful. It's huge.
So the point is that the same cards in different positions can lead to totally different circumstances. The earlier position you're in, the more careful you generally want to be. You'll usually want to play fewer hands and better cards. The closer to the button the more hands you generally can play pre flop, if you look for the right situations.
In the first 2 positions left of the big blind you may want to open only with the top 16 opening hands, and hen open aggressively to discourage a lot of action. But if you're on the button you there are many hands you could play, if the situation is right. And there are many strategies you could use. You could limp in just to see if you hit anything, or bet aggressively to get to one or two callers, or aggressively to try to steal the blinds.
So lets say you have AJ. Don't just think "Hey, I've got AJ". We want to think more like "I've got AJ and I'm in middle position". But while that is better, it's still not good enough.
We need to examine the whole situation. "Hmm, I've got AJ, I'm in middle position, the guy in second position called, and the guy on the button seems to love to raise big when there are only two or three calls in front of him. So what's my best play here, should I fold, call, or raise?" But even then, have I been able to figure out what cards the guy on the button does the big raising with?
The idea here is to use all the information we have to see what the situation is. So it's not about the cards you hold. It's about the cards you hold in the situation you're in. What does this situation call for? And of course the later position you're in, the more information you have, and the better decisions you'll be able to make. Never underestimate the power of information.
But there is one more piece of information you must consider when your thinking about you're pre flop betting. And it's a big deal.
What position will I be in after the flop?
We've talked about pre flop position. Now let's consider post flop position. It's pretty simple here in that there are usually only 2 or 3 players post flop. But the idea is exactly the same as pre flop. If you're first to act you have little or no information to work with. Did the other players hit on the flop? You have no idea. You've got nothing to work with. The odds are that the flop will miss the other player, or players the majority of the time, but they may still be ahead of you even if they missed on the flop. You have to act, but you have very little information, you did see the pre flop betting, but that is all you know.
Instead if you're the last to act, you saw the pre flop betting too, but now you have seen the other player, or players act also. More information is always better.
So the bottom line here is that in order to win consistently we have to pay attention to table positioning and not just the cards in our hand. Over the long haul, playing a lot of weak to average hands from early position is a losing play. But when we have late position we can often find situations where a lot of hands can be played profitably.
Rule #2
Respect Table Positioning
Respect Table Positioning
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