Anyone who sits and watches any poker training videos or reads articles by pro level poker players has heard about position and how important it is. At first a lot of players are under the impression that they understand everything about position, but they are very wrong. There is a lot to know about position and always more to learn. Being “in position” against an opponent is great for you. Being “out of position” is horrible. There are multiple different factors that are involved in making one better than the other. Here are a few of them:

Playing Poker Out of Position

To be successful at poker you must first understand what you are doing while playing. Poker is a game of accurate and inaccurate information. The more information that you have the easier it is for you to decide what play is correct. If you are not the one who is getting the additional information then your decision making is made harder.

When you are playing poker from an early position it is important that you play very tight poker. You must play even tighter than your average percentage of hands you play. This is because there are so many more players behind you to act that your decision making is going to be too hard for these hands to be worth it. That is why you only want to play premium hands from early position.

Let’s say you are out of position against an opponent and you hold AQ. You raise and then they re-raise. If the flop is KQX then you are not going to know if your hand is good or not. You are then put to the decision making of if it is correct to bet with your second pair or if you should be fearful that your opponent holds a king. If they had to act before you it would be easier to decide because if they check then they probably don’t hold a king.

Some players think that being out of position is negated against an opponent because you can then be trappy and slowplay. Let’s say you have AQ again and the flop is TJK rainbow. You just flopped the nuts and you need to get value. You have to bet here if you are out of position against your opponent to make sure that you get value. You could attempt to slowplay against your opponent, but if they have a hand like pocket 8s then there is no way they are going to bet that flop. This means your opponent will check behind and you will lose that whole street of value.

Playing In Position

Being in position against your opponent is almost a new game compared to playing out of position. When you are in position against your opponent you have a whole new arsenal of poker plays that you can make. When you are in position against your opponent you get to see what they do before you have to act. With this extra information you can better determine what your opponent holds. If you know what your opponent has then you can play perfectly against them because you will know when to call, bluff, and fold exactly correct each time.

You have to loosen up when you are in position. This is because you are playing so tight from early position that you have to counteract that or else you lose money for playing too few of hands. Since there are less players left to act behind you when you are in good position there will be less resistance when you are attempting to steal the blinds.

When you are in position you have a new line of poker plays that you can use against your opponent. The more options of play you have means the more chances for your opponents to play incorrectly against you. Any mistake your opponent makes means more money for you. Here are a few lines that you can use to take advantage of playing in position.

Pot Control - When you are in position you have the ability to control the size of the pot. If your opponent bets then you can simply call or you can raise or fold. This is dependent on the strength of your hand. If they check and you feel your hand isn’t good enough to play a big pot with then you can check behind. You can also use this to make sure money gets in every street with your big hands.
Check for Value - When you bet your winning hand on the flop you are doing this because you feel you can get value out of it. You again want to do the same thing on all streets. Being in position with a good hand leaves you the option of checking the turn in hopes of appearing weak to get another bet in on the river. Simply betting twice in a row looks very strong and your opponent is less likely to call down with a weaker hand. Betting the river after checking the turn looks fishy so poker players are more apt to calling and giving you more value.

Position is a big factor in nearly every decision you make in poker. Being aware of position is very important. Playing correctly based on your position will make you more and lose you less in a short period of time.