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Basics Of Playing Position
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Community poker games like Omaha and Hold'em can only be played well by those who appreciate and can act on the importance of position. Position is where you sit relative to the dealer button, which moves clockwise around the table in constant rotation throughout the game. There are times when your position places you in weakness for the duration of a hand, most notably when you are "under the gun", or first to act before the flop, an apt phrase suggestive of the pressure you will be facing if you decide to participate. When you are the small or big "blind" you are also disadvantaged by a lack of information, and you are further forced to commit money into the pot without knowing the strength of your hole cards.
Position becomes even more important in Pot-Limit and No-Limit games because you can be easily manipulated by other players and could potentially lose your entire stack in one hand if you are trapped out of position. Many will be the times you will limp into a hand early with a call only to find the pot bet, raised, and re-raised after you. Now you have a lot of information and most of it is of the tragically sad variety as far as you are concerned. It isn't all bad news in a limit game, and you might even have pot odds, probably implied, for staying in for those extra 3 bets. However, in Pot- and No-Limit games you are now donating chips to someone else, and if you could go back in time you would gladly have folded and saved the call.
Position is often your best friend in poker. In late position you can enter pots with far weaker holdings because you will have so much information to act on in later betting rounds. You can also put tremendous betting pressure on the small and big blinds, and steal a lot of pots simply with a show of strength, and whether or not that strength is justified is irrelevant. The tighter a game the more important position becomes. In a loose game where everyone limps in and raising pre-flop is not the norm, position is devalued. The reason is that you can play your drawing hands out of position safe in the knowledge that you are getting the correct pot odds.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Poker Strategy - Understanding Pot Odds
> The Basics Of Playing Position In Poker
> Hole Cards That Will Cost You Money
> Basic Online Poker Skills
> Online Poker Strategy - Keep it Simple
> Online Poker Strategy - Bluffing and Deception
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