The first thing a new poker player should learn about is table position and why it is important in Texas Hold ‘Em. Table position refers to where a player is sitting in relation to the dealer button. So every time the dealer button moves, so does your position thus creating different opportunities throughout the game.

There is three different positions at a poker table and they are very easy to remember. You have the early position seats which is the first 3 seats to the left of the dealer button. The middle position is next and they are seats 4-6 from the dealer button. And last, you guessed it, we have seats 7-9 with number 9 being the dealer themselves and the best position at the table. Throughout this article we will refer to each seat as its number and position from the dealer. For example, seat 5 is in middle position so we will refer to it as MP+5. Take a look at our table below to have a better understanding of the poker table and position.

Why is position important? Well quite simply, Texas Hold ‘Em is a game of information. If you are in MP+4, you are going to get less information from your opponents before you act as opposed to sitting in LP+8. This creates an advantage as you know more about your opponents possible holdings and can make an educated decision whether or not you want to be involved in the hand.

Poker Starting Hands

One of the most important things you will hear about table position is the correct starting hands. For example, if you were in EP+3 it would not make sense for you to play something like K-9. Why? Because since you have gained so little information from being in EP, you do not know if one of your opponents in later position has a better hand. If a player in a later position decided to raise, you would more than likely have to fold your weaker hand, thus wasting chips. Here is a starting guide as to what starting hands you should play depending on where you are sitting at the table.

• EP+1-EP+2
• AA-JJ, AK, AQ suited
• MP+4-MP+6
• AA-88, AK-A9 suited
• LP+7-LP+9
• AA-22, AK-A9 suited or off suit, Suited Connectors

Now this is just a guide and the starting hands you decide to play will vary. These starting hands are just to try and keep you out of trouble. As a new player you want to focus on having easy decisions to make. You want to know when you are ahead and when you are behind if at all possible. These starting hands will do that for you. When you start maturing as a player, you can start trying new hand combinations to find a style that better suits you.

Why Starting Position is Important

Knowing your position is important for many reasons. First, if you can act last in a hand, you can ultimately play the player versus playing with your cards. Your opponent in EP will have no knowledge if any of the cards on the flop, 4th or 5th street have really helped in any way. This gives you an advantage as you can apply pressure and induce mistakes.

Another key thing to remember is betting. If you are in earlier position and have decided to play in the hand, you will want to try and level the playing field. Meaning, your hand is worth less if you have 8 players in the hand as opposed to just yourself and maybe 1-2 others. So to isolate yourself and your opponent you need to make sure you bet a little bit more than if you were in LP. This should show strength to the other players and hopefully causing most, if not all of them to fold. The same could be said if you were in LP and noticed a player in EP making a raise. If you keep track of your opponents playing ranges you can be sure that they have a strong hand since they are considering playing out of position. The Gap concept is very important to position and betting. This states that you must have a stronger hand to call a raise with, then if you were to make the first raise yourself.

Hopefully throughout our article we have made poker position a little bit clearer. There is so much to learn when it comes to position as it is a very large part of the game. It really has an affect on how much you bet, what cards you play, and how involved you get in a hand. Table position is very important, and in our opinions one of the first things a beginning poker player should learn.