Position Play – Early Position – Part 2

One of the most important techniques that any Texas Hold ‘Em player needs to master if he wants to win consistently is Position Play.  In fact, knowing how to properly play your hand in regards to your position is so important that players who do not take the time to educate themselves on this issue will, over time, invariably lose more pots than they will win.

So what is position play and how do you use it to your advantage?

For simplicity sake, let’s assume you are playing at a 9 seat table. There are a total of 9 players and you are one of those 9. To best illustrate position play let’s imagine that the table has been broken up into three parts, each part containing three sequentially seated players. We will call these groups: Early, Middle, and Late.

How you determine which group you are in depends on where the Button is at any given time. If the Button (or the Dealer Button) is to your immediate right, then you and the two players to your left are in the Early group; this represents players number 1, 2, and 3.  Players numbered 4, 5, and 6 will be in the Middle group.  And players numbered 7, 8, and 9 will be in the Late group.

As you already know the Button moves around the table with each hand, so your position (or seat number) will change with each hand as well.

Because this is so important we are going to devote an article to each of the three groups. In order to get the most from this series, please read them all.  Doing so will give you a much deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities each group holds.

The Early Group: When you are in the Early group (meaning you are either the first, second, or third player to act), you are at a disadvantage as compared to the other two groups. And the “earlier” you are (meaning number 1 or 2) the more disadvantage you have on yourself.

The best lesson for players who are Early is fold! Unless you have a killer hand, your best bet is to not bet. One of the keys to winning profits at the Texas Hold ‘Em tables consistently is to keep as many of your chips as you can while trying to win more from the other players. Playing weak hands when you are early is akin to just giving your chips away because the chances are very good that someone else is going to raise and you will have to fold anyway or call a raise (which is even worse than staying in the game in the first place) and before you know it you are pot committed and it becomes harder and harder to get out of the hand. Why put yourself (and your stack) through all of that? If you are early and you have a weak hand, fold.

Pro Tip: When you fold a hand don’t just take a nap or stare off into space. Folding a hand allows you the freedom to concentrate on the other players while they are concentrating on their hands. During this free time you can gather information on each player. Who limps in ninety percent of the time? Who bets aggressively? Who is playing tight and who is playing loose? All of this information will be valuable to you later on in the game, and getting it during a fold is the easiest way to get it. This applies to online play as well as brick-and-mortar casino play.

So, when in doubt, fold. You’ll save a ton of chips if you follow this one simple rule.

But what if you have a killer hand or at least a decent hand and want to play from the Early Stage?

Unfortunately, there is no 100% right answer for this question.  How you play a decent hand while early depends on the hand and the players at the table. In general, you have two choices:

Limp in (call the big blind) or raise (if the rules of your game allow a raise at this time). Most No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em games allow a raise at any time, including the first round of betting.

Limping In While Early: There are a few times when limping in is the better of the two choices. If you only have a marginal hand (a pair of 10’s, pair of Jacks, AK—suited or unsuited) you will want to see a Flop. If you hit a set (3 of a kind) or you hit two or three of the suit that you need to go along with that AK suited or you flop two pair, then you’re in great shape for going to the Turn and the River.

If you don’t hit your cards on the Flop, well, you saw the Flop for the least amount of money.

Another scenario for simply limping in while early is if you know you have a player at the table who often raises pre-flop. If you are fairly certain that you are going to have to match a raise in order to see the flop, you may want to minimize your investment and let the other player raise, then you can call the raise and, again, save some chips in case you have to fold later on.

Lastly, another good reason to limp in while early is when you have a killer hand (AA, KK) and you don’t want to scare too many players off just yet. In other words, you want to build the pot by allowing other players to limp in as well. It’s a fact that many seasoned players will be closely watching the early players to see if they play or not.  These players know that more often than not a good player, in early position, will not play unless he or she has a fairly solid hand.

Raising While Early: There is a school of thought among some professional players (but not all) that a player has only two actions: Raise or Fold.

One of the best reasons to raise while early is to run some of the other players out of the game. When you raise to them, they not only have to pay the big blind, but they also have to match your raise. That’s a lot of cash to put out pre-flop and many players (even those with fairly good hands) will fold to your raise. If you raise and several players fold, you have narrowed down the number of players that can draw against you. This is a good thing. You don’t want half the table seeing the flop, no matter what you have in your hand.  Even a pair of Ace’s (in your hand) can go south real fast if someone with a pair of 3’s hits another 3 on the flop.

Another reason to raise while early is if you are stone cold bluffing. This is not recommended for everyone, but if you are going to bluff while early, then raising the pot pre-flop is one good way to do it. This is especially true if you have set yourself up at the table as a “tight” player, one who doesn’t bet too often. The raise (in many cases) will make your opponents think you have a killer hand and chances are good they will fold. You won’t make a lot of money doing this, but you can pick up the blinds and in tournament play those blinds can be very valuable to you.

In our next article we will look at how to play the Middle group. Hope to see you there!

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Robert Partain writes for LayTheOdds Poker (http://www.laytheodds.com/poker), the premier resource for online Poker tutorials, informative articles, poker rules, game strategy, poker room reviews and tournaments.