The Power of Position in Texas Hold'em
Whether you play Hold'em for fun or profit, the best time you can have playing Texas Hold'em poker is when you're winning. If you just leave it up to the poker gods whether or not you're going to have a winning day, you're going to be at a serious disadvantage to those who have learned and practiced skills of the game to tilt the odds in their favor. One of the most important strategies you can employ to make sure that you are on the right side of the poker odds is using where you act in the hand to your advantage. This is known as the power of position.
Be aware of the power of position. If you are one of the last players to act, you have a tremendous advantage over your opponents, in that you get to see what they will do before you decide what you are going to do. What does this mean for you? It means you should be willing to play many more hands in late position than when you act up front. For example, a hand like A9, especially when it is suited, can be tempting to play. However, from an early position, this hand can get you into a lot of trouble. If you call and are raised, you cannot be sure if you are being raised by a higher ace or a weaker hand. If an ace flops, you can get into a lot of trouble if you are facing someone with an ace and a better kicker. In late position, it is much easier to gauge whether your flopped pair of aces is the best hand or whether you need to slow down. You will also be able to extract more money if you are lucky enough to flop two pair, as you will know whether to play fast or slow depending on how much strength your opponents acting before you have represented.
Another situation in which position is a crucial factor is when playing suited connectors. Many players like to play hands like 8s 9s because of their straight and flush possibilities. These are called suited connectors, and are especially popular in no-limit Texas Hold'em, where it is possible to trap your opponents for a giant pot. However, in early position, these hands lose value quickly. First of all, if you flat call or even raise with one of these hands from an early position and everyone folds to the button, who re-raises, you will have to lay your hand down, as it is no longer profitable to play the hand. You have now wasted one or two bets. Furthermore even if you do get action, you will not know whether to bet or not if the flop hits you. If you bet, you may give away the strength of your hand, and if everyone now folds, you will not have won enough to make playing these hands profitable in the long run. If you check and everyone else checks, you may have missed an opportunity to build a pot by making a bet that someone with a marginal hand in middle position might have called.
The bottom line in all this is that when you are playing in early position, you should restrict yourself to only the best hands. If you are not sure whether a hand is good enough to play or not, consider your position. If you are in an early position, throw the hand away rather than pay for the privilege of playing a marginal hand at a disadvantage. If that same hand shows up in late position, you should be much more willing to take a shot with it.
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