Who do you want position on

just something that crossed my mind by watching another topic.
do you rather have position on the fish or on the sharks of the table?

against fish you can extract maximal value vs the players you will win the most from.
however vs the sharks you will have an advantage over the players having most chance to beat you.

gl all,
yiazmat.

  • fish
  • sharks
  • don’t care

0 voters

Everyone should want to be in position on everyone else, so saying you don’t care is just wrong. But in terms of sharks vs fish, I’d rather be to the immediate left of the best/most aggressive player so I can know their action before choosing my own.

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I started playing ring games a short time ago, so probably I can’t really judge.

When I have a little time to play, I can only be glad if I can find a place at one of the high stakes tables, without having to wait too long. Sometimes there are 2-3 people on the waiting list. So I must be content with whatever I find there: sharks or fishes, aggressive or passive players, nice or rude people, and the only position which is available. Actually until now, if I remember correctly, I have never had a choice.

Yiazmat, is it different for the tables at which you play? Do you know all your opponents so well that you can categorize them? And do you really wait to play until the most convenient position is available?
Or is this only a theoretical issue?

Well, if I had a choice, as Joedirk said, I’d sit left of the most aggressive player, to better control his actions and play accordingly.

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I’m with @JoeDirk. Limiting my losses by having position on sharks beats maximizing gains by having position on fish.

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I’m with Joe and Wanna, put me to the immediate left of the most aggressive player at the table.

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I can exploitatively overfold vs a shark so I’d want position on the fish (if by fish you mean calling station). I should be able to win more chips from the station than I lose to the shark if I play well. In a tournament, I definitely want to be in position on the station. I’ll need a source of chips to increase my stack plus I want to deny that source to anyone else.

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For me it depends on the type of fish. Passive fish can sit wherever as far as I’m concerned, they are not taking much advantage from position. Aggro fish I would actually rather have on my immediate left so that I can have relative position on them - I get to see how the rest of the table reacts to their (constant) betting before I deploy any check-raises.

So given that most of the fish here are passive fish, I will say that I want position on the sharks.

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Having a shark at the table will affect my play no matter where they or I sit.
That being said, most of the time I’d still like to see their play before I make mine.

I want position on everyone, and am prepared to wait for it if I need to. Unfortunately, the table is round…

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If I could have position on anyone? Megan Fox would be near the top of my list :wink:

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@yiazmat …
I have found that posistion is subjective…
do you mean to the right of that person, or the left of that person…
Both have a type of posistion to be play’d.
Sassy

Left is right and right is wrong.
Hope this helps :wink:
Maya

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i agree it’s often true you’re need to pick a full table (or an empty one). and if theres a seat, it most often 1. however i also have had several situations where it was possible to choose and i have made use of it when possible.
so i agree it’s not often, but it happens.

1: actually i’m playing the high stakes tables on replay as well, so it’s probably not much different from your tables
2: depends, i think i know the regs on those tables well enough to categorise them of being fish or not. but there are also lots of players (probably most) i don’t know well enough. but i try to figure it out on the tables.
3: not really, i take a seat if i want to play, and if theres no choice, i just take the one i can get on asap. however when i do have a choice, i try to use it to my advantage.
4: my question is mostly theoretical in the way that there isn’t really a straight answer to which one is better. also on the internet i couldn’t find stone cold proof of which of the two wil be best.
however if you mean theoretically like meaning if it’s actually applyable, like mentioned earlier in this post, i think it is sometimes. however in tournaments it’s mostly theoretical as you won’t be able to pick your seat

haha lol :joy:

i indeed meant like maya said :slight_smile:

when sitting left from someone you will play almost all rounds in postion vs him. the only exception is preflop when you’re UTG (and he’s BB) and postflop when you’re the SB (and he’s the button. all other rounds you have position on him

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i have waited on purpose by giving my own opinion to make sure i won’t accidently influence the other posters.

i’m actually surprised to see my theory is such an unpopular one, as i would have picked the fish.
imo when you’re a winning player, you will win more from fish then you will lose from sharks,
imo the chips won from teh worse players can make up for the chips you will lose vs the better players. on top of that, you will be more often in pots with fish as they like to play more hands, and you can reduce losses to play less hands yourself against better players.

i also completely agree on the players mentioning they want position over the ones who play most aggressive. i would pick them as well because they have the biggest impact on your chips. but calling stations would be a close second.

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Just like everything in poker, I think it is context dependent. At a table full of fish I want position on the shark, but at a table full of sharks I want position on the fish.

I agree that fish are where most chips are won, but there are a lot more fish in the world than sharks.

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“Welcome to lad44’s NLHE event. I’m sorry, sir, those seats are reserved for Lynn Gilmartin, Eugenie Bouchard, and Alex Morgan. We can move you to the waiting list for Comicguy’s cash game with Megan Fox if you’d like.”
“Ok, awesome! How long’s the wait list?”
“There are currently 9,424 people waiting to join.”

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Which posistion @JoeDirk ???
Posistion to bet out 1st … or Posistion to see what they do 1st ???
Both have thier advantages…
Sassy

Position to act last. I always want to act last.

I’m not sure if there is data available on this, but being in position (acting after your opponent) is worth many big blinds of value. At a full ring replay table, I’d rather have 65s on the button than QQ under the gun. Being in position gives you much more information and the opportunity to close the action (or make another bet).

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Echoing Joe, in a poker context, “being in position” or “having position” on an opponent means that you act after they do.

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You thought I was talking about a poker game? LOL, that would be fun too :wink:

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