Recently, I was in a hand (wish I had the #) where The player before me raised after the turn. I re-raised because I thought my hand was better. I won the hand, but a 3rd player said, “Oh, great … a big blind raise! Did you read that in a book or something?” and promptly left the game in apparent disgust. Did I violate some protocol I’m not aware of? I won a big pot, so figured I was doing pretty good …
Please discuss position. My stats are equal on BB vs. SB.
TY
Yes, you violated a well known and very rigid protocol - you played a hand of poker vs a thin skinned nitwit. The guy probably knows a few poker phrases and terms but not what they mean or when to use them. Fortunately for you, this budding genius on the felt left you and your game to continue in peace.
Relax and play your game and enjoy yourself. If you really want someone to explain positions to you, I’m sure someone here will be happy to. Without knowing the hand or the other player, I’m going to venture a guess and say that he was going to gripe about something if he lost a hand (and that he loses more hands than a genius should). In my book, being able to ignore these types of people and continue to enjoy the game is a more valuable skill than just about anything else.
GL
have to say i’m not sure what you like to get explained. your topic suggests you like to know what position means, but your story suggests you like to know if you played your hand well.
so just to be sure, i’ll just explain what i can:
i understand if you don’t have it anymore, but if it’s one of the last 200 hands you played you can still get it back in the hands part. it’s in the same list as where you logout or access your profile, just click hands and access your latest hands part. it also shows which hand won, (so if you remember you won with example: two pair aces and eights) you can access it even easier.
so i can’t give an analysis, but what i can do is explain that it’s probably just a rant of a losing player. if it was a good player, he would just respect it if you played well, and if you just got lucky he doesn’t need to say anything because he has the knowledge you will pay him off in the long term.
as for position: i’m not sure if you like to know what position means in the first place or if you like to know more about the strategical aspect of it, so i’ll just explain both:
position is about when you have to act on the table. it’s known to most poker players that the later you have to act, the better it is. this is because in poker, you need information to get money, and you get information if you have seen your opponents action before you have to. preflop, the person UTG (which is the one left to the big blind) will have to act first, and the BB will have to act last. but in all other rounds, the SB act first and the BTN acts last. because of this the button is considered the best position in game.
i shall give you a few examples why position is so important:
lets say you hold A9o. it’s a decent hand but defenitely not a great hand. lets say you play this hand UTG. it’s an easy fold in this position. there are still 8 people after you that still have to act, meaning all those people might have a hand that dominates you which you aren’t aware of. statistically, you have the best hand slightly more often then not, but the problem with a hand that so easily dominated is that you probably win a small pot or lose a huge one. with A9 you play for an ace, hitting top pair with your 9, or hitting 2pair or above. the second and third options are great, but this will happen rarely. so in general you play to hit your ace. but assuming someone called your raise (especcialy if they are aware you raised from UTG) they will have very often an (much) bigger ace, so if you get a flop like Ah 2d 7c. you have hit your ace, now your opponent bets into you, are you going to fold now? i don’t think so, because if you do, then why play an ace. consider you called all his bets until the river only to see he has AK and outkickered you. not a situation you would like to get involved with.
now look at the exact same hand when you play it on the CO (person before the BTN). if someone raised before you it’s an even easier fold because they already said to you that you are beat. but if everyone folded here you only have 3 opponents after you instead of 8. which means you have a lot more chance to have the best hand. so if they play well, the would fold to your raise in most cases and hand you over an easy steal. if they do resist and call, there is also an addtional chance they just defend their blinds with a worse hand, meaning your ace is still good. and because you play latest position (unless you get called by the BTN) you can wait to see if they check the flop, and if he does, you can bet on almost any flop and still win, this because his check often means weakness and have not connected to that flop.
besides of seeing your hand is good or not, it also helps to increase profits when you hold the best hand, and decrease losses if you are not. both because you can see his action and know easier how to respond, depending on what you have. assuming you hold a monster, lets say you have KK on an K82 rainbow flop, obviously you want to get as much money in as possible. when you play OOP (out of position) you can bet, but you risk he will fold immediately because he have not hit. or you can check, but he might have called with a medium strength hand. (usually slowplaying is better here, but it’s also person dependant). but if you play it IP (in position), you can act on his play. if he checks, you know he has no good hand (unless he slowplays a monster himself but you get it in anyway if he did). so you can easily check back and hope the turn is useful for him (lets say an ace if he holds AX). or nothing useful, and he decides to bluff the turn because you have shown “weakness” by checking back the flop. or he bets the flop, which makes it even more juicy, because if he donkbets (open betting out of position when he did not had the initiative) he is already showing strength, meaning you can either raise him, assuming you thing he is strong enough he will keep raising you (or at least call your raise). or just keep slowplaying and call his bet, assuming you can get more from him on the turn. same stuff applies when you continue on the turn and river.
long story short: when you play in position you get a lot more information from your opponents, which you can (and should) use against them. this because in poker information means money.
hope this helps. if not, feel free to ask.
yiazmat.
Thanks yiazmat for that detailed explanation. I appreciate your time. I shall chew on that for a while.
Wow yiazmat you gave a very good and detailed explanation… I simply-say “Just be you, unless you suc” Smiles:)
Position…? Hummm…?
I like the-top… just kiddn folks…lol Hopefully you all have a sense of humor or I’m going to poker Jail…
yw, glad u both like it
haha, i rather go for the people that don’t have humor to go to the poker jail 