Position (Again!)

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In my early days playing here, new to the game of poker, I was so caught up in studying my hole cards in relation to the community cards that I paid zero attention to position. Once I understood the importance of position, I changed my play for the better.

Nowadays, I fold many attractive-seeming hole cards in early position unless my chip stack is looking good. I admit it also depends on how patient I’m feeling–whether I’m bored with folding. (Mood matters.)

It’s possible I’m being too cautions out of position. I’d love to learn more about position decisions from others.

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Position is a big key to your play .

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I think of position in terms of who is in each position. As just one example; if the players to my left are rather passive, limp too much, and usually get out of the way of any action unless they have a very strong hand, I can “buy the button” with modest raise. If those between me and the blinds fold, the raise has bought the best possible position.

What I’m getting at is that position is more dynamic than one might think.

Yeah, OK, you generally want to narrow your ranges from early position, and widen them as you get into the later positions, but don’t get trapped into a “do this from here” mindset.

Consider this… if everyone knows that a strong open from early position means “BIG hand,” why does it matter what you actually have? You could have an Uno card and a fake Nolan Ryan rookie card, just play 'em like aces and have some fun.

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The only thing im seeing in the Position is when u are in the Mid and Early Position u can call the Big Blind or call a raise but then People on the Late Position could Re-Raise so i do have to actually Fold and lose my called Big-Blind or i think about Calling the new Raise as well. When im on the Late Position i think its more Calm since u can decide the latest. Besides that im not playing any Positions differently imo . No matter what position im Playing i dont think it make me lose more or less Chips or change my Play-Style.

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I enjoy your posts SunPowerGuru.

I totally agree that position can be, and should be, used as one of the tools you have in your poker strategy.
As you said, if an early position raise creates the illusion of strength, then every now and then you should use this tool.
Good poker is appearing weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak, and if position aides you in creating these illusions then you would be crazy not to use them.

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What you read about playing poker in books is not necessarily applicable to Replay Poker. For example the most popular play in RP tournaments is to limp in with any hand from any position and then call pretty much any raise. The result of this is that you have large pots with several participants, which goes a long way to negating the advantage of premium starting hands.

I rarely limp into a hand, unless perhaps I am on the button and there are already a couple of limpers giving me the odds to play a speculative hand like A7o, or in the SB, if I have a hand with which I would probably otherwise open, or at least a hand that can do well 1:1 if it is folded to me, like any Ace or pocket pair.

When you make an opening raise, you need to have a plan and need to know what you are trying to achieve. Are you trying to win the blinds preflop, or trying to steal the button with the intention of stealing the pot with a continuation bet, or to build up a big pot because you have a hand that has potential to make a monster on a later street? For example many people on RP like to play suited aces even though the odds of flopping a flush are very slight.

So if you raise with a mediocre holding like KQ, you need to know in advance whether you are going to call if reraised or fold (your decision may be affected by relative stack sizes). Since people on RP tend not to reraise very much, when they do it often means that they have AA, KK, QQ, or AK or AQ, none of which you really want to play against with KQ. However, if you can see a flop for a reasonable price KQ has potential to make the nuts on a later street, although that super aggressive reraiser probably isn’t going to let you see a free card on the turn or river. By putting in a standard raise with KQ from early position, you will also discourage players in later positions from limping in, even though if they limp in first, they may call your bet.

If you raise preflop with AA or KK what are you trying to achieve? Presumably you want to have one caller, or maybe two, but no more, because if you just take down the blinds unopposed, then you are not profiting very much.

Book poker is often about playing a hand against one opponent, and is quite different from playing in pots with three, four, or five players seeing the flop.

Position is super important, because if you raise preflop with a so-so hand like QT and are called in the BB, you often have the chance to take down the pot with a continuation bet even if you miss the flop.

To call preflop raises, you need to be stronger, especially if you are calling from out of position in the blinds, because now you have no chance of taking down the pot preflop and it will be hard to win the pot unless the flop hits you.

If you make a lot of raises from early position, then when you do pick up premium starting cards, your hand is much better disguised and you have the potential to win huge pots when your opponent completely dismisses the possibility that you have flopped a set of Aces or Kings when you act like you are scared of the ace or king.

In RP you always have to look at your odds. If you are in the SB and three players limp in, then, assuming that the BB is likely to check, you will be getting 9 to 1 on your money and can call with practically any two cards.

If you have a hand like KQ in early position, you might as well raise if you expect to get multiple callers, because while you may have to throw away your hand when an opponent reraises or shows aggression on the flop, or if an ace comes on the flop, on the occasions when the flop hits you hard, there will already be a big pot and when there are opponents who are willing to chase weak draws, the odds move in your favor and you can win huge pots.

To me there is absolutely no point in limping into pots, because that way you obtain no information from opponents about how much they like their hands, and you are positively inviting the blinds to enter the pot with random hands.

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Position is the best tool you have in your toolbox besides experience.

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Frankly, I think position is a little over-rated. Yeah, it’s a factor, but often not the biggest one.

Let’s say you are in late position, UTG raises, and 3 people call. The button and both blinds are yet to act. Your position has yielded this information… now what?

Yeah, the general early/tighter, late/looser is great if it folds around to you, but it’s not super useful otherwise. Not useless, just not that useful.

By the way, more advanced players have names for each seat, so we don’t have to just chat about early mid, and late. I’m sure that if someone googkled it or something, they would find official names, but these are the ones I use…

!SEAT POSITIONS

So here’s a tip: get as good as you can at playing when in Little Lulu or Big Bertha. This is where you have made a forced investment and will often be in the worst position post flop. Play the blinds well and you can play any position well.

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Yes it is.

Generally speaking, you should have a stronger hand when in earlier positions because there are so many people yet to act. So yeah, think about that… a lot.

Position is part of the foundation of poker, of course it’s important.

And yes, I will be a little looser and wider playing in Bad Brad or Uncle Chad and probably be a little tighter and more aggressive when playing in Candy or Tiffany.

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Thank you i will try to follow these Tipps and also the next incoming Tipps, ill do play Poker for a few Years already but never seen it from this Point of View theres still much to learn. I will continue to follow this Post at all since u confirmed it is still worth thinking about it :slight_smile:

In earlier position u have more options u could raise and make a few Call or Fold also remove a few Potential Enemys who would had gotten something good in the Flop. The thing in my view at the Bad Brad position is if u do raise from this position the others will likely call ur raise depending if u go from 100 bb to 1500 raise or u just raise 250 , they will likely call this as well since they already paid the bb. So in that case i think u do have more Potential Opponents in raising from Bad Brad or Uncle Chad position and less in raising from Candy, Tiffany Position.

However what i also do is when facing 1 player only i sometimes Fold even if it hurts but what i dont see, that doesnt exist , what i mean by that sometimes i prefer to fold so i do not see the Turn and River or Flop so i do not know what was about to be my Community Cards or what else Cards would had been coming. Imo this helps to reduce bad actions as risking for a Flush having 4 Colors with the Flop or risking a 4 Straight Cards (78910). idk if u even call that risking, maybe its Praying or even Hope for good Draws.

When i can see the next Community Card for free ill go with a Check but its a bit painful having to call a lot just to see the next Card. I gotta observe how different other play from the different Positions might i can notice some abnormalities

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Yes, but look at it this way. Paying the BB once on each circuit is mandatory, so, in tournament play, if you are in the BB and have a decent stack and several players limp to your blind and the blinds are starting to go up, (say 150/300), it is advantageous to raise with any reasonable hand that has some chance of flopping top pair or a straight draw, e.g T 8, but not 8 5, because now it is almost guaranteed that all the limpers will have to call and you will end up with a huge pot at the flop.

Now a few different things may happen here. 1. The flop hits you hard, so you can bet and narrow down the opposition on later streets and maybe win a very large pot. 2. You totally whiff the flop, so you give up, but you have only put in 1 BB (not counting the original BB) and all the other players have put in 2 BB. One of them will eventually win the pot (except when it is split) and the rest of the limpers will be severely punished for limping. You do this because you see a chance to weaken the stacks of several players, and also with the secondary purpose of discouraging limps with weak hands to your BB in future hands.

Position is very important, but odds are even more important. Take the scenario above, with three limp-callers, you are putting in 1BB to have a shot at a pot containing 7 BBs, so you are getting great odds. With 4 limp-callers, you are getting a shot at 9BBs.

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Ah Jan 10 seats at a replay table. Where do I sigh up. Actually position doesn’t matter to me, take what you can get and run is more my speed. I think, what matters to me is designated seating. Want to be able to sit in favorite spot and not have to manually move seat each game. Replay doesn’t have but PokerStars did.

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I want that too, and I know it’s on the official task list. :slight_smile: Not everything happens today or ASAP or even pronto on a free site, maybe??

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Hi Jan Cee…al although some think sitting in a specific chair or position…its into about that…whn you come to a table yes, your seat mayb at a slow pace compared to someone one that has good cards or a good streak. But eventually shifting around to get a godo seat does not work…Poker is about patience, no matter where you sit, the cards are gonna draw no matter what. Ya just gotta know when to play them where ever you sit. I know you all are seeming me as someone with low chips at the moment, but with the experience I have been doing at diff table is my own survey and notes.
This is a free Poker site wth Chips if you were concerned with real monies then yeah I would agree with you.

Jan been a while since we played tourneys but I hear ya too …gl

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tout a fait d accord pour la patience en tournoi je passe entre 60 et70p100 des cas
Translate:completely agree for the patience in tournament I pass between 60 and 70p100 of the cases

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I am sure you understand–because you’re a seasoned player–the difference between where you have positioned your chair and which turn you are taking in a game. The position of the chair matters not at all. I like to position my seat in the same place every time so I can find myself at a glance.

In terms of position of play, on the other hand, everyone takes a turn being in Big Blind, Little Blind, and so forth–see the diagram at the top of the post. That really does matter, of course, because good poker has mostly to do with good information.

If I’m the last to play in a hand, I know how others appear to be feeling (or choose to signal how they feel) about their hole cards. Anyway, I thought I’d clarify that in case the English language–once again!–has caused confusion. (It couldn’t have been me, right? lol)

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  1. players behavior, 2) your hand strength + draws/possible outs 3) bet size at table 4) the weather outside 5) position.
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The importance of 4) cannot be understated.

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to serious for me lol

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I just get a WARM FUZZY when I get a FLUSH DRAW and a STRAIGHT DRAW at the same time!!!

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