Position in poker refers to the order in which players are seated around the table and the related poker strategy implications. Players who act first are in 'early position'; players who act later are in 'late position'; players who act in between are in 'middle position'. A player 'has position' on opponents acting before him and is 'out of position' to opponents acting after him. The positions at a poker table include Under The Gun, LoJack, HiJack, Cutoff, Button, Small Blind and Big Blind. These positions are grouped into the categories of early position, middle position, late position, and the blinds. Note: Want to upgrade your poker skills? Get free preflop charts here and start playing like a pro before the flop.

• Poker Positions On The Table
• Poker Positions Chart
• Poker Positions 6 Max
• Poker Position Terms

How are you supposed to know where you're going if you don't know where you are?

Position is greatly undervalued by every beginner poker player. Your table position is often the difference between winning a hand and losing one.

Before playing a hand in Texas Hold'em you should always be aware of your position relative to the dealer button. Take a look at your position before you take a look at your cards.

• The seats nearest to the are called early position or EP for short.
• The seats nearest to the right of the button are called late position or LP for short.
• The seats in between these will be called middle position or MP.

Poker table position diagram.

• The seats in Red are early position
• The seats in Blue are middle position
• The seats in Green are late position

Early position.

Early Position is least favorable because you'll be one of the first to act after the flop. You want to avoid playing weak cards from these positions. You're relying on your cards to help you win the pot, as being first to act throughout the hand gives you less opportunities to outplay your opponents.

Don't get yourself in to trouble from EP.

Middle position.

Middle Position is better than Early Position, but it's not as awesome as Late Position. You can afford to play a few more hands from MP than you would from EP, as you do not have as many people left who can call and act after you from the flop onwards.

However, if all of the players from Early Position fold, this will still mean that you will be the first to act on each round. When it comes to poker strategy, it's not so much about your seat at the table as it is about who you've got acting before you and who you've got acting after you.

Late position.

Late Position. is highly advantageous.

There is a high chance that you will be last (or one of the last) to act on each round. This is so powerful it means you can be far more flexible with the range of hands you play. Just remember, just because you have position it doesn't mean you can get away with playing absolute junk all of the time.

'Being in position', 'having position' and 'positional advantage' all mean the same thing. Although it probably makes more sense to think of a positional advantage as an informational advantage.

The button.

The Button is the best seat in the hand because on every betting round (except for before the flop), you will be last to act. This is amazing. This is also why you should look to play as many hands as possible (within reason) from the button. I'm usually looking for a reason not to play my hand when I'm on the BTN

The cut off.

The 'cut-off' is the position just before the button. This is the second best seat in Texas Hold'em because if the button folds, you will be the last to act on each hand. The button and cut-off are very useful positions for stealing the blinds as there are less players to act behind you, which makes it less likely that they are holding a good enough hand to call a raise with.

How to use table position in poker.

If you have position over another player, it means that you are acting after them on each round.

This means they will give you information before you make your decision.

• They could check - possibly a sign of weakness.
• They could bet - possibly a sign of strength.
• If they bet, the size of their bet could mean something.
• The time it takes for them to make their decision may also give you extra clues.

For example; if you have position over your opponent and they check quickly, this could be a sign of weakness. So you could use this information to bet out and take the pot. It's not always this easy, but getting some kind of information is infinitely better than being the one giving information to your opponent.

Poker table position example.

Lets say you're on the flop with a bunch of players in the pot, and you hold a mediocre hand like middle pair.

If there's a lot of betting and raising before the action gets to you, you can be sure that your hand isn't the best and you can happily fold without losing any chips.

On the other hand, if you are in early position you may bet out with a decent hand, only to find that there are much stronger hands out there that will re-raise you and force you to fold. Therefore you will have lost chips due to a lack of information.

The later you act in a hand, the more information you will have available to you about your opponents.

Positional awareness.

In general, you want to play more hands in position than you do out of position.

This doesn't mean that you force yourself to play any old hand when you have good position. Instead, be more inclined to play a wider range of hands when IP, but don't play this wide range of hands when OOP.

Try not to think of your position as dictating which hands you can and can't play. Instead, think of it as taking advantage of being last to act as often as you can.

Take KJo for example:

• In early position I would be reluctant to play KJo. It's on the low end of the 'good hands', and the fact that I have poor position makes it an unattractive situation. The hand isn't strong enough to counteract my positional disadvantage.
• In late position I would raise this hand almost every time if there were no raisers before me. I may also call raises with this hand if I have position on the raiser. I have an advantageous position combined with a decent starting hand, so the situation is looking good.

As a beginner player it's tricky to get to grips with the hands that are okay to play in LP, but are not good to play in EP. How are you supposed to learn the subtleties of which starting hands to play in which positions?

Trust me, you will pick it up as you go along. It will take time, but the more experience you get under your belt the more you'll get to grips with it. If you're completely new to the game, there's no harm in sticking with the premium hands and entering pots with them irrespective of position – that's okay. Just be prepared to broaden your starting hand requirements based on position as you improve.

Positional awareness graph.

Following on from my last point about playing more hands in position, here's a graph that shows a winning player's VPIP based on their position in 6max cash games.

The graph above shows the seats acting from first to last during the preflop betting round. So…

1. UTG - This is the seat to the left of the big blind. This is the first player to act preflop.
2. MP - This term can to varying positions between early position and late position. In this example it is the seat to the left of the UTG position.
3. CO - The seat just before the button. This is the second best position in the game.
4. BTN - The best seat at the table. This player acts last on every postflop betting round.
5. SB
6. BB

VPIP indicates the percentage of the time a player either raises or calls preflop. So essentially this chart shows the percentage of the time they 'play a hand' from each position.

Notice how this player is playing a lot more hands in late position than they are in early position. They do not play the same set of hands from all positions. They're not forcing these statistics either – they're just wisely taking in to account their table position and then selecting which starting hands to play with.

If you asked any winning cash game player to show you their VPIP by position, their stats and graphs would follow a similar trend to the one above.

You can find out your own VPIP stats (and also those of your opponents) by using the popular Poker Tracker software.

Evaluation.

Table position is easily one of the most underestimated factors in playing a hand by many amateur poker players. Position is so important that often hands can be won or lost based on your position alone, irrespective of the strength of the cards that you and your opponent hold.

The sooner you start paying attention to your position, the sooner you will start making more money.

Further reading.

A useful article to read from here is starting hand selection, as it highlights how you should stick to playing only the strongest hands from early position due to the big disadvantage of having to act first on betting rounds.

Related articles.

• The Importance Of Position (Jack Wilcox)

Go back to the awesome Texas Hold'em Strategy.

Comments

There are various aspects in poker that you have to learn to master the game. And table positions in poker is one of them. When you are playing poker, table positions in poker will play an important role in deciding the winner. In order for you to have a better chance at winning, you need to understand how the table positions in poker affects the odds and probability of winning.

But, you need to understand that not all poker varients depend on poker position. However, Texas Hold’em Poker and Omaha Hold’em plays a huge role in deciding the winner when it comes to position at the poker table.

In this article, I will talk about the various positions at poker table, how poker positions affect the game and which poker position gives you the best chance to win a hand.

First, let us learn what poker position is. To put it in simple terms, Poker positions are the various seats that the players can occupy when they are playing poker in a table. Players at a poker table sit in a circle. The various seats that the player occupies have different names and meaning. At most ten players can play poker in a table at a time.

Various Table Positions In Poker

Names for the table positions in poker varies as per the number of players playing at a time. The poker positions I am about to mention holds good for Texas Hold’em and Omaha Hold’em poker. Without any delay, lets take a look at the various poker positions on a poker table.

Table Positions In Poker For A Ten Player Table

The table positions in poker matter a lot when ten or nine poker players play at a time. Being at the right poker position gives a huge advantage for players. When you are at a disadvantageous position, you cannot play any hands you want. You have to more picky when the position doesn’t favor you. You’ll understand what I mean as you read further.

Without any delay, let’s take a look at the different table positions in poker when 9-10 players are involved.

Dealer Button

Dealer button or simply “Button” is the position of the player from where the dealer deals the cards. He is also the last player to play the hand for each betting round. Dealer button is technically the best position to be at when we play poker.

The dealer button is moved one position in the clockwise direction after each round is finished. As the dealer button moves, the position of players changes as well. So, dealer button technically acts as an indicator for the player who is going to be playing last. And also the other positions are determined from the dealer button position.

Blinds

When you are playing Texas Hold’em or Omaha Hold’em, you have to bet something called blinds. These bets are called as the fordced bets since the player doesn’t have any option but to pay up. These forced bets have to be made by the players without seeing the hole (Starting cards) cards. There can be atmost three blinds in a game. Usually, there will be two blinds that the player must bet. The two blinds are the small blind and the big blind.

1. Small Blind: Small Blind is the bet you have to make which is the half of the big blind. That is, if the big blind is $2, then the small blind is $1. The position of the small blind is to the left of dealer button. After every round the position swifts one position to the left. Therefore, the player to the left of small blind will be the next small blind player and so on. Once the first betting round is over, the second betting round is started with the small blind player.
2. Big Blind: Big Blind is the bet which is double of the small blind. Big blind is the minimum bet that the other players have to make if they intend to play the hand. If they don’t want to bet, then the other players can fold their hands without betting any amount. The position of the big blind is to the left of the small blind player position. Big blind is the last player to conclude the betting for the first round.

Under The Gun (UTG)

Under the gun is the first player to bet after seeing his hole cards. The position for the UTG is left of the big blind. If the UTG player wishes to play his hand, then he has to make a bet that is equal to that of big blind or more. He cannot play the hand by checking. He has the option to fold his hand if he feels the the hand he has isn’t that good.

The reason the position to the left of big blind is called as UTG is because of the pressure that goes along with having to act before anyone else in the hand. All the other players will have a slight edge over you since they have the option of observing your betting. Hence the position is known as UTG.

Now, the remaining players positions after the UTG is referred to as UTG+1, UTG+2 and so on expect for the last two positions at the poker table.

1. UTG+1: It is the position to the left of UTG. Since it is the first position after the UTG, the position is named as the UTG+1.
2. UTG+2: It is the position to the left of UTG+1. Since it is the second position to UTG , the position is named as the UTG+2.

Similarly, the other positions in poker after the UTG except the last two positions are all UTG positions. All the UTG players have the option to fold their hands without betting in the first round.

Highjack

Highjack is the position to the immediate right of the cut-off player position or to the second right of Dealer button position in a poker table. When you are playing in Highjack position, you are known to be in position and control of the game.

The reason for the name highjack is because of the option for the player to open raise the blind and hijack the advantage that the last two players get from playing late in the round. It is a really nice position to be in when your playing poker.

Cut-Off

Cut-off position or seat is to the immediate right of dealer button or to the immediate left of Hijack position. The position is called as Cut-off since, if the action folds to the player sitting in that seat he or she has the option to “cut off” the dealer button’s advantageous position with an open raise. Of course, if the player at the cut-off position doesn’t bet or raise, then the advantage for the dealer button still stays. Cut-off positions is one of the best table positions to be at when playing poker.

These are the different table positions in Poker when there are 9 or 10 players playing at a time. Now that you have learnt all the names for different poker positions, you can classify all these positions into three categories. The categories are early position, middle position and late position.

1. Early Position

Early position in poker is the position of poker players from small blind to UTG+1. That is, it is the table positions in poker which consists of first four players to take action in the hand. This holds good for a table with 9 to 10 poker players.

The early positions in poker is considered to be not good poker position to be in. Early positions in poker is considered as disadvantageous since you are always exposed. What I mean by this is that, the players in other positions can act accordingly, to the way you bet.

Also, playing early means, you won’t be aware of other players hand and you always have to take a risk by betting without knowing anything. This is the reason that you shouldn’t bet when you are in the early positions, unless you have an exceptional starting hand. Small Bilnd position is one of the worst position to be at since you always end up playing first in each of the betting round.

Playing only the best starting hands is super important when you are in one of the early positions. If you don’t have a decent hand, then it is better to fold your hand and wait for the next game. This is extremely important when there are 9 or 10 players involved in the game. As the number of player decreases, the more chance you have at winning in the early positions.

2. Middle position

Middle position in poker is the position of poker players from UTG+2 to UTg+4 when there are 9 or 10 players involved in the poker table. Usually, the middle position consists of 3-4 players in the middle when 9-10 players are involved. When it comes to advantageous, middle positions is better than that of Early poker positions. But, it is not better than the late positions.

When you are positioned in one of the middle positions, you have the opportunity to observe the players who have already played in the early positions, but you won’t know how the late position players are gonna play. So, play only if you are confident with your hand and have a decent chance of winning the game. If not, it is better to fold and wait for your next turn.

3. Late position

Late positons in poker is the position of poker players from hijack seat to the player sitting at the button. That is, the last three players who take in the betting round for a 9 or 10 players table.

Being in the late positions in one of the best possible poker positions to be at. You will have the highest advantage compared to the other players. In late positions, you can observe the players sitting at both the early and the middle position and play accordingly.

Also, if you are in one of the late positions, you will have a higher chance of bluffing players sitting in other positions. Dealer Button position is the best position to be at in a poker table, since you always end up playing last in each of the betting round.

These were the three different positions in poker where you can be positioned at. In short,when there are 9 or 10 players involved, being in early position is disadvantageous compared to be sitting in one of the middle or the late positions. And being in one of the late positions is one of the best possible table positions in poker for a player.

Table Positions In Poker For A Five Player Table

When there are only 5 players involved in poker, the number of table positions in poker becomes less. When only five players are involved, the first player to take action other than the blinds would be the Hijack position. Technically speaking, UTG becomes the Hijack seat in a 5 player poker table.

In a 5-6 player table, Small and Big blind takes the early position and Hijack becomes the middle position. The Cut-off and Button takes the late positions when 5-6 players are involved. Even in 5 player poker table, Dealer button will still have the most advantage compared to other seats. But, the early positions will not be a bad position to be at compared to a 9 or 10 player poker table.

So, you have the option to play much more freely even if you are in one of the early position. You could say that small blind will still be the worst possible position even in a 5-6 poker player table.

Table Positions In Poker For A Two Player Table

When only two players are involved, the dealer button becomes the small blind and the other player takes the big blind position. When only two players are involved there are no good table positions in poker. Both the players have equal chance of winning.

When only two players are involved then the games being played between them is known as Heads Up. In a heads up game, the dealer button position becomes the small blind as well. And the big blind player will be the first player to play between the two.

Usually, the games between two players is fast paced and most of the games end up not being played. That is, one of the two players end up folding their hands most of the time.

These are the different table positions in poker when different set of players are involved in the game.

How does the table positions in poker affect the game?

As I mentioned earlier, the table positions in poker plays a huge role when 9 or 10 poker players are involved. The players seated in the early positions have a disadvantage compared to players seated in the middle or in the late positions.

Being seated in one of the early position, you have to choose what hand you have to play and bet only those hands which have a high percentage of winning. If not, then it is better to fold your hand. The reason you have to be picky is because the players who are seated after you might have a better hand than you.

You will not know how much the other players will bet. If the other players end up betting more, and you don’t feel you have a winning hand, then you will end up folding your current hand. Therefore, it is better to fold your hands even before betting once if you don’t have a strong hand. Small blind position is the worst possible position for a poker player to be at, since the player at the small blind will always be the first one to act in each of the betting rounds.

Being seated in one of the middle positions is slightly better than that of early positions. But you still need to choose your hand carefully before making a bet.

Being seated in one of the late positions is the best position to be at. It gives the players luxury to bluff as well as have a general idea of other players cards. The dealer button position is the best possible seat for any poker player to be at.

You need to remember that as the number of players playing in a table decreases the position value decreases as well. That is, the lesser the players, the better chance you have at winning even if you are positioned at one of the early position.

I hope that now you guys have a general idea of how the different table positions in poker affect the game. Also have learned the various table positions in poker. If you guys have any queries regarding the table positions in poker, please leave a comment below so that I will be able to address it. Make sure to read the other articles related to poker as well.

Poker Positions FAQ

What is a table position in poker?

Poker positions are the various seats that the players can occupy when they are playing poker in a table.

What is the worst position to be at when playing poker?

For the first round of betting Under The Gun (UTG) is the worst possible position to be at. From the second round of betting, player at the small blind becomes the worst position to be at.

What is the best position to be at when you play poker?

The best postition to be at in a poker table is the Dealer Button position also known as Buck. It is considered as the best position since the player at that position plays last in each of the betting round.

Poker Positions On The Table

Poker Positions Chart

Poker Positions 6 Max

Poker Position Terms

I am the owner of the site rohithebbar.com. I love playing poker and other card games.