Poker Position Strategy

Your poker position is one of the most important aspects in how you play. Where you site in relation to the dealer dictates how much you can learn about the other player’s hands before you have to act.

The person to the left of the dealer is in the small blind position and makes the first decision after the flop.

The person to the left of the small blind is the big blind. The poker big blind is already obligated to the game and is in another early poker position.

The person to the left of the poker big blind acts first before board cards are dealt, known as "being under the gun” acts first pre-flop and is still in an early poker position after the flop.

These ‘early position’ players have to be more selective with which hands they play because they don’t have the luxury of knowing if there will be raises or how many people will be playing. Many hands require a larger number of players to be profitable and in these early positions, you can’t afford to play them without the knowledge of how the other players will act.

The next 3 seats (based on a 9 person table) are considered ‘middle position’. These seats have some advantage over the early position players which allows them to be a little looser with which hands they play. These players will typically get to see some of the action at the table before they have to act and this middle poker position makes these seats slightly more profitable.

The dealer and the two seats to the right of the dealer are the ‘late position’ seats. These seats have the advantage of being able to see most if not all of the action before making a decision. They can see how people bet and how large the pot is when deciding what to do.

It is critical to remember that you have to play much more conservatively in the early positions, like the poker big blind, than in the later positions, like on the dealer’s button, but you still need to play smart based on how your opponents are playing.