The value of position in poker.

On Position

Almost everybody has learnt that position is important in poker. Any book is going to show that you can play more hands from late position, because you got to see how your opponents acted, and you can play accordingly. Plus, you can try to steal the blinds. That’s what position means for many players.

Theory and Practice

Even with this simplified point of view, the traditional recommendation is often considered as minor compared to more tangible aspects, like your hole cards (in hold’em). People wait for good cards a good deal of time, so they are prone to minimize factors that would indicate a fold, since they crave for playing. They figure they have a “B” hand, and without the position it is just “B-“.

Sometimes they just end up playing a very borderline situation, other times they make a big mistake. Position is like these things that we should do but we cannot put our mind to it: preparing your tax forms, studying for an exam… We know that we should do it, but we watch TV or go out with friends anyway.

This is partly what discipline means in poker, and having the willpower to take the right decision gives you a very good edge.

Control Is Power

In essence, the disadvantage of the player out of position is that he must act before knowing how the hand is going to develop. Showing hostility with a hand that cannot take strong pressure is dangerous, as well as giving cheap opportunities to get outdrawn. There is always the chance to err, since you have little information at this point. Even strong hands must be cautious: there is nothing more costly than a strong hand running full speed into a stronger one.

Conversely, the player in position got to see what his opponents did, and this generally mark them with a range of possible hands. He can estimate the relative strength of his hand, and his chances of success if he decided to bluff. Based on this extra piece of knowledge, he can simply check/fold if he believes the battle is not worth the trouble, call and wait a little longer to see if he gets a good shot, or raise and increase the pressure right ahead. Whatever his hand, the player in position generally has much easier decisions.

The player in position is clearly in the driving seat.

Uphill Battle

From a military standpoint, it has been understood a long time ago that position offers a tremendous edge to the favored side.

Uphill battle. The soldier on the top has a tremendous edge.

It is extremely difficult to overcome this edge. You can give the soldier on the bottom of the hill any big a gun you want, it is still very easy for his opponent to duck and shoot when appropriate.

The situation is comparable to the following one:

Trench Battle. The soldier on the left is a very easy target.

From a poker perspective, playing out of position is very similar. Even if you have a strong hand, like AK, KK or AA in holdem, you are still very exposed and vulnerable to any experienced player waiting to pick you off with an unexpected hand.

It is very true that most of the time you will still have best hand on the flop, but unless you improved, winning a small or average pot is the best you can hope for, in most cases. You can assume that the guy on the top of the hill has poor weapons or little ammunitions, but if it were the case, wouldn’t he retreat? If he is experienced and stands firmly on his position, this is generally bad news for you!

Naturally, this depends on the depth of the stacks - or the distance between the soldiers. If they are quite close, it is best for the weaker soldier to run away, since he doesn’t have enough time to exploit his positional advantage. In poker, if one or both players don’t have enough chips, the implied odds are not big enough to be worth chasing.

Example:

A $1-$2 No Limit Holdem game, six-handed, $300 stacks, tricky, experienced opponents. A player in middle position raises to $6, the big blind re-raises to $17 with , the previous raiser calls.
The flop is . The big blind bets $30, his opponents raises to $100. This is already pretty uncomfortable! Say the big blind calls.
The turn is . The big blinds figures his hand is probably still good, and moves in for about $180. His opponent calls, the river is a blank, and the player in middle position wins the pot with a set of ten. Bad luck, the aces thinks.

The example above is not uncommon. After all, the mid pair merely paid an extra $11, with a potentially huge profit if he hits the flop well, or if he can use his position to steal the pot.

The danger of early aggression without position is that a strong two-card hand (in hold’em), generally high cards and high pairs, is easily overtaken on the flop or on the later streets, and this is where the big money is bet.

Given the necessary caution for the attacking player out of position, it is not difficult for the experienced NLHE player to apply great pressure on his opponent at the first sign of weakness or discomfort.

If the flop is well connected with low or medium cards, it is obviously very dangerous for the preflop raiser, marked with high cards. If he is not already beaten, many turn or river cards can increase the risks and the potential pressure. If the flop is not so well connected, two pairs and sets are serious threats.

In summary, the latent threat in all these situations is to play for small money when one is ahead, and to commit oneself for big bucks on the later streets when one’s hand is no longer the best.

Asymmetric Warfare

Pushing the military analogy, it is clear that most of the time in poker two or more hands of inequal strength compete for the pot. The goal of the presumably stronger hand is to use its force to win the pot, and avoid unnecessary risks. Reciprocally, the objective of the inferior hand is to negate as much as possible the superiority of his enemy and manipulate the nature of the battle so that factors other than pure strength become critical.

This is the basis of guerilla warfare. The use of terrain, notably, enables the weaker side to favor mobility, flexibility and deception over brute force. This is nothing more than an application of Sun Tzu principles, actually.

In poker, you can infer the strength of your opponent from the number of hands he plays, the frequency of raises and re-raises, and other similar numbers. In other words, when a tight player raises from an early position, or re-raises from the blinds, you can be quite confident that he has a strong hand. Most of the time, he is going to be the superior force in the conflict.

If you engage a tight raiser in an upfront battle, you are going to lose, big time. What you need to do is still to fold a good deal of time, and stand a little heat when you are in position to launch a successful ambush. Sometimes this will be no more than a skirmish, and other times he is going to be slaughtered.

Provided you stick to this strategy in these situations, you run little risks actually; the burden is on your opponent to go for you and take all the risks. You just dodge, dodge, jab and throw a decisive cross when you eventually get the opportunity. What you must avoid is leaking chips by engaging into too many losing skirmishes, or taking an ill-timed stand.

Against some opponents, guerilla strategies can be deadly. They simply don’t understand its principles, and figure that the stronger hand should “legitimately” win. How wrong.

More experienced opponents will not get caught that easily, but they are going to use the same tactics when appropriate, so you should take your share and fight fire with fire.

Money Gravity

From a broader perspective, position is so important that it can even make up for lesser skills. It is sometimes said that a great player cannot beat a good player with position.

Mike Caro suggested that money moves clockwise at the poker table; one wins cash from the players on one’s right, and loses money to players on one’s left. This dramatically contrasts with the “B” hand downgraded to “B-” because of position!

Since position gives such an edge, it is your interest to get position against the best players, and yield it to the less dangerous players. This should be one of your main criteria for table selection.

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